Sermon: Is Personal Faith in Jesus a Western Heresy?

10/4/09
Is personal faith in Jesus a Western Heresy?
Romans 10:9-13 – That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."


In a recent newspaper article, the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, told delegates to the group’s triennial meeting in Anaheim, California, that the overarching connection to the problems facing the Episcopalians has to do with the “great western heresy – that WE CAN BE SAVED AS INDIVIDUALS, THAT ANY OF US ALONE CAN BE IN RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD…That individualistic focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my word sin the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of being.”

The article basically says that we cant have a personal relationship with Christ.
What does Scripture teach about a personal faith in Jesus Christ?

• God knows us like no one else knows us, and He still loves us
• He died for us (John 3: 16), there must be something in me worth dying for
• Because Christ came to earth, flesh and blood, it angers people (reject idea)
• The Episcopal church is basically a form from the Anglican church, hence the Catholic church
• They have 2 Sacraments (which are just symbols that convey grace) (grace from God is conveyed to you if you do them) – these are two necessaries
o Holy baptism
o Lord’s Supper
• Comes from western Catholic church
• Catholic means “universal”
• Psalm 51:5 – Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
o If a child is conceived in sin, the church felt that they had to do something, so they baptize as a sacrament, not a person’s confession
o Since Adam sinned, everybody who came after Adam received that trait, DNA, someway physically that DNA passed and the person became a sinner
o Early fathers decided to baptize, a sacrament, into the life of child, so the child can be considered “child of God”
• More authoritive than Scripture
• They believe in traditions more than the authority of Scripture
• Romans 10:9-13 – says to confess with the mouth, believe with your and then you are saved
• Justified (Declared not guilty) and being saved (rescued from eternal hell) is a theological belief
• Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved

I. There are two elements to personal faith
• First: Belief
• A fetus cannot believe
• Kids have trouble believing
• Romans 10:9, 10:10
• John 5:24
• John 6:40
• John 11:25 – He who believes will live even though he dies
• Death, burial, and resurrection provides our justification
• Belief is personal, no one else can believe for you
• Romans 6:5-10 – if we believe, then we a have a “personal” relationship with Christ
• Galatians 2:15-16 – justified in faith in Christ, not by observing the law
• Saved by faith, not by the laws or works, so its personal
• One element is belief
• Second: Confession
• Romans 10:9 – confess, then saved
• Romans 10:10-11, 10:13
• If you confess with your mouth then you are saved
• Publicly confess, by that confession, are joined by the church (referring to marriage)
• You say your prayer, you ask Christ, publicly say that you want Him to be your savior
• Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame
• You also need to confess

II. Personal faith is an individual experience
• Parents cant confess for kids
• No teaching in all Scripture where a parent believes and confesses for kids
• Presbyterians sprinkle infants to bring them into church
o because they believe that you are predestined to be saved
o baptism confirms you are predestined to be saved
• Grace of God that goes before the child
• Before child can profess faith, the Grace of God acts (John Calvin)
• Wesley: kept tradition of sprinkling the infants
• Symbol becomes vehicle of grace
• Kids aren’t sinners from birth
• Romans 5:12 –Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
o Because Adam sinned, we have same tendency
o Because all sinned
o Death may have entered world through Adam, but you are a sinner only when you sin
• Matthew 18:10 – God takes care of little children unlike anyone else
• Matthew 18:14 – God takes care of those who are incapable of helping or believing for themselves
• Martin Luther protested teaching of Catholic Church, but never broke off the sprinkling of Baptism (accommodates himself)
• Romans 10:9 (singular) (personal, not saved as a group)
• Romans 10:10, 11 (Singular)
• Romans 10:13
• John 3:16 (whoever)
• Acts 8:34-36 (not the act of church, act of individual)
• Luke 12:8 (whoever)
• Galatians 1:1 (sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father)
• Paul did not worry about being sanctioned by the church, that he had a personal relationship with God

Is personal faith a western heresy? Absolutely not! Personal faith is a sound biblical teaching stressed by Jesus himself. The faith of the New Testament is a personal faith where each person must make a decision for himself or herself whether Jesus died for his or her sins.

That’s what makes you a follower of Christ or unbeliever, No need for symbols, can happen
Phil Linerberger