Saving Faith: Affection and Trust in Christ
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
Faith exists as a satisfied drinking, eating, beholding of Christ. So I suggest that John never uses the noun faith and uses the verb believe 98 times because he wants to foreground the spiritual act of the soul in receiving and coming and drinking and eating and loving which faith is. [00:36:02]
My main point has been that saving faith has in it the affectional dimension of treasuring Christ. That's my thesis. The ultimate reason this matters is that God designed saving faith such that he would be maximally glorified through it in salvation. [00:37:55]
Dr. Piper rightly calls us to think more clearly and biblically about the nature of saving faith. This cannot be taken for granted. At the dawn of the Reformation, the reformers had to define faith in light of the claims of Rome. [00:40:20]
Dr. Piper reflects autobiographically, says he's lived in the same inner city neighborhood for 40 years beset with every kind of breakdown and dysfunction, and he relays how many people have told him over the years they have received Christ, and very few have told him they've rejected him. [00:42:32]
Dr. Piper takes us back to the New Testament. He covers dozens, a couple hundred texts in this book, in conversation with some of the best theologians of the church. He is proposing a definition of saving faith and anatomy of faith. [00:43:35]
The thesis of this book is not that love for Christ, treasuring Christ, is the fruit or evidence of saving faith, nor is the thesis that treasuring Christ is a good work yielded by faith, or the treasuring Christ necessarily accompanies saving faith. [00:45:10]
Dr. Piper affirms, as he did last hour, the classic threefold formulation: notitia, assensus, fiducia—knowledge, assent, faith. But he argues it's insufficient. These three elements have never been enough. He writes, page 59, we need more. [00:45:57]
He says saving faith is not receiving plus joy any more than the object of faith is Christ plus treasure. Christ is the treasure we receive, and joy is included in the nature of the receiving. [00:47:14]
Faith dethrones the enslaving desires for the world and replaces the world with God in our affections, which John calls loving God. Now, at this point, Dr. Piper clarifies. He writes, page 193, I'm not saying that faith in Christ and love for God are identical. [00:48:23]
Faith is the sole instrument of the sinner's justification. Christ's blood and righteousness alone ground the sinner's justification. He says, in addition, trusting Christ is not identical with loving Christ. One cannot replace faith with love as if they were interchangeable. [00:52:02]
The sum of my concern is that the book's formulations and arguments, coalescing around the thesis that saving faith is essentially affectional, are unable to sustain the weight of those sincerely held convictions. [00:54:12]
Faith receives the righteousness of Christ as a treasure, and thus as a treasure, as a correspondence in my soul of treasuring that, no more imports works or virtue into the ground of my justification than faith itself understood your way. [02:17:04]
Ask a question about this sermon
My main point has been that saving faith has in it the affectional dimension of treasuring Christ. That's my thesis. The ultimate reason this matters is that God designed saving faith such that he would be maximally glorified through it in salvation. [00:37:55]
Dr. Piper rightly calls us to think more clearly and biblically about the nature of saving faith. This cannot be taken for granted. At the dawn of the Reformation, the reformers had to define faith in light of the claims of Rome. [00:40:20]
Dr. Piper reflects autobiographically, says he's lived in the same inner city neighborhood for 40 years beset with every kind of breakdown and dysfunction, and he relays how many people have told him over the years they have received Christ, and very few have told him they've rejected him. [00:42:32]
Dr. Piper takes us back to the New Testament. He covers dozens, a couple hundred texts in this book, in conversation with some of the best theologians of the church. He is proposing a definition of saving faith and anatomy of faith. [00:43:35]
The thesis of this book is not that love for Christ, treasuring Christ, is the fruit or evidence of saving faith, nor is the thesis that treasuring Christ is a good work yielded by faith, or the treasuring Christ necessarily accompanies saving faith. [00:45:10]
Dr. Piper affirms, as he did last hour, the classic threefold formulation: notitia, assensus, fiducia—knowledge, assent, faith. But he argues it's insufficient. These three elements have never been enough. He writes, page 59, we need more. [00:45:57]
He says saving faith is not receiving plus joy any more than the object of faith is Christ plus treasure. Christ is the treasure we receive, and joy is included in the nature of the receiving. [00:47:14]
Faith dethrones the enslaving desires for the world and replaces the world with God in our affections, which John calls loving God. Now, at this point, Dr. Piper clarifies. He writes, page 193, I'm not saying that faith in Christ and love for God are identical. [00:48:23]
Faith is the sole instrument of the sinner's justification. Christ's blood and righteousness alone ground the sinner's justification. He says, in addition, trusting Christ is not identical with loving Christ. One cannot replace faith with love as if they were interchangeable. [00:52:02]
The sum of my concern is that the book's formulations and arguments, coalescing around the thesis that saving faith is essentially affectional, are unable to sustain the weight of those sincerely held convictions. [00:54:12]
Faith receives the righteousness of Christ as a treasure, and thus as a treasure, as a correspondence in my soul of treasuring that, no more imports works or virtue into the ground of my justification than faith itself understood your way. [02:17:04]
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Apr 06, 2023. Do you have any questions about it?