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The Poison Of Works (Galatians 5:1-12 November 25, 2018)

Let me ask you a question. Which of these statements seems right to you? Faith plus works makes me more righteousness OR Faith alone makes me more righteousness Which path makes you godlier, holier, more like Jesus? Is it trusting in Jesus to save you and then striving with all your might to obey God – to not lie or steal or lust? OR Does trusting in Jesus alone make you godlier and more like Jesus? In many ways this question is at the heart of the book of Galatians. The Judaisers – a group of Jews who said they were Christians were arguing that God gave the Law to show us how we are to live in order to please Him. They argued that Paul’s doctrine of faith alone actually led to more sin because if you say – God’s love is bestowed just by faith – then our sinful hearts will say – well then it really doesn’t matter how I live.

The Poison Of Works

Galatians 5:1-12

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Whether I tell a few white lies or not – whether I lust after a woman or not – God loves me the same – so why bother to fight the flesh? – I have no reason to fight it – I’m just going to give into it. Now, I have to admit that it does seem more natural to think that adding some works – striving for holiness – should make us godlier – than just faith alone. This first statement just looks right. But, this morning and over the next two weeks – Paul will say to us – if the first statement is what looks right to you – then there are some aspects of the gospel you still need to come to grips with and embed in your heart. Paul is going to argue – in the strongest of terms that his gospel of faith alone is what actually makes us righteous and holy – both now and eternally. And adding works to what Christ has done cannot make you more holy – and indeed it renders the cross of Jesus impotent. In our passage this morning, Paul sums this up in one of the most powerful, frank and direct passages in the New Testament. This passage is brutal. Any time I am preparing a sermon and think – wow that might be a bit too direct or going a bit too far in admonishing the flock – I think of Paul and what he says here in Galatians 5 and think – I am nowhere near pushing things too far – just say it. You will see what I mean. As we have seen, the point of this whole letter is clear. There is – No Other Gospel! The gospel Paul shared with them – faith alone – this is the only gospel – the only way of salvation and anything else is accursed. This morning we come to Paul’s fifth and final point: The Outcome of Heresy – Unrighteousness not Righteousness 5:1-6:18 This gospel of faith and works actually leads to unrighteousness – both now and eternally. To see this turn with me to Galatians 5:1. Paul writes:

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

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What does it mean – for freedom Christ has set us free? Paul is going to argue that what the life, death and resurrection of Jesus did is to set us free from two things. First, we are: Freed From The Penalty of Sin. We call this Salvation. Every man, woman and child has to face the judge of the universe – and Christ is the only way to be free from the penalty we so richly deserve. Paul looks at this in our passage this morning – 5:1-12. But in case anyone would argue that the gospel of faith alone does not cause us to live holy lives right now – Paul goes on to argue that faith alone is also what causes us to be: Freed From the Power of Sin Free to live holy lives now. We call this Sanctification. Our love for God and the power of the Spirit do not cause us to abuse grace and sin – but cause us to love holiness. We will look at this over the next two weeks in 5:13-6:10. But there is another crucial question we have to answer in this opening verse. When Paul says:

Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. And down in verse 4:

You are severed from Christ – you have fallen away from grace. And verse 7:

You were running well. Is Paul painting a picture that the Galatians had turned to Christ – become saved – but now they were now in danger of losing their salvation of falling from grace? At first glance it might seem so. Look at the language he uses. Stand firm – don’t let go of your salvation. Don’t return to the world.

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Don’t fall away from Christ and grace. You were running well – you had trusted Christ and drawn near to God in salvation – but now you are about to lose it. Many think that is what Paul is saying. However, I want to argue – very strongly – that is not what Paul is saying. The question in Scripture is never:

Can you lose your salvation? The question in Scripture is always:

Were you ever saved? There are a number of doctrines – theologians use terms like – eternal security, perseverance of the saints, assurance – that tell us that those God places His electing love on – will be saved – and once God saves you – you can never fall away from Him. They do have times where their love grows cold, times when sin enters in – but ultimately – Christ will hold them fast to the end. Jesus says of those who are His – not one will be lost. No one can remove them from His hand. He will cause us to persevere to the end. Passage after passage teaches this truth – and our passage this morning actually shows us why this must be the truth. So, who is Paul talking about when he uses language like this? The Apostle John says this in 1 John 2:19:

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

The Bible teaches that there are always tares among the wheat. Men and women who look like Christians – who for a time seem to love Jesus – who can even love Him passionately for a time. Then something happens – their love grows cold – they turn away. The Bible says – it is not that they lost their salvation – it is that they were never saved – they never were His.

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Here Paul is saying – if any of the Galatians accept the heretical gospel of faith plus works – if they trust a false gospel – if they no longer stand in the truth – if they go back to a yoke of earning salvation – if they cut off the one means of union with Christ – if they move away from the one means of grace – it unveils them for what they are – pretenders who were never truly saved. Although they looked like they were running well for a time – trusting a heresy merely unmasks them as never being saved. So why a passage like this? One of the means of grace – one of the ways God preserves the true saints – is through strong warnings and admonitions not to fall away. Scripture is filled with them and that is what this passage is. But every time we get to a passage like this – I get the emails and questions – but how do I know if I am truly saved or just a pretender? Paul’s answer in this passage is this. You know you are saved if you:

Trust in faith alone to save you. Trust in faith alone to make you holy.

If that is what you are trusting in – clinging to – begging God for – if you will not depart from these truths – if these are the truths you love and build your live on – then you can rest assured that you are His. If not – then Paul has some pretty harsh words to say. This is a warning passage – this is a test yourself to see if you are in the faith passage. Paul warns the Galatians – and us – do not submit again to a yolk of slavery. Do not submit to the yoke of eternal unrighteousness 5:7-12 Do not submit to the yoke of present unrighteousness 6:7-18 Turning back to Law shows you were never saved. It is a yoke that destroys any hope of salvation – and in the next weeks we will see that it is a yoke that leads us to the sins of the flesh – unrighteousness in this life. But this week Paul is dealing with the fact that if we trust in faith alone – we are: Freed From The Penalty of Sin. The point of this passage is this:

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Faith alone saves us and makes us holy. Adding the poison of works unmasks us and shows we were never truly His. Faith alone saves us and makes us holy. Adding the poison of works unmasks us and shows we were never truly His. In terms of salvation – if you add in works to faith alone – it is like adding in poison to a glass of water. You don’t just end up with a tainted gospel – you get a false gospel that cannot save. If you trust that gospel – you were never saved – you were never His. You belong to the world, to a cult, to Satan – but not to Christ. Our passage this morning divides up like this:

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Flesh working through Law leaves us unrighteous eternally 5:2-4 The Spirit working through faith makes us righteous eternally 5:5-6 So do not submit to the yoke of eternal unrighteousness 5:7-12 In this section Paul is dealing with faith alone as the only means of salvation. First, Flesh working through Law leaves us unrighteous eternally 5:2-4 If you trust the Law – in any way – your flesh will cause you to fail and you remain lost – apart from Christ. What does the Bible mean by flesh? The flesh is man in His own strength. The flesh is us trying to please God through our lives. But the flesh is unable to please God. The flesh is us in our human weakness. The flesh cannot keep the Law. And if we trust in our flesh to keep the Law well enough to satisfy a holy God – the result is that we are lost – eternally. Galatians 5:2–3:

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

Circumcision was a sign that you intended to submit yourself to the Law – that you intend to please God by keeping the Law.

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Let me remind you again of a few truths we have seen in Galatians. God is completely holy – no sin – no blemish – ever. To dwell with Him – to go to heaven and be with Him – we have to perfect – without sin – ever. But you and I and everyone else – we were born in sin. It is more natural than breathing. It is the world we live in. You cannot cease sinning. You cannot even refrain from it for a moment. Some flash of pride or anger or greed or lust is always there. Some selfishness is always lurking. Even when you are asleep – you sin in your dreams. Men and women in the flesh are constant sin factories. But there is one man who never sinned – not in the womb, not as a child, not in His sleep, not when He was provoked or even murdered. That is Jesus. The only man of whom the Father ever said – in this One I am well pleased. So – only one man ever born can possibly get to heaven. But here is the gospel – the good news. As a gift of God – we can be united with Jesus – by faith – such that Christ is in us and we are in Him. Now, God looks at us and He does not see our incredible list of failures – He sees – Jesus. By faith Jesus’ righteousness – His perfect keeping of the Law – His God-satisfying life becomes ours – so now the Father looks at us and says – in this one I am well pleased. However, that all changes when you add a bit of Law to faith alone. In effect you are saying:

OK – I’m not so good with the lying and coveting – so Jesus – that bit is for You. But me – I can handle the no adultery and honouring my parents – Jesus, I got those ones covered.

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Really? You really want to say there are bits of the Law you will swap Jesus’ keeping of it – for your keeping of it? I don’t care what bit of the Law you pick – He kept it perfectly – you will mess it up. There is not one part of the Law that you can keep perfectly even for a moment. Read the Sermon on the Mount. If you want to say – I think I am OK because I have never committed adultery or murdered anyone. Jesus says – OK – to keep those Laws – you can never have felt lust or anger – ever – so how are you doing? Or think about it this way. What if your salvation was 99.99% dependent on God and just 0.01% on you? Jesus – all the tough stuff is yours. Me – I am going to pick Leviticus 19:19:

You shall not wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. I think I can handle that bit. I think I can avoid ever wearing blended clothes. All my life – cotton only baby – no cotton/poly blend for this holy man. So, I will be closer to God than all those wool blend wearers. Problem is that verse is not just about what to wear or not wear. Wearing two kinds of material was what the idol worshipping pagans did. So keeping that verse means not following the pagans in any of their practices and idolatry – and every one of us fails to do this. So yes – God’s 99.99% cannot fail. But our 0.01% will always fail. If we add anything to the perfect salvation of Christ – it will fail and we will not be saved because we are made sinful by that failure. If we are not trusting Christ alone – then Christ is of no advantage to us. If we inject any bit of us into the equation – that bit will fail and we will not be perfectly holy – and we cannot stand before God and we will have negated the work of the cross and Christ in our life. So – Paul says – if you want to add works in – if you want to add some Law – none of this picking and choosing – I’ll take the way Jesus kept the Sabbath – but me I’ll take the way I never stole.

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No – you have to keep it all – and perfectly. And you will fail because you have to keep every bit of the Law. You would have to keep every bit of it perfectly – and not just from this point on – you better have kept it perfectly from the day you were conceived. James puts it this way. James 2:10:

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

If you fail at one point – you are a lawbreaker and guilty under the Law. And truth is there is not one bit of the Law any of us can keep. So, Paul wants to cry – only a fool would say – I choose to keep the Law myself. Only a fool would say – I would rather take my Law keeping than Jesus’! Add in any Law – and you will fail to keep it. You will negate the gospel and verse 4:

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

You sever yourself from Christ – the only One who kept the Law – you swapped His life for your attempt to be justified by the Law and you have moved away from grace to your pathetic works. This is so wrong on every level. Keeping any part of the Law is impossible. It says you think you can do better than Jesus. It says – the glory for my salvation is ultimately mine. I do not need Jesus or the cross. And Paul says – if that is what you think then you are left in your unrighteousness. Now, pause here for a minute. Earlier I mentioned the doctrines of assurance, eternal security and perseverance of the saints. The Bible is filled with verses that teach these truths. I know many of you struggle with this. I get asked about them – a lot.

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I struggle with them. The ebb and flow of my Christian life – your Christian life – it makes me feel like we lose our salvation and we repent and return to Jesus. I think my pride has a big part. I want some of the glory. I want to say I had a part. Also, I think it seems logical that if I add my pathetic 1kg of righteousness to Christ’s infinite righteousness – it should be 1kg better than Christ’s righteousness alone – when in fact it negates Christ’s righteousness and leaves me standing there with nothing but my own 1kg of inadequate filthy rag works. And this passage helps us understand why God saving us and holding us fast to the end despite our failures absolutely has to be true. Follow with me. Those who deny eternal security say – you can trust Christ – become saved – and then you can do something to turn away – you can lose your faith and fall into sin. Maybe no one can snatch me from Jesus’ hand – but it seems that I can choose to crawl out. If they are right – if you can lose your salvation – then that means we are mighty enough to uncurl the fingers of God almighty and break free. I don’t think so. But perhaps even more telling – that means there is something you have to do to stay in God’s love – and if you fail and move out – then there is something you can do to return to God’s love. Paul would cry – if there is anything that is up to us – anything we have to do – we will always fail. What is it you think you could do to please a holy God? Nothing! You could never do that thing to stay in God’s love or regain God’s love and even if you could – you would simply instantly fail at that point again. We can’t get ourselves into His love and we can’t hold ourselves in His love. Even if we say the thing necessary is faith – if you have to have faith and not have your faith waiver – if it is up to us – we will be lost. That is why Ephesians 2 says – even our faith is a gift of God. The result is that if we play any part in being saved or staying saved – if anything depends on us – then we will never have true assurance. Even if you are at a time in your life when things are going well – great quiet time, victory over sin, evangelism, giving – all going well. Even then, you know that you are not doing them perfectly and there will be other areas of your life that are a total mess.

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And you will ask – am I doing enough – am I in Christ or not? That is us in the flesh. So, if you trust any works – that drop of poison corrupts the whole gospel and you are left in your unrighteousness – eternally. That is why salvation has to be all of God – and why God has to finish what He begins. The Judaisers thought adding some works would bring them closer to God – what they ended up doing was cutting off the branch they were sitting on – they destroyed the gospel. So, Paul reminds them and us that the gospel declares that it is faith alone that saves and praise God – none of your works are involved. The Spirit working through faith makes us righteous eternally 5:5-6 Verse 5:

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we have faith – and that faith links us to Christ such that our final state of righteousness is assured. Saving faith is a gift of God. Every part of salvation is from God. Notice the shift here. In verses 2-4 – Paul says you – Christ is no advantage to you – you are severed from Christ. Now he uses we. We wait for the hope of righteousness. To those in the Galatian church who are trusting flesh and works he says – you are trusting a false gospel. To those in the Galatian church who are trusting Spirit and faith he says – you are with me – so together we are trusting the true gospel. Notice that faith is a gift of God given by the Holy Spirit. Faith that Christ’s work is enough. Faith that when we stand before the judge – we will be declared righteous. There is no flesh or works or Law here. Any of those would poison the gospel and render it invalid. I cannot tell you how much I rejoice in this truth.

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Not the labours of my hands Can fulfil Thy law’s demands; Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone.

My life is filled with failures. But His is not. My salvation does not depend on any work Craig Lloyd has done, is doing or will do – praise the Lord. It is completely dependent on the perfect works Christ has done in His life and death. That is the gospel. So, verse 6:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. Paul is not saying – keeping the Law or not keeping the Law isn’t significant to the gospel. That would undercut his argument that adding in Law poisons the gospel. He is saying our Law keeping is not the issue. When Paul contrasts circumcision with uncircumcision – he uses it to refer to Jews and Gentiles – those with the Law and those without. What he is saying is this – in terms of salvation – the Law itself counts for nothing because it cannot save. What does count?

Only faith working through love. Faith – only faith – is what counts in terms of salvation. But in case anyone might say to Paul – if you say works are unimportant – then whether I live holy or worldly is unimportant. To this he says – true faith works itself out in acts of love. This is what Paul will pick up on in next week’s passage. Look down to verse 14:

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

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True faith manifests itself in works of love – including but not limited to the fruit of the Spirit in verses 22-23:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

You know you have true saving faith if that faith manifests itself in love. What does this mean? It pains me to say it – but my affections toward people are nuanced. There are people I like more than others. Some people have characteristics I appreciate – they are generous, gracious, servant-hearted and patient. But God is not like that. We are either in His saving love completely and fully – as He loves Christ – or we are outside His saving love and objects of His wrath. However, because we are nuanced love beings – we think that God loves the way we love. We know we are saved by grace – but once we are saved – our nuanced-love minds think – Oh:

I need to do something to make God love me more – so that drives me to do good works

If I clean up my act. If I give more. If I help out at a food truck. If I give out gospel tracts – then surely I am a bit closer to God’s throne – surely He will love me a bit more than the Christians who are always sinning – selfish, lusting, angry. Big problems:

1. You can never clean up your act enough to please a holy God. And 2.Trying to do this and failing is a form of slavery – you are in bondage.

So when you struggle in your faith – the answer is not works. The answer is not to try and do something to please God. The answer is to preach the gospel to your soul.

I can’t do anything to make God love me more – so that drives me to do good works

I am loved as God loves Christ.

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The glorious truth of the gospel is that I am fully and completely loved by God – that there is no work I can do that can increase God’s love for me – that He loves me as He loves Christ – and nothing I can do can add to the perfect, completed work of His Son. And when I understand that – when it penetrates my heart – then it does not lead me to say – wow – that means that I can commit any sin and God will still love me. No! It drives me to desire to live righteously out of love for God. When my wife Dena shows me unconditional love and serves me in wonderful ways – I don’t think – awesome bring it on – I deserve this loving – well somethings my flesh does whisper that. But it should make me think – I want to show her love – I want to out-love her. Being loved makes you want to respond in works of love. James 2:14–17:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? … Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Faith alone saves – but it does not stay alone – it produces works. Or as Calvin put it:

Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone. Good works do not earn God’s love – they flow from our love for God. The Law seeks to gain a love that it cannot earn. Faith seeks to express a love that it cannot earn. That is the gospel. I wish I could leave it there. But Paul also knows that there are some in every church, in every group who are the tares amid the wheat – those who look saved – but after a time they submit again to the yoke of unrighteousness and that shows them for what they are – pretenders. So, Paul adds this warning: So do not submit to the yoke of eternal unrighteousness 5:7-12 Verses 7-8:

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You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

In the Galatian church were those who seemed as if they were wonderfully converted. But some agitators turned up – preached a different gospel – tickled their ears – and they stopped listening to and obeying the truth that they are saved by faith alone. Paul says – those who persuaded you and their false gospel – they were not from God – the One who called you. Verse 9:

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Leaven – yeast – permeates the whole lump – the whole loaf of bread. Since Jews were required to cleanse their house of leaven before the Passover – leaven came to be viewed negatively. Paul uses it negatively here and in 1 Corinthians 5. Interestingly Jesus uses leaven both negatively and positively. But here – the use is clearly negative and it is similar to the way Jesus used it in Matthew 16:6:

Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Paul is saying:

Watch and beware of the leaven of the Judaisers. If you let the false gospel of faith and Law get a toehold – it will leaven the whole lump. It will pervert the gospel and render it impotent. Verse 10:

I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.

So, how do you know you are truly saved? If you are in Christ – if you are His – you will not let the false gospel into your lives. You will resist the agitators and because their gospel does not save – they will bear the penalty of judgment. You will cast out the slave woman and her son. You will say not to the false gospel.

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Then comes a statement that at first glance seems totally out of place. Verse 11:

But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

Paul has been saying circumcision or uncircumcision is nothing – so when did he preach circumcision? This is a difficult verse – but I think the logic of it goes something like this. Paul says – look I understand the Judaiser’s view. Once, before I met Jesus on the road to Damascus, I preached circumcision. I persecuted the church for not preaching circumcision. I get it. And I know that if I still preached circumcision – keeping the Law – if I joined the Judaisers in preaching faith and Law – the persecution would stop. The Judaisers found the cross offensive because it negated the need for Law. The cross says our works are not part of our salvation – and to this day that is scandalous. So, if Paul compromised – if he gave in and added Law to faith – preached a little circumcision – his life would be easier – persecution would end – his gospel would be more tolerable. What is Paul’s answer? Verse 12:

I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! And every man cringes! This is Paul’s emphatic way of saying – there can be no compromise. He will never compromise on the gospel at all. Life would be better for him if he compromised – but there is no compromise. Any other gospel is no gospel. So, Paul wishes those who are preaching circumcision would go the whole way and emasculate themselves – turn themselves into eunuchs. M. R. Vincent gives us the sense of what Paul wants to convey:

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These people are disturbing you by insisting on circumcision. I would that they would make thorough work of it in their own case, and instead of merely amputating the foreskin, would castrate themselves.1

What is the point? In Deuteronomy 23:1 we are told that no one who is emasculated can enter the house of the Lord. Adding Law to faith severs us from Christ and cuts off the one way of salvation. Circumcision was a symbol that they were trying to please God by keeping the Law. Paul says – instead they should emasculate themselves as a symbol that by keeping the Law they can never enter the house of God. You don’t mess with the gospel. Any Law severs you from Christ. Brothers and sisters – over the years I have wept as Christians have fallen into serious sin and ruined marriages, relationships, ministries and even churches. But they repented and ultimately stayed loyal to Christ. So as much as that grieves me – and it grieves me deeply – with Paul I want to say – embracing a false gospel – which makes a shipwreck of your faith – is so much worse. Do not submit to the yoke of eternal unrighteousness In Galatia – the great danger was turning to the Torah – the Jewish Law. That still happens today in the West – but it is rare. We lose some to a gospel of faith plus baptism, faith plus legalism, faith plus miracles – but even these are not that common. What is common – horrendously common – is that when we struggle with faith and doubt and sin – we turn to works as the answer rather than faith. We tell ourselves:

I need to do something to make God love me more – so that drives me to do good works

I think I need to do something to stay in God’s love. So, I try and please God. But sin keeps popping up and ruining my efforts.

1 Cited in K. S. Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, 1:146–47.

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It is clear that my good works are pathetic. So, I find myself thinking – how can God love me? – I must not be saved – and I slowly give up. I stop reading my Bible, I stop praying, I stop rejoicing, I stop going to church, and one day I realise – I am not saved. The tare has declared itself. But, Paul wants us to know – for the true saints – the antidote to these times of cold love is not turning to works to try and please God – the answer is to preach the true gospel to our souls. To have faith that:

I can’t do anything to make God love me more – so that drives me to do good works

God loves me as He loves Christ! This should drive you deeper into the Word, deeper into prayer, deeper into the fellowship of the church and then it will manifest itself in works. Your heart should rejoice – I can’t fail – because Jesus cannot fail. I am well pleasing to God. When you feel your faith slipping, when you feel the tentacles of the world sapping your faith – meditate on the gospel. I can’t do it, but He has done it. He will hold me fast. Isaiah 41:10:

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you.

Jesus says:

I will never leave you not forsake you. Hebrews 13:5

Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one. John 18:9 So, rejoice in the gospel. Draw near to Him. Press in to Him. Brothers and sisters – when you struggle – the answer is never to look for another gospel – never to look to your works – the answer is always to realise the glory of the

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true gospel – Christ has kept the Law perfectly for me – I am well pleasing to God – I am a son of God – Hallelujah – what a Saviour!

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The Poison Of Works (Galatians 5:1-12 November 25, 2018)

Main Point: Faith alone saves us and makes us holy. Adding the poison of works unmasks us and shows we were never truly His. General Questions: 1. Which of these statements seems right?

Faith plus works makes me more righteousness OR Faith alone makes me more righteousness Why?

2. What has Christ freed us from? 3. Which of these do you think the Bible asks?

Can you lose your salvation? OR Were you ever saved?

Why? What does 1 John 2:19 teach us about the doctrine of eternal security?

4. What does this passage teach us about how we can know we are truly saved?

5. Why does adding in any Law to faith alone poison the whole gospel?

6. What does James 2:10 teach us about our ability to keep any of the Law?

7. Why does every part of salvation – including faith – have to come as a gift from God?

8. When we struggle with assurance why is our default position?:

I need to do something to make God love me more – so that drives me to do good works

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What is wrong with this?

9. Why is this statement more biblical?:

I can’t do anything to make God love me more – so that drives me to do good works

10. Discus Calvin’s quote:

Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone. 11. Why can you never compromise on the gospel?

12. What separates the tares from the wheat – in this life and in the next? Application Questions: 1. How would you respond to someone who says doing works should make you

holier? 2. How would you respond to someone who says you can lose your salvation? 3. When you have doubts about your salvation – what do you do?

4. When you struggle with faith and doubt and sin – do you turn to works or to Law?

5. What can you preach to your soul in these tough times?