You can believe God's promises and be lost.

It is possible to believe God's promises, have confidence in salvation, and yet be lost forever.

To profess Christianity with false confidence

This possibility is emphasized in Matthew 7:22: «Many will say to me in that day, »Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not do many miracles in your name?«» These people believed they had a relationship with Christ. They called Him “Lord” and used supernatural power in His name.

Perhaps they had even more «assurance of salvation» than many who struggle today (and are truly saved) because supernatural power was passing through their hands. So when they read the promise, «I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you» (Isa. 1:5), they believed that it applied to them. But it is not so.

That is why they will be shocked when Jesus tells them, «I never knew you! Depart from me, you who work lawlessness!» (Matt. 7:23). They are lost. But they thought they were saved.

Now Jesus is saying that their life of sin already showed that they were lost. But I want to highlight another aspect of their false confidence. I want to know what their false confidence tells us about how to really believe in the promise of God.

We believe that the Bible teaches us that we «for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law» (Rom. 3:28). So when Jesus rejects them because they «worked lawlessness,» we understand that the much deeper problem is defective faith. If we are condemned for our sinful actions at the final judgment, it will be because they are evidence of a false faith.

Saving faith and dead faith

So my question is: if we can believe at least some of God's promises, like these people, and still be lost, what makes faith in the promises true saving faith?

«"It is possible to believe God's promises, to have confidence in salvation, and yet be lost forever.".

Charles Hodge gives us a clue. In 1841, Hodge wrote a short, popular book on the Christian life called The Way of Life. In Hodge’s chapter on «Faith,» he shows that the Bible uses the word faith for various states of consciousness, including the state of deadness. «For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also» (James 2:26).

So what distinguishes dead faith from saving faith? I am not asking how these two faiths prove their difference. That is James’s point (and Jesus’ point in Matt. 7:21–23). They prove their difference by their fruits. I am asking something else: how do they differ in their essence? What is the true experience of faith and what is the false experience of faith?

Here is what Hodge says: "We may believe the testimony of those whose integrity and judgment we trust, that a man of whom we know nothing is of great moral excellence. But if we see his excellence for ourselves, we believe for other reasons and in a different way.".

This «other way» is what makes faith true, saving faith.

There is nothing wrong with believing in Christ or in His promises based on the testimony of others. In fact, that is how we all came to faith. We relied on the testimony of the apostles and prophets. But being convinced that the goodness, reliability, and beauty of Christ and His promises are factual is not saving faith.

That is why full Christians will be shocked on the last day when they hear from Jesus, «I never knew you.» They will deny, «Lord! Lord!» Certainly, believing that Christ and His promises are true, based on testimony, is a necessary part of faith. But it is not the saving essence of faith.

Spiritual awareness of truth

What makes faith saving is «another way» of believing, which comes from a different (not alternative or contradictory) way of perceiving the reality we believe in. This other way is what Hodge calls «spiritual awareness of truth.» He says, «It is faith that is based on the Holy Spirit’s revelation of the perfection, beauty, and correspondence of truth… It comes from a spiritual awareness of truth, or from the witness of the Spirit with the truth in our hearts.».

«"Being convinced that something is true is not the same as being aware of the beauty and value of truth.".

To illustrate this kind of spiritual awareness, which is an essential part of saving faith, Hodge cites three texts:

• Luke 10:21: God «has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight.» Both the wise and the babes hear the same testimonies and look at the same evidence. But there is a difference. Jesus says that this difference is what God has «revealed.» In other words, it goes beyond what we see with our physical eyes and hear with our physical ears.
• Matthew 16:17: «And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.» Many men have seen what Simon Peter saw, but they have not seen «the Christ, the Son of the living God.» This vision is something different.
• 2 Corinthians 4:6: «For God, who said, »Let light shine out of darkness,« has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.» There is a knowledge of the glory of God in the gospel that is different from believing facts or even believing that facts will save us. There is what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 4:4: “in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine.” This is not physical light. It is beauty seen with the eyes of the heart.

In other words, while it is important to use reason and feeling to hear, see, and interpret the embodied, inspired, human testimony of truth, yet to be convinced by reason that something is true is not the same as to perceive the beauty and value of truth. And without this, our conviction may be no more than the devil’s vain assurance that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He «believes» it too. But he sees nothing in it that is beautiful, valuable, or eminently suited to the accomplishment of good and holy purposes.

What does it mean to believe the promises?

What does this reality mean for our conviction that faith in God’s promises is central to saving, sanctifying faith? Here is my argument in «Future Grace»: Saving faith—which also sanctifies—is not only looking back to the foundation of faith in the work of Jesus. Saving faith is also looking forward in the confidence that the future grace that Christ has purchased will actually be realized—for the world and for me.

«"Saving faith in the promises of God involves spiritual satisfaction with the God of promises.".

But now we see that more needs to be said about this future-oriented faith. We now understand that it must include a spiritual perception of the beauty of God and His plan in the fulfillment of these promises—a beauty that we will fully enjoy when the promises are fulfilled.

In other words, saving faith in God's promises includes a spiritual satisfaction with God of those promises. I do not mean to exaggerate. I only say that saving faith must include this satisfaction. Satisfaction with God's glory is not all that faith is. But without it faith is dead.

Defining faith as peace is not enough

It is not enough to say that faith in God’s promises is peace and confidence in God and His help. We must clarify the spiritual nature of this peace and confidence, to distinguish it from the deceptive «peace» of Matthew 7:22. Those who profess Christianity have a kind of «peace» in God’s security. What we must say about peace is that to be a saving peace, it must include not only a sense of safety from hell but also a sense of delight in God’s beauty (Ps. 16:11). We are at peace in security and in sweetness.

This pleasure is absent from the hearts of those who call themselves Christians in Matthew 7:22. If the pleasure of God Himself had been in their hearts, they would have rejoiced here on earth in the virtues of God, to which their future pleasure points. But instead they were "workers of lawlessness.".

Consequences for overcoming sin

This reality is of great importance. It means that it is not only the security of the promises that frees us from motives for sin; it is also the heart’s delight in the sweetness of God in the promises. When we perceive and enjoy the spiritual beauty of what is promised, we are not only freed from the greed and fear that motivate most sins, but we also shape our values by what we value in the promises (1 John 3:3).

This influence was absent from those who professed Christianity in Matthew 7:22, and that is why their behavior was not in accordance with God's will. They loved power and rejoiced in the fact that God gave them power. But they did not love God.

Another way of saying this is that in all acts of saving faith the Holy Spirit empowers us not only with the perception and confirmation of factual truth, but also with the awareness and acceptance of spiritual beauty. This «acceptance of spiritual beauty» is the very core of saving faith. And this acceptance deeply shapes our lives and will result in «well done, good and faithful servant» at the last day.