Dale Partridge - What's the Difference Between Faith & Works？ - Dale Partridge

00:00:00.000 In this episode of Real Christianity,

00:00:01.300 I talk about the distinction of faith and works.

00:00:03.660 How should they relate to one another?

00:00:05.300 And if we're saved by faith, what role do works play?

00:00:08.260 But more than that, how can we push for works

00:00:10.900 without being called a legalist?

00:00:12.720 All that and more coming up right now. 0.99

00:00:30.000 Welcome to Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge. Now, as you know, this show is an

00:00:35.940 audio and video ministry of relearn.org, where our mission is to bring the church

00:00:39.600 back to the Bible. I wanted to tell you about one resource on how we're helping

00:00:43.440 men get back to the Bible, which is the manliness of Christ. If you haven't picked up this small

00:00:47.960 book, you can do so at relearn.org forward slash man. This book is a short, simple book you could

00:00:53.800 read in less than an hour, probably, or maybe about an hour. And it's a great book for men

00:00:58.120 to go through together. We also have a accompanying study guide that you can pick up again at

00:01:02.880 relearn.org forward slash man. The book is also available on Amazon if you wanted to pick it up

00:01:07.700 there. The book is really talking about how the masculinity of Jesus eradicates effeminate

00:01:13.840 Christianity. It's a great resource. Again, you can go through it in just about an hour. 0.95

00:01:18.420 And if you have a small group or a men's group that you'd like to go through, we'd love to have

00:01:21.660 you guys do that. It would be a blessing to our ministry to have you do that. All right, guys,

00:01:25.560 Let's go ahead and jump in to this episode, talking about Romans 4, chapter 4, verses 13 through 17.

00:01:36.640 We have had a little bit of a push through this book of Romans.

00:01:43.260 It's an incredible book.

00:01:44.460 We've made our way through it consistently now.

00:01:47.220 We are now in what I would call section three.

00:01:49.100 I'm going to walk you through about the three sections that we have gone through so far.

00:01:53.080 So section one is really the prologue of the book, which is Romans 1.1 through 1.17.

00:01:57.840 Section two is Romans chapter one, verse 18 through 3.21.

00:02:03.420 And this is really talking about how everybody is under the jurisdiction and the condemnation 0.95

00:02:07.580 of the law, both Jew and Gentile. 0.87

00:02:09.420 The phrase, you know, there is none righteous, no, not one is in that section talking about

00:02:15.160 that our central need is to be found righteous.

00:02:17.060 And the only way we can do that is by faith in Christ.

00:02:19.740 It's the revelation of justification by faith alone.

00:02:22.060 the Great Reformation doctrine. Section three is the defense of what Paul just said in section two.

00:02:28.240 And so it's really this beautiful section that runs from 321 to the middle of chapter five

00:02:34.400 that is using Paul's defense for justification by faith alone by leveraging the testimony of

00:02:39.760 the Old Testament. And as we learn, Paul anticipates the resistance of the Jews to this

00:02:45.040 doctrine of justification by faith alone. And he references Genesis 15, 6, which says of Abraham,

00:02:53.200 and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. That is, Paul uses the evidence

00:02:58.980 of the Old Testament to validate the gospel in the New Testament. This is a really important

00:03:04.440 example, an ethic that we need to understand, leveraging the Old Testament or leveraging the

00:03:09.700 Old Testament to validate the New Testament. But Paul doesn't stop with Abraham. He continues to

00:03:13.840 use the testimony of the Old Testament to prove his doctrine of justification by faith alone by

00:03:19.600 leveraging the testimony of David. He references the 32nd Psalm. We see that a couple episodes ago,

00:03:25.600 if you wanted to go back and listen to it. The central issue, however, that Paul is dealing with

00:03:30.340 is he's correcting the Jews' poor covenant theology. This is really what's going on in the 1.00

00:03:36.780 vast majority of this section that we're in here in Romans. They thought that the physical signs

00:03:41.860 and seals, think of circumcision or law keeping or blood descendancy, or some of the sacrificial

00:03:49.380 systems, were the means to bring about salvation. Paul has to clarify this by explaining that

00:03:56.740 circumcision was simply the formalization or the certification of the covenant promise. It wasn't

00:04:03.020 anything that would brought about justification or salvation. So circumcision in a real sense

00:04:08.020 was God's mark of ownership upon his people, 0.55

00:04:11.080 kind of like a farmer would necessarily brand an animal.

00:04:14.940 It was a mark of ownership.

00:04:16.140 It was also a physical sign and seal

00:04:17.680 that was pointing toward something,

00:04:19.440 the fulfillment of the promise

00:04:20.420 that was made in the covenant,

00:04:21.980 but it was not the means of salvation.

00:04:24.600 So the question for the Jews became,

00:04:26.900 well, if circumcision doesn't save,

00:04:28.740 then what value did it have?

00:04:30.560 Paul dealt with this in chapter two,

00:04:32.500 but ultimately circumcision became a means of assurance

00:04:35.480 for Abraham and all of those who had the promise of the covenant applied to their body.

00:04:41.140 And the same principle is true for us in baptism, right? While circumcised or the circumcision

00:04:46.080 pointed forward to the bloody sacrifice that was to come in Christ, baptism points backward to

00:04:51.560 the cleansing of sin through the work that Christ had done. And so that's all it is though. These

00:04:57.200 are sacraments. These are sacraments. They're signs, they're seals, they're a blessing of God's

00:05:01.820 promise applied to your body. They're a grace in the form of assurance and spiritual identity,

00:05:07.200 but in and of themselves, they cannot save. So at some point, the Jews' physical circumcision 0.98

00:05:14.820 needed to become spiritual circumcision. And our baptism needs to become, it can't just be

00:05:21.780 physical baptism. It must also be spiritual baptism, which is another way of saying,

00:05:25.640 be born again. And so depending on where you're at, if you're a Baptist or if you're a Presbyterian,

00:05:30.300 you're going to interpret that differently. But the reality is that these are signs and seals

00:05:35.440 that do not save. The major takeaway of this section was Abraham was made righteous by faith

00:05:41.860 before he was circumcised. In fact, it was the promise of the covenant was made to him 14 years

00:05:48.840 prior to his circumcision. And that covenant sign that was applied to his body is important.

00:05:56.180 But Paul tells us in 4.11-12, he was justified before he was circumcised, before, because

00:06:04.680 that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that the righteousness 0.86

00:06:09.220 might be credited to them, that is the uncircumcised.

00:06:12.660 And he also was the father of the circumcision to those who are not only of the circumcision,

00:06:17.600 but also who walk of the steps of the faith of our forefather Abraham, which he had while

00:06:22.120 he was uncircumcised.

00:06:22.960 So essentially what he's saying here is the reason Abraham was circumcised after he'd been made

00:06:29.840 righteous is so that he could be the father of those who are uncircumcised. And he can also be

00:06:35.440 the father of the Jews who were circumcised, but also had faith like Abraham. So ultimately,

00:06:40.960 Paul is communicating that it's not physical descendants or physical circumcision that makes

00:06:47.340 a person a child of Abraham. It's a descendants of faith and a circumcision of the heart

00:06:52.360 that truly matters. That's what he's trying to communicate here. So Paul is emphasizing the

00:06:56.620 importance of a spiritual connection, a born again resurrection over any external or physical

00:07:05.440 markers of identity or belonging. And so this is the point that he's getting at. He's highlighting

00:07:10.240 the fact that true salvation and righteousness comes not from observing the law or adhering to

00:07:15.800 sacramental rights, but from a genuine and sincere faith in Christ alone. And that's the

00:07:22.840 landscape for the passage today. So it's Romans 4, 13 through 17. I'm going to read it right now.

00:07:27.480 It says, for the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be the heir of the

00:07:33.680 world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of

00:07:38.600 the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. For the law brings about

00:07:44.080 wrath. But where there is no law, there also is no violation. Okay, so I want to talk about the

00:07:50.260 promise to Abraham from God and how it was threefold. So number one is he promised that the

00:07:57.080 serpent crusher of Genesis 3.16 would come through his line or his family line. Number two is that

00:08:04.100 he promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through that serpent crusher

00:08:08.680 and that his children would be as numerous as the stars. 0.85

00:08:13.340 And number three, he promised to give Abraham

00:08:15.660 and his family the land of Canaan

00:08:17.260 as a guarantee or a deposit of what's to come.

00:08:21.600 And so the first promise, the first part of the promise,

00:08:24.380 those three points that I just made,

00:08:25.900 was fulfilled in the birth of Abraham's son, Isaac,

00:08:29.260 and ultimately fulfilled in the birth and death

00:08:32.000 and resurrection of Christ.

00:08:33.760 The second promise is being fulfilled now

00:08:36.240 in the birth of the church

00:08:39.120 as we see more and more Christians being born again

00:08:42.880 who are the children of Abraham by faith.

00:08:46.000 And every time essentially God brings a new person

00:08:50.780 to spiritual life through new birth

00:08:53.260 and are given faith,

00:08:54.820 they become a descendant of Abraham by faith.

00:08:57.860 Burke Parsons once said a famous quote.

00:09:00.000 He says, quote,

00:09:01.000 Dear doubting Christian,

00:09:02.640 when Abraham counted the stars, 0.98

00:09:04.780 he was counting you.

00:09:06.240 end quote. So that's a really important distinction to understand that we are children of Abraham,

00:09:13.000 not by descendancy, by blood, how the Jews thought, but by faith. The third part of the

00:09:18.320 promise was fulfilled when the Israelites conquered the promised land and settled in the land of Canaan

00:09:23.980 under the leadership of Joshua. So there's things that have been fulfilled and things that are

00:09:29.420 being fulfilled still in this covenantal promise with Abraham, which again, Abraham's covenant is

00:09:37.140 even within the covenant of grace that was established in Genesis 3.16. So there's greater

00:09:41.280 theological understanding there that needs to happen, but we're not going to talk about that

00:09:44.160 now. However, the Bible does speak of a broader promise that has to do similar to this covenant

00:09:52.180 with Abraham. And it's an inheritance that extends beyond the land of Canaan. In the New Testament,

00:09:58.380 for example, Jesus teaches that the meek shall inherit the earth. That's Matthew 5.5. And in the 0.99

00:10:04.460 book of Revelation, it's written that God's people will reign with Christ on the earth. That's

00:10:09.080 Revelation 5.10. That is that the promised land of the Israelites was the foreshadow of the promised

00:10:17.280 land to the church. I'm going to say that again. I want you to understand that. The promised land

00:10:22.400 of the Israelites was a foreshadow of the promised land to the church. They inherited Canaan, 0.92

00:10:28.380 and the church will inherit the earth. They conquered Canaan by God's power. 0.99

00:10:34.620 We will conquer the earth by Christ's gospel. And so when you think about how all these wars that

00:10:41.340 were happening in the Old Testament, and they were coming into these different lands, and

00:10:46.440 they were inheriting vineyards that they did not plant, and wells that they did not dig,

00:10:53.680 and fields that they did not cultivate

00:10:56.660 and buildings that they did not build

00:10:58.740 when God was giving them all these things.

00:11:01.380 They were inheriting these things by God's power.

00:11:03.900 Every time they stopped having faith in God,

00:11:07.120 they would lose these battles.

00:11:08.600 But every time they would win,

00:11:10.340 it was because they had faith in God

00:11:11.600 and God was essentially having them conquer

00:11:14.540 through his power physically.

00:11:17.600 Now, in the New Testament,

00:11:19.040 we see that God has conquered the serpent,

00:11:23.240 the serpent crusher has essentially crushed the head of the serpent. And he is our general. And

00:11:30.040 by his gospel, now God is conquering, not through physical war, but he's conquering his enemies

00:11:35.960 through conversion. He's actually converting people to the gospel. And now it started with

00:11:41.940 12 guys. Now it's 36% of the world population professes to follow Christ. We have millions

00:11:47.340 upon millions upon millions of Christians that are converting all across the world.

00:11:50.540 and that number has never gotten smaller.

00:11:53.800 It's only gotten bigger.

00:11:55.340 And Jesus is essentially,

00:11:56.700 because all authority has been given to him

00:11:58.060 in heaven on earth

00:11:58.860 and the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, 0.95

00:12:01.200 we can trust that the church will continue to conquer

00:12:03.940 and we will inherit that promised land

00:12:06.620 in the same way that the Old Testament saints did.

00:12:10.220 We will inherit the earth.

00:12:11.960 Obviously, none of it's by our power.

00:12:13.700 None of it's by the church.

00:12:14.600 We are the body of Christ.

00:12:15.520 He is the head of the church

00:12:16.840 and we are going by Christ's power.

00:12:18.780 But the central point that Paul is trying to make is really in regards to how Abraham and his descendants would be heirs to these promises of inheriting the earth or numerous as the stars as these promises in the Old Testament to the covenant of Abraham.

00:12:35.880 He wants them to see that the heirs are not going to receive the substance of the promises

00:12:40.580 through obedience to the law, but through faith, that the channel, essentially, the river or the

00:12:47.340 channel by which we receive the material promises of God come by faith. That's what it is. And so

00:12:53.720 Paul goes on to cross-examine the alternative position. If you didn't agree with what I just

00:12:59.140 said. He cross-examines that in verse 14. He says, for if those who are of the law are heirs,

00:13:06.820 faith is made void and the promise is nullified. For the law brings about wrath, but where there

00:13:11.680 is no law, there is also no violation. So in other words, if obedience to the law

00:13:15.860 is the means to obtain the substance of the promise to Abraham, then faith is worthless

00:13:23.220 because, and I would even say the promise would be repealed

00:13:27.520 because the promise, as we clearly see in Genesis,

00:13:32.040 rests on faith and not on works.

00:13:34.300 And that's the point that Paul is trying to make.

00:13:35.740 Essentially, Paul is showing that there's faulty logic here.

00:13:38.560 It doesn't function according to the testimony of the Old Testament.

00:13:42.040 And I believe that Paul also is guarding against the idea

00:13:47.020 of blending faith and works together.

00:13:50.420 And I think this is important to talk about.

00:13:52.440 He wants to demonstrate how they are mutually exclusive paths to the promise or to inheriting

00:13:58.840 the substance of the promise. And so the law, what does the law do? It tells us about our sin

00:14:04.460 and it brings about God's wrath. It's the means of exposing and condemning our sins. That's what

00:14:10.040 the law does. Faith on the other side brings about grace because it's the means by which we receive

00:14:18.260 the substance of the promise of the covenant. And so there are two mutually exclusive paths

00:14:24.500 that are happening here. Paul is teaching that the promises of God are strictly by faith. It's

00:14:29.380 not a blend of faith and works. You don't keep yourself saved by maintaining your obedience to

00:14:34.540 the law. And a lot of people operate that way even today. No, it's inherited strictly by faith.

00:14:42.240 If the first can only deliver condemnation towards sinners, which all are sinners, then the second is the only valid option.

00:14:51.180 For example, imagine you just traveled to a foreign country, you wanted to get dinner, and you're about to pay for the check, and you attempt to pay for your meal with the wrong currency.

00:15:02.220 No matter how much money you have, it's not the correct currency, and you're not going to be able to satisfy the bill.

00:15:08.520 If it's 10 euros and you got $5 and you got five euros,

00:15:12.880 it's not going to be sufficient to cover the expense.

00:15:16.800 You can't pay that way.

00:15:18.560 You strictly need euros.

00:15:20.600 You don't need dollars and euros, you need euros.

00:15:24.280 And Paul's making the same point.

00:15:25.620 In order to receive the blessings of God,

00:15:26.960 you don't need work and faith.

00:15:28.880 You strictly need faith.

00:15:30.840 And again, that doesn't mean

00:15:31.980 that we don't work as Christians, we do.

00:15:34.140 It simply means that our works are not the means

00:15:36.080 of procuring the promise of God in this covenant.

00:15:39.460 And it was R.C. Sproul who famously said,

00:15:42.440 quote, we are saved by faith alone,

00:15:44.820 but the faith that saves is never alone, end quote. 0.59

00:15:47.960 Ultimately, Christians have blurred the lines

00:15:51.740 in many cases between works and faith. 1.00

00:15:55.800 And they don't understand the distinction.

00:15:58.400 And as a result,

00:15:59.240 they have a distorted relationship with God.

00:16:01.080 They start working to try to earn God's favor

00:16:04.240 or to make them maybe more secure in their salvation,

00:16:07.220 they don't understand that they're resting.

00:16:09.360 They need to be resting solely on faith.

00:16:12.240 And that is the thing that the means

00:16:14.780 by making someone righteous.

00:16:18.000 It's the channel by which the righteousness of Christ

00:16:20.460 is given to us.

00:16:22.700 And it's important to constantly remind people

00:16:25.440 about these distinctions between these two works and faith.

00:16:29.540 Faith is a gracious gift of God.

00:16:31.560 It's how we receive the promises and blessings of God.

00:16:34.240 Works are the fruit of faith, but they don't secure justification or the substance of the

00:16:40.240 promises. Our faith establishes our relationship with God. It's the means that reconciles us to

00:16:47.500 God because through that faith, we receive the righteousness of Christ, making us righteous

00:16:52.820 before God, being able to be reconciled to him. But our works demonstrate the vitality of that

00:17:02.080 faith or the vitality of that relationship? Vitality, I mean, is it alive? Do you have

00:17:07.600 living faith? Do you have the true faith that's a gift of God? If you've been born again, you've

00:17:12.540 been given the gift of faith. You will never fall away because it's not you that sustains that faith.

00:17:17.300 It's God that sustains that faith. He who began a good work in you will finish it. Jesus is the

00:17:22.000 author and finisher of your faith. So if our faith is real, the works will be abundant. If our faith

00:17:28.080 is false, the works will be flat. Ultimately, by keeping faith and works in their proper place,

00:17:34.660 what you do is you get a beautiful reality here. You avoid both the dangers of legalism on one side,

00:17:40.560 and you also avoid the antinomianism on the other side. So the legalism is that you earn

00:17:47.160 your justification by works, and antinomianism is separating obedience from faith. And so we need

00:17:55.400 both. We don't want to have faith and no obedience and righteous living because that would be no

00:18:00.360 fruit. And we don't want to have legalism, which says that you do certain things and those things

00:18:05.980 are the things that make you justified before God. And so the distinction between faith and

00:18:10.200 works is absolutely essential. In the end, Paul points out that faith is the means to the promise.

00:18:19.400 this is how God's people will receive the substance of those promises. And if faith is the

00:18:28.700 way, don't put your hope in works. Have works, rest in faith, work from faith, but whatever you

00:18:39.560 do, don't turn from faith, right? Faith is something that, again, God gives you, but you

00:18:45.560 rest in that is what I'm talking about. Rest in that faith. Don't turn from the rest that can be

00:18:50.940 found only in faith. Don't think that God is essentially condemning you based off of your,

00:18:59.320 if you've sinned. No, that sin was already paid for. And you can rest in the righteousness of

00:19:05.260 Christ. And yes, you should have works. These works are designed to please God. So we can please

00:19:13.220 God when we're saved. Now, if you're not saved, your good works are like filthy rags to God.

00:19:18.620 They don't even matter. You're all condemned because you're in sin. You have no righteousness

00:19:22.980 through faith. And so when you're sitting there as a Christian, you go, why have good works? Well, 0.95

00:19:29.940 your motive needs to be to please God. It's not to justify yourself or to keep yourself saved.

00:19:35.720 It's so that God might be pleased with you. And he's not pleased necessarily with

00:19:40.320 your good works because you did them.

00:19:43.940 All the good works that you do is Christ in you,

00:19:47.900 the Holy Spirit's conviction on your heart,

00:19:49.960 producing good works through you.

00:19:51.560 So you can't even boast in your own good works

00:19:53.560 because the only reason you're doing these good things

00:19:55.880 is by the Holy Spirit.

00:19:57.220 And so this is why we can say for from him

00:19:58.820 and through him and to him are all things

00:20:01.600 for him be the glory forever and ever, amen.

00:20:04.920 So hopefully that was a helpful episode,

00:20:06.600 a short episode today,

00:20:07.580 but just wanted to help you understand the distinction

00:20:10.080 between faith and works

00:20:11.040 and how we inherit the promise

00:20:12.740 of the substance of the promises

00:20:14.080 through not or not by works,

00:20:16.020 but through faith.

00:20:17.340 So hopefully this episode was helpful

00:20:18.920 and edifying for your walk with the Lord

00:20:20.520 and hope you're enjoying this time

00:20:22.400 through Romans.

00:20:23.960 I am, and it's been edifying

00:20:25.660 even in my own study.

00:20:27.140 Stay with us as we continue

00:20:28.380 to get through Romans.

00:20:29.320 I would love to have many of you guys

00:20:31.380 go all the way through

00:20:32.200 from Romans 1, 1

00:20:33.360 all the way through chapter 16.

00:20:35.360 It would be great to have you guys

00:20:36.440 on that journey.

00:20:37.840 As for this episode,

00:20:39.300 My name is Dale Partridge. 0.97

00:20:40.320 This is Real Christianity. 0.82

00:20:41.400 And I'll see you guys next time. 0.91

Dale Partridge - March 08, 2023

What's the Difference Between Faith & Works？ - Dale Partridge

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