Is Faithfulness More Important than Faith?

Episode 527 Show Notes

From the Show

Faith and faithfulness are not the same things. Faith is a gift, given to us by God…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 lay hold of Jesus.

Like the woman [with a flow of blood for 12 years], we turn away from trying to solve the problem ourselves…It’s not about what we are doing. It’s not about my life of faithfulness that causes God to say to me, “Okay, I love you, I accept you, you’ve been forgiven because you’ve been faithful enough to me.” I mean, what did this woman do? She grabbed ahold of Jesus. Faith is like an empty hand that clings to Jesus.

–Adriel Sanchez

Questions in this Episode

1. How do I enter into a relationship with Christ?

2. 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 that these verses are not part of the same context, but how should we reconcile them? Is there a time when I should test God?

3. 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?

4. Why do Christians have an Old Testament in their Bibles if we’re supposed to live according to the New Testament?

5. Recently I have 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.