PT-2 "Faith's Definition" (Col. 1:3-4a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/17/2016 6:11 PM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  PT-2 of “Faith’s Definition

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Colossians 1:3-4a

            Message of the verses:  “3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus”

            Just a reminder that we are looking at the first sub-point under the Main Point of “The Gospel Truth is Received by Faith.”  Now I promised to give a quote from the end of John MacArthur’s commentary on this subject of “Faith’s Definition.”  I realize that I use a lot of quotes in my Spiritual Diaries and I truly have no problem doing this because it is my desire to have the truth in my Spiritual Diaries so that those who read them will feel confident that what they are reading is the truth.  I have a few authors that I trust to show me the truth when I read their commentaries, and John MacArthur is the author that I am following for these SD’s on the book of Colossians, and from time to time I will use a quote or two from Dr. Warren Wiersbe of which I have a great deal of respect for also.

            It is important that we understand what Paul writes at the beginning of his letters as many times the truth in the first few verses shows us a lot about how a person is to be saved along with the usual greeting in many of his letters of grace and peace.  We cannot have peace without the grace of God, for we are saved by grace through faith which then gives us peace with God and then as we walk with the Lord we can experience the peace that passes all understanding.

            “Like repentance, obedience is also encompassed within the bounds of saving faith.  The faith that saves involves more than mere intellectual assent and emotional conviction.  It also includes the resolution of the will to obey God’s commands and laws.

            “Obedience is the hallmark of the true believer.  ‘When a man obeys God he gives the only possible evidence that in his heart he believes God’ (W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, [Old Tappan, N. J.: Revell, 1966], 3:124). Such obedience will of necessity be incomplete, since the flesh ever rears its ugly head (cf. Romans 7:14-25).  If not the perfection of the believer’s life, however, it most certainly will be the direction.

            “Faith, then, must never be severed from good works.  Martin Luther summed up the biblical view of the link between saving faith and good works in these words:  ‘Good works do not make a man good, but a good man does good works.”

We will begin to look at the next Sub-point “Faith’s Object” in our next SD.

12/17/2016 6:27 PM