Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 9
The speaker says true faith is not about “the intensity that we feel” but the worthiness of the object—“not the strength of your faith, but the strength of your God”—yet also says obedience should grow “with an increasing measure of faithfulness”; how do you hold those together without collapsing into either self-reliance (performance) or passivity (no pursuit of obedience)?
Another way to ask: How can faith be about God’s strength, not your feelings, while still calling you to grow in obedience? How do you avoid either trying to earn it or doing nothing?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The speaker holds these together by grounding salvation in God’s strength and promises while still calling believers to real submission that grows over time. You avoid performance by remembering salvation isn’t secured by “intensity” or personal strength, and you avoid passivity by asking whether your heart truly desires obedience and is learning daily.
- He says faith’s validity isn’t the fact we “have it,” but that the “object of our trust… is worthy.”
- “True faith isn’t about the intensity that we feel,” but about “the genuineness of the one in whom we place our trust.”
- Key line: “not the strength of your faith, but the strength of your God.”
- Yet he insists: “there’s no salvation apart from submission to Jesus’s lordship.”
- He acknowledges imperfection: “our submission and obedience… may falter,” but we “should strive to obey him with an increasing measure of faithfulness.”
- He adds that “even a weak faith in an all-powerful God is sufficient,” because salvation is “ultimately about his strength, not ours.”