“What is true faith? True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel, that God has freely granted, not only to others but to me also, forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ’s merit.”
I want you to imagine a man who loves his wife but doesn’t want to know much about her. He delights in her, but he isn’t interested in much of what she has to say. She is his everything, but he doesn’t care to hear about what she’s done with her day. He is consumed with passion for her, but he is rather indifferent to who she is. I want you to imagine such a man.
If you can imagine that man, you can easily a man saying, “I love Jesus, but I don’t like doctrine,” That statement is really saying, “I love Jesus, but I don’t want to know about Jesus.”
Fill in this blank in your mind, “I love Jesus because…” Whatever came after the word “because” is doctrine. If you love Jesus because he died for you, you are talking about the doctrine of the atonement. If you love the Son of God because he became like you so that you could become like him, you are talking about the doctrine of the incarnation. If you love Jesus, you love him for reasons and these reasons are what is called doctrine. You love him because you know about him.
You can’t love anyone without knowing about them. You can’t have what the Bible calls faith without knowing about God. You can’t have faith in a God you do not know. As Paul put it, “How can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” To have faith in God, you need to know about God.
Faith involves knowledge. There is no such thing as a man who loves his wife but knows nothing about her and wants to know nothing about her. There is no such thing as a Christian who knows nothing about Jesus and wants to know nothing about Jesus. Faith involves knowledge. That is the claim of this sermon: faith involves knowledge.
We will study this in two points. First: a sure knowledge. Second: necessary knowledge.
First: a sure knowledge. The Catechism’s definition of faith involves two components: knowledge and trust. “True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust.”
Today we focus on knowledge. Faith cannot be reduced to knowledge, but it must include knowledge. Without knowledge, faith becomes mere sentimentalism. Imagine a Christian who knows nothing about Christ. That isn’t faith. “True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust,” as the Catechism puts it.
Today we are focusing our attention on knowledge. Now how do you know what you know? How do you know what I’m saying right now? How do you know where you are right now? How do you know there is such a place as Hong Kong?
Well, you know what I’m saying because you can hear. You know where you are because you can see. You use your senses to know the world around you. How do you know there is such a place as Hong Kong?
I have never been to Hong Kong, but I believe there is a Hong Kong. I have a friend who is a pastor in Hong Kong. I trust that he tells me the truth when he tells me about his city. I don’t need to see Hong Kong to believe it exists. I have the testimony of my friend. I have Google. I have news articles and Hong Kong has been all over the news. Lately, the idea that there is some vast conspiracy concocted to convince me there is such a place as Hong Kong is ludicrous for so many reasons. I have no reason to doubt there is such a place. This line of thinking comes from George Bethune who said when, “testimony is brought before us, we exercise our judgment respecting the witnesses, determining whether they can be relied on for [truthfulness] and intelligence.”
Now Scripture tells you much that is beyond your senses. It tells you about the origin of creation. You weren’t there to see creation happen, but Scripture gives you an account of it. Scripture tells you about the resurrection of Jesus. You weren’t there with Thomas to put your hand in Jesus’ side. Now you need to decide if you believe Scripture is a reliable witness on these matters just like I need to decide if my friend is a reliable witness regarding Hong Kong. Addressing this matter was the burden of our study a few weeks ago on how we come to know our misery and deliverance.
The burden for this study tonight is to show you that faith involves knowing what Scripture has revealed. To be saved from sin, you must believe certain truths of Scripture. Faith involves knowledge. Scripture reveals this knowledge.
Now some people have cognitive difficulties which impairs this knowledge. For of any number of reasons, they cannot think coherently enough to know what must known in order to be saved. This is where we do well to remember that we are not saved by faith. We are saved by grace through faith. God is able to save those who are unable to have faith. God is able to save those who cannot know. We say with Abraham, “will not the judge of all the world do right?”
Now if you have the knowledge found in Scripture, you must conform your thinking to that knowledge. Growing up I worked with my dad who is a bricklayer. As he laid the brick, he would check each row with his level. He wanted to make certain that they were properly laid. If they weren’t level, the next course of brick would be even less level, and the problem would compound. Scripture is a level for measuring truth. You measure what you think against what the Bible says to see if you are right. You measure what you think about the purpose of life, about who you are, about morality, about relationships, and a hundred other topics—you measure them against Scripture to see where you need to change.
I never saw my dad attempt to change his level to fit a course of brick. He always changed the course of brick to fit the level. That is how it is to work with Scripture. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
To have true faith, or faith which actually is faith, you must believe that the Scriptures tell the truth. That should be obvious. If you don’t believe the Scriptures tell the truth, why would you believe what they tell you about Jesus? Why would you believe what they tell you about the possibility of forgiveness? Why would you believe what they tell you about reasons for hope? You will measure your thoughts against something. People with true faith measure their thoughts against Scripture.
This is why Paul could write letters to groups of Christians expecting these people to change their behavior as a result of encountering the truth. Paul expected what every preacher expects – that people with true faith have a sure knowledge by which they hold as true all that God has revealed to them in Scripture. As Paul told the Thessalonians, “we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”
Faith involves knowledge and this knowledge is revealed in Scripture. We take Scripture as our benchmark of truth. Think of it this way: just because something is in the Bible doesn’t make it true; rather, the only reason anything is in the Bible is because it is true. The story of the virgin birth isn’t a far-fetched story that people must swallow because, after all, it is written in the Bible; rather, the only reason the story of the virgin birth was included in the Bible is because that is the way that it happened. Just because something is in the Bible doesn’t make it true; rather, the only reason anything is in the Bible is because it is true. That is why everything that is in the Bible is true.
Christians are not Bible-people because they simply happen to agree with all of Scripture. No one simply happens to agree with all of Scripture. If that were the case, Scripture wouldn’t have needed to be revealed. We must come to agree with it. Scripture exists to change our thinking. “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Or as Luther put it, “the Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”
Has the Bible laid hold of you? Another way of asking that question is, ‘do you stand in judgment of Scripture or does Scripture stand in judgment of you?’ Do you happen to affirm certain truths of the Bible because you happen to agree with them or do you recognize that you, like Paul, are on a lifelong journey of, “taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ”?
Faith involves knowledge. It involves affirming what is revealed in God’s word. Now if you have this faith, you will find yourself believing certain truths you don’t entirely understand. St. Anslem spoke of this as, “faith seeking understanding.” You believe that you are made in the image of God because Scripture reveals you to be such, but you don’t entirely understand all that means and neither do I. You understand a bit. You understand that you have an innate dignity. You understand that you and everyone made in the image of God is worthy of respect. You understand that we are eternal. You understand some of what it means to be made in the image of God, but you are still trying to understand this truth that you believe. Your faith is seeking understanding.
This is a progressive process meaning that if the Bible has laid hold of you, it is increasingly laying hold of you. You are “being transformed by the renewing of your mind”.
As you progress in your knowledge of Scripture, you will find yourself more certain of the truthfulness of Scripture. Just as there is a difference between the words “I love you,” when spoken at a wedding and when spoken at a fiftieth anniversary party, so there is a difference between the words, “I believe the Bible is the word of God,” when spoken at a profession of faith and when spoken fifty years later. They are the same words and they are just as sincere but there is a new depth that is gained only by time and experience.
Peter spoke about this saying, “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns.” That word was more fully confirmed in Peter’s mind after the mount of transfiguration. Peter believed God’s word was true before he met Jesus but somehow after those three years, Scripture was more true just as a man saying, “I love you,” to his wife is real on his wedding day but it is somehow more real at the fiftieth anniversary.
So, we have seen that faith involves knowledge and that this knowledge is revealed in Scripture. How much, then, does a man need to know to be saved? That is the burden of our second point: necessary knowledge.
There is a right way and a wrong way to ask that question ‘how much does a man need to know to be saved?’ If you are wondering how much a man must know to be saved because you want to know the minimum and only the bare minimum, you are asking the question wrongly. You are behaving like a husband who wants to know how little can know about his wife and still have a functional marriage.
It is also possible that you are wondering how much knowledge it takes to be saved because you tend to measure a Christian by, and only by, his knowledge. Perhaps your ideal church would be one in which every member was gifted to teach because you are gifted to teach. You need to hear 1 Corinthians 12, in which Paul asks, “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”
Don’t judge others by your gifting. You might be gifted to teach and so have an insatiable desire for knowledge. Others are gifted to serve and so find themselves regularly at Justice for All. They may spend more time serving than you spend studying. True faith does involve knowledge, but don’t try to turn everyone into yourself. You are gifted to do what you are called to do. Others are gifted to do what they are called to do. Knowledge is part of faith but when you rank your knowledge against others, you need Paul’s reminder that, “knowledge puffs up; love builds up.”
There are wrong ways to ask the question, “how much knowledge does it take to be saved?” There is, however, a right way to ask that question. There must be a right way to ask that question because faith involves knowledge and so there must be some minimal threshold of knowledge that a man must have to be saved.
If you don’t know the benchmark needed to be saved, you will forever be wondering if you know enough. Can a man be saved without knowing anything about Abraham? Can a woman who doesn’t understand what it means for Jesus to be the son of David be saved unto eternal life? Can a child who can’t explain the similarities and differences between Moses and Jesus be considered a born-again Christian? How much does a man need to know to be saved?
There is no one better to ask than Jesus. He told the Jews, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
Jesus told the Jews that he was what was necessary to know. You need to know Jesus and to know Jesus you need to know about Jesus. The missionary Paul told the churches what was necessary to know about Jesus in order to know Jesus. He said that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” To be saved, you need to know that Jesus is God and you need to know that he died for your sins. To know Jesus, you must know that he is God. To know Jesus, you must know that he died for sinners and that you are a sinner. That is the bare minimum a man must know to be saved. “A thorough knowledge of all that is taught in the Word is [not] absolutely necessary to saving faith, for the Christian is born unto eternal life [like] a little child,” as George Bethune puts it.
This bare minimum is sufficient knowledge to know Christ, and you must know Christ; merely knowing about Christ will not do. No one has ever been saved by doctrine. People are saved by Jesus. “I may know all the doctrines of the Bible,” said Charles Spurgeon, “but unless I know Christ, there is not one of them that can save me.” The Heidelberg Catechism didn’t die for your sins. The Heidelberg Catechism does, however, tell you all about the one who did die for your sins.
You might be here this evening with next to no knowledge of Scripture. You know that you wouldn’t stand a chance in Bible Trivia. You don’t know which king of Israel rode his chariot like a madman. You don’t know which book of the Bible makes no mention of God, but you do know Christ. You know that he is God. You know that he died for sinners and that you are a sinner. You have not only been exposed to this knowledge, but you believe it. You know what is necessary to be saved.
It is also possible that you know Scripture quite well but are unsaved. You know that Jehu was the king who rode his chariot like a madman. You know that Esther is the book of the Bible that makes no mention of God. You can know all of that and more and still be dead in your sin. You can know that the Bible teaches that Jesus is God and remain in your sin. You can know that the Bible teaches that Jesus died for sinners and remain in your sin. You can have perfect theology and be damned. “You believe that God is one?” asks James. “Good. Even the demons believe that, and shudder.”
You can know without belonging. Knowledge is part of faith, but this knowledge isn’t all of faith. You must believe what you know. You must have skin in the game. You know that the Bible says that the wages of sin is death? Good. Do you know that the wages of your sin is death? You know that Jesus said that a man must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven? Good. Have you been born again?
Do you know about Jesus? Good. Do you know Jesus? There is a world of difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. You can’t know Jesus without knowing about Jesus, but it is quite possible to know about Jesus without knowing him. Don’t settle for simply knowing about Jesus. Know him. Know God. “This is eternal life,” said Jesus, “that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” That is true faith and you either have it or you don’t. If you don’t, you can. Believe in the Son of God who came to save sinners. He invites you to know him. He invites you to know about him. Amen.