Theology G (Salvation Applied) Flashcards
What is saving faith? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
“Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.”
- WSC86
WCF 13.1- The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word by which also, and by the administration of the
sacraments, and prayer, it is increased and strengthened.
John 1.12- “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…”
John 3.16- “ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life…”
Philippians 3.8-9- “I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
Galatians 2.15-16- “man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be
justified.
Where does saving faith come from? Defend your answers with Scripture proofs.
Saving faith is worked in the heart by the Holy Spirit and the word of God.
2 Thessalonians 2.13 “But we ought to thank God for you brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning
God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”
Ephesians 2.8-9 “for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no
one can boast.”
What does saving faith believe? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
Believes whatever is taught in Scripture.
WCF 13.2 “By this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein; and
acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.”
John 5.24- “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed
over from death to life.”
Romans 10.9- “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.”
Is all faith alike? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
No, there are degrees of weak and strong; saving and non-saving faith.
This faith is different, weak and strong; may be often and many ways assailed, and weakened, but gets the victory;
growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance, through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our
faith.- WCF 13.3
Hebrews 5.13-14- “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquatinted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Matthew 6.30- “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more
clothe you, O you of little faith.”
James 2.19- “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder.”
Define “repentance”. Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
“Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it, unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.” WSC 87
Acts 2.37-38 “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what
shall we do? Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
sins.”
Joel 2.13-14 “Even now, declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend
your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”
In what sense is repentance “necessary”? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
Repentance is necessary in that no sinner may expect pardon without it.
WCF 15.3 “Although repentance is not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God’s free grace in Christ; it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon
without it.
Luke 13.3 “I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Acts 17.30-31 “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he
will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.
How ought we to confess our sins? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
Specifically in public or private
WCF 15.5 Men ought not content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man’s duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins,
particularly.
WCF 15.6 As every man is bound to make private confession of his sins to God, praying for the pardon thereof; upon which, and the forsaking of them, he shall find mercy; so, he that scandalizes his brother, or the church of Christ, ought to be willing, by public or private confession, and sorrow for his sin, to declare his repentance to those that are offended, who are thereupon to be reconciled to him, and in love to receive him.
Luke 19.8- But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
Proverbs 28.13 “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
1 John 1.9 “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
What are good works? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
“Good works are only such as God has commanded in His Holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention.”- WCF 16.1
Micah 6.8- He has showed you, O Man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. To act justly and to love mercy and to
walk humbly with your God.
Hebrews 13.20-21- May the God of Peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
What is the relation of good works to faith? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
WCF 16.2 These good works, done in obedience to God’s commandments, are the fruit and evidences of a true and lively faith: and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of
the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that, having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life.
James 2.18,22 But someone will say, You have faith but I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
Ephsians 2.8-10- For we are saved by grace, through faith and this is not of ourselves, it is a gift from God. We are God’s
workmanship, created to do good works, which were prepared in advance for us.
Can our good works save us? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
NO.
“We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin, or eternal life at the hand of God, by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come; and the infinite distance that is between us and God, whom, by them, we can neither profit, nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins, but when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty, and are unprofitable servants: and because as they are good, they proceed from His Spirit; and as they are wrought by us, they are defiled, and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection, that they cannot endure the severity of God’s judgment.” -WCF 16.5
Romans 3.20- Therefore no will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Ephesians 2.8-9 for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.
Titus 3.4-5 But when the kindness and love of God our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
Can unbelievers do good works? Defend your answers with Scripture proofs.
No, though unbelievers might do that which is perceived by fellow man to be good (and even commanded by God), the unbelievers heart is so impure as that nothing untainted by sin may proceed from them, and therefore nothing which God considers good.
“Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands; and of good use both to themselves and others: yet, because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word; nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful, and cannot please God, or make a man meet to receive grace from God: and yet, their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God.”- WCF 16.7
Genesis 6.5- The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Jeremiah 17.9- The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Romans 3.10-12 There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Romans 8.7,8 …The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
Ephesians 2.1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of the sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath.
Define and defend (including Scripture proofs) the doctrine of “perseverance”.
WCF 17.1- They, whom God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly preserve therein to the end, and be eternally saved.
John 6.44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day.
John 10.28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
Philippians 1.6 …being confident of this, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Romans 8.29-30 For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
1 John 2.19 they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Can a saved person later be eternally lost? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
NO!
WLC #79 True believers, by reason of the unchangeable love of God, and his decree and covenant to give them perseverance, their inseparable union with Christ, his continual intercession for them, and the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
1 John 2.19 they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
John 10.28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand
John 6.44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day
Philippians 1.6 …being confident of this, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Romans 8.29-30 For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
On what does a believer’s persevering depend? Defend with Scripture proofs.
The immutability of God’s free election of them in Christ.
WCF 17.2 This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of God’s free election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, the abiding of the Spirit, and the seed of God with them, and the nature of the covenant of grace: from all which arises also the certainty and infallibility thereof.
John 10.28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand
John 6.44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day
Philippians 1.6 …being confident of this, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Can a person be sure he is saved? Defend your answer with Scripture proofs.
Yes,
“Such as truly believe in Christ, and endeavor to walk in all good conscience before him, may without extraordinary revelation, by faith grounded upon the truth of God’s promises, and only by the Spirit enabling them to discern in themselves those graces to which the promises of life are made, and bearing witness with their spirits that they are the children of God, be infallibly assured that they are in the estate of grace, and shall persevere therein unto salvation” - WLC #80
1 John 5.13- I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Romans 8.16- The Spirit himself testifies with your spirit that we are God’s children.
