Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Does Ephesians 1:12-13 teach that salvation is a two-step process, believing plus trusting? What is the difference in believing and trusting? What does the Bible teach about these? Let’s discuss it today here on Grace in Focus, and it’s good to have you with us today, friend. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is FaithAlone.org. Please stop by and visit us, you’ll learn a lot about us. We have thousands of articles about the free grace position there for your learning and research. You can also find out about regional and national conferences that we have and our bookstore, where you can find Bob Wilkins’ latest book. The Gospel is Still Under Siege. Find it all at FaithAlone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Ken Yates. 

KEN: And Bob, we have a question from Kit, and it’s—

BOB: Is this Kit Carson? 

KEN: I went to a Kit Carson—

BOB: The famous Wild West. 

KEN: Yeah, you know, I remember once I was out there in what I think it was New Mexico, and there was a Kit Carson Museum. Oh, yeah, yeah. 

And in Ephesians 1:12-13, first off, let me read the verses, then we’ll do the question. Good. Here’s what it says in the New King James version: “That we who first”, and here’s the issue, “trusted in Christ Jesus, should be to the praise of His glory.” And now, in verse 13, “in Him, you also trusted.” 

BOB: That’s in italics. 

KEN: But that’s in italics. 

BOB: Because it’s not in the Greek. 

KEN: Right. “After you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” So, the question is, is this a two-step process—

BOB: Do you first trust, and then you believe.

KEN: Well, no, he says, having believed. 

BOB: Oh, do you first believe and then—

KEN: And then you trust in Him? And so is he talking about eternal life as a two-step process, then you need to believe and trust in Him. I could hear a lordship salvation guy, for example, saying, believing is not enough. You need to what—place you’re trust in Him or something like that? 

BOB: Well, I do remember one time at Victor Street Bible Chapel, we brought in this evangelist. It was a famous free grace evangelist, and he went through—he proclaimed Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, and said, that’s good news. And he said, but believing is not enough, you also have to trust Him. You could believe that and not be saved, which he was right, of course. But he didn’t say the issue is, that tells me that when he says he believes in me, has everlasting life, he’s telling the truth. Instead, he said, no, you need to trust Him. And so you need to choose to trust Him. 

And so now you believe certain facts, but then you trusted a person with-what that trust of the person meant was very vague, and ended up there were a lot of people confused to that message. But what I thought was interesting when you said that, it hit me. If you think about John 3:16, it doesn’t say anything about trust. It says, whoever believes in Him. And it doesn’t say belief is step one and trust is step two. Right? 

KEN: And Kit asks a question like this, do you have to believe in the trustworthy of Christ? And what I’m thinking is, I don’t know if—

BOB: Well, of course you do. But that’s not what that verse is talking about. 

KEN: I’m wondering if someone might use this, because I know you’ve heard this, Bob. People will say, well, the gospel is I have to believe, you know, I’m placing all my trust in it for me or something. Like that. I remember hearing people word it like that. 

BOB: Well, I hate it when people use trust, and here’s why. We might say, I trust a doctor to do surgery on me, right? Like you had prostate surgery, right?  And you had cancer, and you had to have the surgery. And you trusted a doctor. But did you know for 100% certainty that it was going to work out well? 

KEN: No, I didn’t know that at all. 

BOB: I mean, you could die on the table, right? You could have died. There was no guarantee. 

KEN: There was no guarantee that the cancer would have been taken care of. 

BOB: Right. But you still trusted him. Well, that’s the way it is when we use the word trust, we don’t mean something you’re sure of. We mean something that you’re relying on. Now, it’s unfortunate. I think that they use the word trusted there, because it’s not even, it’s the word elpizo, isn’t it? 

KEN: Yeah. That’s the other issue here. 

BOB: And elpizo means hope. 

KEN: Well, it’s, it’s proelpizo, hope before. We were the first. 

BOB: That’s why it says when we first. But the thing about this is, elpizo has, or proelpizo has two basic senses. One, it is used sometimes like we use it in English, like Paul says, I hope to come to you. I hope to come to you who are in Rome. But often, it’s used to refer to something which we’re absolutely sure is going to happen. But the timing is uncertain. Like the hope of his coming. Well, we know he’s coming, but we hope we’re anticipating him coming in our lifetime. We’re anticipating a soon return.

KEN: Right. And in this case, isn’t he talking about the Jews here? We who hope first.

BOB: Yeah, the Jewish people. 

KEN: The Jewish people. 

BOB: But what they’re hoping for is not eternal life. They’re hoping for the return of Messiah. Now, of course, the Jews were hoping for His first coming, and then they missed it. And now, Jewish believers were also the first to hope for His second coming, right? Because at Pentecost, there were 3,000 Jews who came to faith that day. 

KEN: And so in verses 12 and 13, he’s not, he’s not even used to the word trust, whatever we mean in English. He’s saying we Jews were hoping in Christ first, and now you all have joined the body of Christ. 

BOB: You all Gentiles. 

KEN: Gentiles in verse 13. So, this is one of the many, many examples in the New Testament where Greek really helps. 

BOB: Well, how would you translate that? Because if the word trust isn’t in verse 13, we don’t even need to put it in there, do we? 

KEN: Well, that’s the other issue. In whom you also, we would say—

BOB: You could say “hoped”, in whom you also hoped, but you wouldn’t say trusted. See, that’s part of the problem. People prefer, they don’t like to use belief because it sounds intellectual. It sounds like you just believing certain truths, which is what you’re doing. You’re believing that when Jesus says he who believes in me has everlasting life, that He’s telling the truth. That’s why when Kit says, are we believing He’s trustworthy, absolutely. 

KEN: Can He do what He says? 

BOB: Well, does He do what He says? Not just can He, but does He? 

KEN: Am I convinced that He will?

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BOB: It’s not like I say, well, yeah, I know you can do that, but I’m not sure you do it. No, you guarantee it to all who believe in you. 

KEN: And see, that’s what I was referring to earlier. It seems like you hear people say, well, that’s what trust means. I know you can do it, but now I’m trusting that you’re going to do that to me. 

BOB: So it’s something less than being persuaded. 

KEN: Right. You’ll hear people word it like that. 

BOB: Well, just like if I trust the doctor, I’m not certain of the outcome. But if the Lord Jesus says, the one who believes in Me will never perish, but has everlasting life. I can take that to the bank. That’s absolutely guaranteed. There’s no doubt about that, right? Remember in 1 John 5:13, “These things have I written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. In order that you may know that you have eternal life.” I would supply the words continue to know, because they already knew based on chapter 2:12-14, and also 2:24-26. But that you may continue to know. There were false teachers that were trying to misguide them, but notice that you may know or continue to know. It’s not that you may hope. 

KEN: I hope this works out. 

BOB: Some people call that a “hope so” salvation versus a “know so”. We have a “know so”. I know that I have everlasting life, and it has nothing to do with the quality of my life. It has everything to do with His fidelity. It’s about His works, not my works. Look at the gospel of John, and look at every English translation you can find. And the word pisteuo, the verb to believe, occurs 99 times in the Critical text, 100 times in the Majority text. Guess how many times it’s translated “believe” in English translations? All of them. Never is it translated trust. 

Find me a translation that translates John 3:16, “Whoever trusts in Him will not perish, but has everlasting life”. There isn’t one, maybe the Cotton Patch Bible or something or the off the wall Bible. Maybe there is one that does that. So I maybe need to do some more study, and I welcome you—look it up, take some time, do this study. And just look and see how many times in the gospel of John, English translations use the word trust and how many times they use the word believe. 

KEN: But isn’t it weird, how often evangelicals use the word trust. 

BOB: Right, because they don’t like the idea that simply by faith in Christ, a person is secure forever. They think there has to be some sort of turning from sins, some sort of commitment of life, some sort of works that follow. And trust implies, okay, I’m actually going to the doctor, getting on the table and letting them cut me open, right? 

KEN: And trusting is, I’m throwing myself upon Him or something like that.

BOB: It’s more than simply—let me give you the wheelbarrow illustration with Niagara Falls. 

KEN: Oh, yeah, there you go. 

BOB: So the guy is a tightrope walker and he stretches a tightrope from the New York side over to the Canadian side. He walked across and walked back and there were huge crowds. So then he takes a wheelbarrow and puts a wheelbarrow on there and walks out part way with a wheelbarrow and then he comes back and puts like 200 pounds of weights in there and walks out part way and walks back. So then he says, how many of you believe I can take a man across in this barrow and they’re all shouting, I do, I do. So then he points at one of them and says, okay, get in. Well, if the man doesn’t get in, the illustration goes, he doesn’t believe. 

KEN: Well, they would say you don’t trust it. You don’t trust it. 

BOB: Right, exactly. And my response is, no, if this was like Scripture, the moment I believed he could guarantee to take a man across safely, which he cannot, of course, but let’s say he could. You’d poof appear on the Canadian side. There would be no getting in the barrow. You would just, once you believe, you’d get across. So the problem with that method is it is a two-step method. First, I get in the barrow. Then I have to go through a process to get to the other side, right? It’s not just believing. What I like to suggest is the chair illustration or that illustration with the wheelbarrow, they all illustrate a message that’s contrary to John 3:16. 

KEN: Okay, the bottom line for Ephesians 1:12 and 13 is the word trust doesn’t occur there. 

BOB: It isn’t even there. 

KEN: There it is. And so when you remove that word trust there and just read it, then you’ll see, no, it’s when you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit. By the way, that’s another thing. You were placed into the body of Christ. That’s what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 1:12-13. He’s talking about the body of Christ. 

BOB: Jews and Gentiles. 

KEN: So don’t use Ephesians 1:12 and 13. Don’t use any passage for a two-step process to receive eternal life. 

BOB: No, there’s one condition only and it’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s it. 

KEN: And remember, keep grace in focus. 

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It’s been our pleasure to have you along with us all this week. Come back, join us again next Monday for another episode. We are wishing you a great weekend. Don’t forsake the assembly and join some fellowship with others of like precious faith and great teaching from God’s Word. And let’s keep grace in focus.