Albert N. Martin

True faith in Christ will always lead to and be accompanied by love to the Person of Christ. The Scriptures are very clear in declaring to us the unique place of faith as the sole means by which we appropriate and receive Christ and all the salvation that’s in Him. We must never, never budge from a clear understanding that faith is assigned a unique place.

We are never said that we are saved by means of repentance, by means of self-denial, by means of love. We are always said to be saved by the instrumentality of faith.

Now, if that faith is real it will be accompanied by repentance, yes. As we shall see, if it’s real it will issue in and be accompanied by love, but we must never, never, never, never allow ourselves to move away from the great watchwords of the Reformation: our salvation is by grace alone, in Christ alone, and received by faith alone. I don’t know how to state the matter more clearly than I’ve stated it.

However, the same Bible which teaches this, namely that we are saved by grace alone, by Christ alone, through faith alone, teaches with equal clarity that the faith which lays ahold of Christ and His salvation is a faith in Christ that will always lead to and be accompanied by love to the Person of Christ. So that wherever there is a true Believer in Christ you will find a genuine lover of Christ.

[There are] several texts that make this unmistakably clear.

1 Peter 1, and verse 8. Peter, seeking to encourage these suffering saints—we back up to verse 6—having set before them the glory of the salvation that yet awaits them, their marvelous inheritance, he says:

Wherein [that is, in this great reality] ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, [now, notice] whom [and that refers to Jesus Christ] having not seen you love; on whom, though you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

When Peter writes to God’s people, indicrimanantly he identifies them as elect sojourners of the dispersion, elect according to God’s foreknowledge in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood. He gives these generic descriptions of all the believers in Asia Minor. Now he says of all those true believers these two things are joined: they love an unseen Christ, they believe on an unseen Christ. He assumes that wherever there was true belief in Christ there was genuine love for Christ.

He is not saying: “Whom, not having seen you ought to love, you will eventually come to love. Shame on you if you don’t love him!” He says, “No. Whom you have not seen you are loving. On whom, though you see Him not, yet believing.” They believe on Christ! Christ is the terminus of their faith; and the Christ on whom they believe is the Christ whom they love.

I want you to look at two texts that are often overlooked as kind of tucked away and little throwaways at the end of two of Paul’s epistles.

First of all in 1 Corinthians 16. We looked at this a couple of weeks ago with respect to the presence of those words, or that word, maranatha.

Now I direct your attention to 1 Corinthians 16. Paul has said in verse 21 this is indeed a bona fide, sure-enough, real, authentic, Pauline letter:

The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.

“Compare my signature and my handwriting with previous correspondence. Nobody could fake it. This is a letter from me.” As he often dictated his letters and he validated their genuineness by writing something at the end.

Then he says this at the end of this epistle, in which he’s dealt with a broad range of problems in the church of Corinth, and we could demonstrate how in every single instance—from the problem of division, to the problem of gross immorality, to the problem of abuse of Christian liberty—he keeps taking these Christians back to Christ, back to the sufficiency and the implications of the work of Christ, and after showing that Christ indeed was the answer to all of the concerns he had to address, it’s as though he says: “If after all of this you do not find your heart running out in love to this Christ, you deserve to be damned.”

Look at the language of the text.

If any man loves not the Lord, let him be.. Now he takes a word, which is the strongest word at his disposal, to come under the fury of God’s wrath and to be cursed. He says, If any man loves not the Lord, let him be damned. Let him be accursed of God! This is the family of words used with respect to Christ bearing the curse of the law for us.

For it is written, “Cursed is everyone that hangs upon a tree” (Galatians 3:13).

This is what Paul pronounces on those who would tamper with the gospel in Galatians 1:8-9: We say unto you if anyone should bring any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema. Let him be accursed of God! Let the fury of God break loose upon his wretched head!

So confident is he that every true believer who is trusting in Christ also loves Christ. He can say: “If any man loves not the Lord, let him be accursed of God.”

As surely as the Scripture says: He that believes not, the wrath of God abides upon him (John 3:36).

If we would only accept the validity of the last part of the gospel of Mark, He that believeth not shall be damned. Here Paul is saying: if you love not the Lord, you come under the curse of God. Why? Because there is no true faith in Christ but that is issued in and is accompanied by love for the Person of Christ.

The other epistle is Ephesians chapter 6, right at the end. Having written of the great salvation that is the indiscriminate possession of all true believers, all who are in Christ, he now comes to pronounce his apostolic blessing upon the people of God. Notice his language in Ephesians 6:24:

Grace be with all them.And how shall he think of the true people of God towards whom the goodwill and favor of God comes as a constant benediction? They are under a canopy of grace! Who are they? What is their distinguishing mark?

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then there’s a great discussion among the commentators how to understand the last clause with incorruptibleness; with undying love, it’s irrelevant to our concern right now, so I bypass the discussion. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love the Lord.

The One who came as the Lord of glory by way of Mary’s womb and underwent the suffering and the shame and the dereliction and abandonment at Golgotha; and was taken back to the right hand of the Father and given the posture of King over all things. If anyone loves not that enthroned Kurios, the enthroned Jehovah, Jesus—that is, the man Christ Jesus, the Jesus of biblical record who is God’s Messiah, God’s Anointed Prophet, Priest and King. Grace be with all that love the Jesus of biblical revelation in the uniqueness of His Person, and in the perfection and power of His work!

That’s what’s bound up in our Lord Jesus Christ! Grace, he says, towards all such, but what about those that love not the Lord Jesus Christ? They’re not under the canopy of grace, but under the canopy of wrath, because they believe not. The wrath of God abides upon him that believes not. How do we know that they believe not? Because if they truly believe they love! If they do not love, it’s because they are yet the unbelieving who see no glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

There’s glory in the approbation of my friends; there’s glory in the clapping and the shouting of the crowd in an athletic field; there’s glory in sporting the handsomest guy around or the nicest looking chick around. There’s glory in this and that, but no glory in Christ that captures the heart!

If that’s you, you’re not under a canopy of grace, but under a canopy of wrath.

Bible References: 1 Peter 1:6-8; 1 Corinthians 16:21-22; Galatians 3:13; Galatians 1:8-9; John 3:36; Ephesians 6:24