“Sure, I trust Jesus. Years ago, I walked the aisle and said the ‘sinner’s prayer.’ Because of that, I’ve got my heavenly fire insurance paid up. So, I don’t have to be concerned anymore about what I do or how I treat other people. I’ve been saved by grace!”

Maybe you’ve heard that. Maybe you’ve even been tempted to think that way. But according to today’s passage, that sort of attitude toward Jesus isn’t really faith at all. Instead, that’s just calling Him “Lord,” but not doing what He says.

No, according to Jesus, faith involves coming to Him. That means entering into the right relationship with Him. Now, that certainly involves an acknowledgment that we are sinners and that He is our Savior. But it also means bowing before Him as our Lord, submitting ourselves completely to His will, seeking to do what He wants instead of what we want.

And because we are in such a humble relationship with our Savior and Lord, faith in Him necessarily means listening to Him, hearing His words. That means doing what we’re doing right now: reading what He says and thinking about how it applies to our lives. But if such reading and thinking remains a purely academic exercise, it will do us no real good.

That’s why, in this passage, Jesus puts such an emphasis on doing what He says, acting upon what we have learned. For if we hear and do not do, well, that’s just as silly and dangerous as someone who thinks he can build a house without a foundation.

So yes, we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But we are saved so that we can live for the glory of God alone. And to determine how we should live the way God wants us to live, we look to Scripture alone as our guide, listening to the words of Jesus who told us to follow Him and serve Him in all we think and feel and say and do, loving others in the same sort of self-sacrificial, unconditional way that He has loved us. Anything less is just foolish.

Luke 6:46-49 (NASB)

46 “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
47 “Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like:
48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood rose, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
49 “But the one who has heard, and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”