Is Faithfulness More Important than Faith?

Is there a difference between faith and faithfulness, and am I saved by how faithful I am to God, or simply by faith in Christ? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. At 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. And you can also email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, we'd like to share a prayer request with you. As you may know, Pastor and author Tim Keller has been battling pancreatic cancer. This week he posted on Twitter that his health situation has caused him to seek God and depend more on him. Tim said that last week he finished his sixth round of chemotherapy.

He posted, while there are indeed some side effects, my doctor says I'm tolerating the treatment very well. I have not been seriously debilitated, and I can still do some work and ministry. So if you would, please keep Tim Keller and his family in your prayers. Why don't we just take the opportunity right now to pray for Tim and then also for all of the people who are listening who are going through chemotherapy and fighting cancer right now. Gracious Father in heaven, we do want to pray for Tim Keller. We want to pray for his healing. We ask God that you would sustain him.

Thank you for some of the positive report that came back with some of the tests that were done, but we do pray for your continued sustaining grace. We ask Lord Jesus for your mercy to be poured out upon him, upon his family, and we think also, Lord, of the person listening right now who also is going through a battle with cancer. Would you comfort them? Would you bring healing in their life? And God, would you draw them closer to you in this season that they would seek you like never before as well? And so be with us, be with them, Lord. We look to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Well, let's get to our first question of the day. David contacted us through our Facebook page.

He lives in Nigeria, and he asks this. How do I enter into a relationship with Christ? Hey, thank you for that question, David. You know, the first thing I would want to say is that God is the ultimate pursuer. So when we talk about trying to figure out a way to enter into a relationship with God, you know, I think sometimes we feel like I'm trying to find God or do something to enter into a relationship with God.

Well, God is actually the one who pursued us to have a relationship with us. I remember when I first started walking with the Lord, thinking that coming to faith in Jesus Christ was like the best thing ever, and that I just sort of stumbled upon it. You know, you think about when you're walking down the street and you find a $20 bill or something like that, and you think, oh, this is awesome.

That's sort of how I felt. I thought to myself, I'm so glad that I discovered this, that I stumbled upon this. And I remember having a conversation with an older, wiser woman in the church that I was a part of at that time and sort of expressing this sentiment to her.

I'm so glad that I discovered this. And she just said, you know, Adriel, maybe it's not that you found God, but that God had been pursuing you and brought you to himself. And it just sort of struck me because I realized, well, you know, God is the one who is in control. And so, David, I just want you to know God is the one who pursues us, who pursues you. And the way he did that was by sending his son Jesus into the world so that we might have fellowship with him and with the church. I've been meditating on this lately because I just started preaching through 1 John.

Listen to what John said in 1 John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Isn't that so beautiful? He talks about this great truth, the one who was from the very beginning, who came and was manifested, who we saw and heard and touched. John says he's referring to Jesus Christ. We're proclaiming him to you and the message that he gave to us, we're proclaiming that to you.

Why? So that you might have a relationship with him, so that you might have fellowship with him and with the church. He says our fellowship is with the father and with his son and with the body of Christ, with the people of God. And put another way, you can't have a relationship with Christ and not be united to his church. What's so interesting is the word fellowship there.

I mean, we're thinking about this idea of relationship. It's the word koinonia, which you might have heard before. And one of the emphasis of that word in particular is that there's something shared.

Koinonia is about common fellowship. We share something together. And so you think about this, right? God wants a relationship with us.

He pursued us. But what do we have in common with a holy God? We're sinful, creatures, finite.

God is infinite spirit, holy, pure. How could we possibly have fellowship, a relationship, koinonia with God? Well, it gets at what John was saying there in 1 John 1, verses 1 and 2. It's all about the fact that God, the Son, Jesus, the Word, the eternal Son of God, took on humanity, shared in our humanity, in the Incarnation, so that we might be brought near to God.

God, again, David, pursued you. So how do you have a relationship with Christ? Well, you embrace that reality, the truth of God's Word, the truth of who Jesus is.

You recognize that he pursued you. You trust in him by faith, and you receive that grace, the adoption that he gives to us. One of the ways that some of the ancient Christians talked about this is, and I love this phrase, they said, He who is the Son by nature, that is Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God by nature, made us sons and daughters of God by grace. David, we're adopted into the family of God, given a relationship with the true and the living God through Jesus Christ.

How do you enter into that relationship? It's by receiving Christ, by believing in Jesus Christ. And what an amazing truth it is, as I've already stated, that he's the one who pursued us. He's the one who wanted that relationship with us because he is good and loving, and he sent his Son into the world. Thanks, David, for your question. This is Core Christianity.

If you have a question for us, you can call anytime at 833-843-2673, or you can send us an email at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Brian emailed us, and he said, In the book of Malachi, we read that God told the Israelites to test him in regard to offerings. However, in the books of the law, he told them not to test him. I realize these verses are not part of the same context, but how should we reconcile them? Is there a time when I should test God?

A real practical question. In terms of reconciling, that really is going to come down to context, because the context helps us understand what we're getting at with a particular verse of scripture. We do have two different contexts here. The first, Malachi 3, verse 10, this is what the Lord said, See, in Malachi 3, verse 10, God is saying, Doesn't Jesus reiterate this same principle? He talks about, don't worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, what you're going to put on. This is what the nations of the world are stressed out about.

And, I mean, let's be honest, it's what we oftentimes are stressed out about, too. And Jesus says, And don't you know that your Father is good, that he takes care of his children? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And I think here in Malachi 3, verse 10 is getting at something very similar. Now, that's very different from testing the Lord presumptuously or sinfully. For example, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 16, it says, Now, this is alluding to what happened in Exodus chapter 17, where the people of God tested God by saying, They were grumbling against the Lord, sinful and discontent.

They didn't trust in him. God calls you to trust in him, Brian, to know his word, to rest in his promises, not to presume that you know better than God or to think that God owes you this, that, or the other. And I think that's what I think is so dangerous about movements like the health and wealth movement. You know, those groups, what they really do is they test the Lord in wicked ways by making people think that God promises them something that he doesn't. Prosperity, you know, earthly riches, presuming upon God. God wants you to trust in his word and what his actual promises are in Scripture. Now, let me give you one of them, and just getting back to this idea of giving or the tithe, really more focused on giving under the new covenant. You have this amazing promise given by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 and following. Now, Christians, if you struggle with the idea of giving to the church, and I know a lot of people do, under the idea of tithes and offerings, givings, those kinds of things, and especially because there have been so many abuses, especially in movements like the health and wellness movement, the sort of prosperity gospel movement, I want you to listen to what the Apostle Paul says here in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 and following. For one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

What a promise! And it really isn't about earthly riches, that's not what it's about. God wants you to abound in every good work. That's what matters to the Lord, that's what God calls us to, is love, charity, an abundance of good works, of the fruit of the Spirit, and God loves a cheerful giver. We've said it before, and I've heard many pastors say it, you cannot out-give the Lord. God gave us everything. As I said in the first question, God sent his Son for us. He's provided for our greatest need, the forgiveness of our sins. In the Gospel, through that message, we should be a people of generosity too.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. I'm Bill Meyer, we'll get back to answering your questions in just a moment, but right now we have a question for you. How are you doing? What burdens are you carrying right now? What hardships are you facing at this point in your life? You know, the reason, Bill, we ask that question is because we know that these last several months have not been easy for many people.

These are trying times, to say the least. And if you find yourself losing sleep, waking up anxious, or wondering if God has forgotten you, then we have a resource that can help. Christ in Calamity by Harold Sankbeil is full of the good news of God's faithfulness to us in Christ.

The Lord doesn't always stop the storms of life, but he does promise to be a shelter in those storms. To take advantage of this offer, head over to corechristianity.com slash offers. You can reserve your copy today for a donation of any amount. Just head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. You can also call us at 833-843-2673 for help getting any of our offers.

That's 833 the core. Let's get to another question. This one came in through our Instagram account. Quinn posted, in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, the master tells his two faithful servants, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. I've always heard our salvation is through faith, like trust, but when I read these words, it almost sounds like a reward for faithfulness. Is faith the same as faithfulness?

Is our faithfulness more important than our faith? How should we understand this parable? Yeah. Well, the parable highlights that what we do in life matters, that God is going to commend us for our faithfulness to him on the last day.

We've talked about this on the program before, this idea of rewards. Now, I mean, exactly what that's going to look like. No eye has seen, nor ear heard.

I mean, it's just, I can't really imagine. I know that when we stand before the Lord and the Lord commends us, it's going to be awesome. It's going to be like this great awards ceremony, but faith and faithfulness are not the same thing. The faith is a gift given to us by God. Paul makes this absolutely clear in Ephesians chapter two, by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Now by faith, we trust in Christ resting in his work on our behalf in order to save us. Faith causes us to look outside of ourselves and to lay a hold of Jesus.

It's extrospective, we might say. You know, my favorite example of faith in the New Testament is the woman who had the issue of blood in Mark chapter five. The text tells us in Mark chapter five that for 12 years, she suffered from a hemorrhage.

I mean, talk about suffering, misery, just years and years and years. And while she had gone to doctor after doctor, spending all the money that she had until she was completely broke, she had only grown worse. She's given everything, trying to fix this problem. And she's really at the end of her rope and she hears that Jesus is in town. And she went to see him and she thought to herself, if I can just grab a hold of Jesus's garment, I'll get better.

Faith is sort of audacious. This woman, she would have been unclean under the Levitical law, an outcast, if you will, in society because of this issue of blood. She wouldn't have been able to be a part of the temple worship. People who touched her or that she came into contact with, they too would be considered unclean.

You think about with everything that's gone on with coronavirus, you know, how cautious people are being washing, not wanting to be around someone who is infected. Well, this woman has coronavirus, we might say, and yet she goes into this crowd because she thinks to herself, my only hope is Jesus. And she grabs a hold of Jesus's robe and Jesus says to her at the end of that beautiful passage in Mark 5, he says to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. There it is, faith. Your faith has made you well.

Go in peace and be healed of your disease. And what a picture of faith she gives us. Faith is like an empty hand that clings to Jesus. Like the woman, we turn away from trying to solve the problem ourselves. Maybe we've tried for years and years and years and things have only got worse.

They haven't gotten any better. And we're at the end of our rope and we say, help Jesus, save me. And we look to him by faith like this woman, we cling to him, we lay hold of him. That's what faith is. It's an empty hand that lays hold of Jesus. It's not about what we're doing. It's not my life of faithfulness that causes God to say to me, okay, I love you, I accept you, you're forgiven because you've been faithful enough to me.

What did this woman do? She just grabbed a hold of Jesus. That's what faith is. Are you clinging to him? Grab a hold of him by faith and receive his grace, his mercy, his healing.

Quinn, thank you so much for your question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez and Damien posted this on our Twitter account. He says, why do Christians have an Old Testament in their Bibles if we're supposed to live according to the New Testament? Yeah, I mean, it's the story of redemption. The Bible is not just a list of ways for us to live in this sort of, you know, the Old Testament. Well, that was for them and how they lived back then. Now the New Testament is for us and how we live right now.

It's the focus is not on how we live even per se. That's not the focus of the scriptures. There are many people who when they think about Christianity, they assume that that's what Christianity is all about.

It's a list of rules for me to follow. That's the good news of the gospel. I've asked people, what's the gospel? And they've responded by saying, keep the commandments. Love God, right? I mean, isn't love God, love your neighbor as yourself. Isn't that the good news of Christianity?

Well, actually, not really. That's an implication of the good news of Christianity. That is good. Loving your neighbor, loving God. We call people to that because God calls us to that. But the essence of the Christian faith, what we get in the Old and New Testaments is the story of redemption, what God has accomplished in Christ to redeem us. And everything that we have in the Old Testament is leading us to that.

It's building up to that. It's giving us, Damian, these different facets and pictures of the work of Jesus Christ. You think of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant in the temple, blood sacrifice, animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. You think about the priests helping the people to enter into God's presence. You think about the kings in Israel.

You had some good ones, you had some not so good ones, but they were ruling the people of Israel seeking to provide justice, goodness, to lead well. You think about the promises made to Abraham. All of these things are pointing us forward to Jesus, the ultimate prophet, priest, king who rules righteously, who's bringing about his perfect kingdom of justice in the world today.

It really is so amazing. And so why do we have the Old Testament? Well, the Old Testament is part of the story of God, and we learn so much about who God is and what he's accomplished for humanity through the Old Testament. Not just God as Creator, but even God as the Redeemer, sending his Son into the world. And the promises that we have of that great reality, of that great hope throughout the Old Testament, beginning as early as Genesis 3.15, where God promised that the seed of the woman, this child that would be born, would crush the head of the serpent.

And over and over again, you have promises like that. You think of Isaiah chapter 9. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. Jesus is this great king, this great ruler, who dealt with our sins and whose kingdom is coming now. But above all else, what we see in the Bible is the story of redemption, God's story, and how we're folded into it by faith in Jesus Christ. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We have time for one more question. This is from Matthew, who posted on our website at corechristianity.com slash radio.

Matthew says, I love your podcast. Thanks so much for the clarity you have on all the questions. Recently, I've been thinking about forgiveness and when it should be implemented. Should we as Christians forgive people before they ask or wait until they ask for it? Sometimes people never ask for forgiveness. I wanted to know your thoughts on this. Thank you.

Yeah, such an important question and a very practical question. Matthew, as Christians, we are called to forgive everyone, whether they come to us and ask for forgiveness or not. No, we want to, from the heart, forgive, to extend grace. We can only do that through the forgiveness that we've received in Jesus Christ. It's really hard when we focus on the sins of others and what they've done against us.

If we're focusing on that, it's going to be really hard to forgive. But if you remember that you too are a sinner and that God has been merciful to you and that the ways in which you've sinned against God, holy, perfect, pure, good as he is, are worse than, more heinous than the way other people sin against us. And yet God has still forgiven us. Then we can extend forgiveness to others. Now, that's not to downplay the horrible things that people do and maybe have done to you, Matthew.

It's not that their offenses are a small thing. It's just that our sins in the sight of God are great and yet God forgives us. Now, forgiving someone is different than reconciling. See, you can forgive someone even if they don't ask for your forgiveness, but you cannot reconcile with them unless they recognize that they've sinned, unless they pursue forgiveness, unless they admit, I've sinned against you, please forgive me. And so we're called to forgive everyone and we're called to pursue reconciliation, but you're not always going to be able to find reconciliation. There are times where someone will sin against you and you've done everything that you can to reconcile.

They want nothing to do with it. Well, you extend forgiveness and pray for reconciliation. At the heart of all of this is the gospel. The reason we can extend forgiveness is because we have been forgiven in Jesus Christ. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.