Faith, Doubt and Damnation – Romans 14:22-23

 David, the future King of Israel, was hiding in a cavern in the Engedi district of Judah, when his persecutor, Saul, also came in to take refuge from the sun. It seems quite clear to me that Saul took a short nap right there in front of David and his men. We need to be remembered that many of David’s little band were not the cream of Israelite society. The Bible describes many of them as debtors, discontented and people in distress. It is reasonable to assume that some of these people were – what they were – because of past sins. With Saul calmly snoring away in the cool recesses of the cave, and his guards out at the cave’s mouth, it appeared to be an opportunity for David to rid himself of the only obstacle between himself and the throne. As his men encouraged him to kill Saul, or asking for permission and orders to do it for him, David had a momentous decision to make. I believe that this was one of David’s finest moments, when he said that he would not raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed. Saul was God’s property and God’s problem; David didn’t feel right about taking matters into his own hands.

Personally, I don’t think that if David had killed Saul it would have nullified God’s election of him as king. I don’t know that the Lord would have judged David in any way, but then I don’t know the mind of God. It could have been argued in any court that the murder of Saul was justifiable homicide or self-defense. Others might have said that Saul’s slaughter of God’s priests rendered him unfit to rule – and unfit to live. He was a rebel, an idolater of sorts, a certified lunatic, neglecting his royal responsibilities, etc. etc. etc. Yet on several different fronts, if David had killed Saul that day, I believe that it would have been sin. And particularly in one way, it would have been sin because David’s own Holy Spirit-led heart argued against it.

Similarly, once in a while, people come to me, asking for my opinion about decisions that they have to make. Sometimes, they come asking me if I know of any scriptures which shed light on their problem. And once in a while I am able to direct them to the scriptures for definite answers, but on other occasions those questions are too specific and quite beyond the revelation of scripture. At that point I give them an answer which they might sometimes this is really avoiding the issue. I tell them that if there is any doubt in their heart about something, then they shouldn’t go in that direction. 9 times out of 10, when problems are presented to me, those people already know the answer. What they are hoping is that I will give them an excuse to go in the other direction. When the Christian’s heart says “no” to some problem or decision, then it is highly likely that it shouldn’t be pursued.

Our scripture for this morning is an highly practical statement about this sort of thing. And then it concludes with a profound principle which every Christian should understand and memorize: “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

Let’s begin with that GENERAL PRINCIPLE.The problem with all general principles is that they can be easily misapplied or twisted. For example, assuming that it is generally true “whatsoever is NOT OF FAITH is sin,” that doesn’t mean that if we reverse the statement that it is still true. Listen carefully “whatsoever is NOT OF FAITH is sin” – true, but it is not true that “whatsoever IS of FAITH – IS NOT sin.” Every day when I walk down to the mailbox, I pass in front of the house of some Roman Catholics. It may be the fanciest house on the block; in immaculate condition and with perfectly groomed gardens. And speaking of “immaculate,” tucked into those gardens are not one, but two, statues of Mary. I am quite sure that the owners of that house feel that their icons are quite appropriate. They may believe that Mary was born without any sin nature – the so-called “immaculate conception.” They probably believe that she lived and died without personal sin. They may in faith pray to Mary for all kinds of blessings. They may address her in the hopes that she will intercede before her son on their behalf. They may even believe that, with the Lord Jesus Christ, Mary is the co-executrix of salvation. But in this case, all the faith in the world, will not make any of this so. And in fact, to pray to Mary, to trust in Mary, to believe that Mary will intercede for the sinner, these things are not just the foolish wasting of time, they are idolatrous and desperately sinful. The presence of faith doesn’t necessarily make sinful things no longer sinful.

But more to our needs, in what way is “whatsoever is not of faith is sin”? As I have been trying to stress for the last few weeks, Jehovah is the center of everything. He created all things, giving living things life – and all those created things were designed for His glory. He saves the elect for His glory and not specifically for theirs. He judges the wicked not simply because they are wicked, but because of His own righteousness. John wrote: “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.” The Psalmist wrote: “Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.” David wrote: “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

The Lord is the Center of His Creation, and everything revolves around Him, like planets around the sun. Some of those planets are so far from the sun that life in them is inconceivable. Some of them are fervid with religious excitement, but there is still no life in them. And some of them, by the Lord’s grace, are just right – full of life and fully of glory to God. Of course, the Creator can touch and bless any aspect of His creation at His own discretion. But He has deemed that there is only one way for US to approach and touch Him, and that is by – FAITH. As Christ Jesus walked along in the midst of a crowd on his way to minister to a demon possessed child, a woman came up to him, believing that if she could touch his rob she would be healed of a long-standing medical problem. While the Lord was jostled and bumped by perhaps dozens, this woman reached out in faith to touch Him. Immediately He stopped to point out her faith and to bless her. While many had bumped Him, only one had actually touched Him, because she did so with faith.

No matter what the sinner might try to do to touch the Lord – to please the Lord – no faithless work, no service, no ceremonial sacrifice can draw His attention, or merit His blessing. Titus 1:15 – “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” In a moment we will come back to what makes the pure pure. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Without faith it is impossible to please God. So when the Pharisee made a feast and invited the Lord to come, it did not endear that man to God, because it was not out of faith and with the glory of the Lord in mind. He didn’t believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. He gave that feast to show off or to impress his friends – or his enemies. And when the rich put their gold into the Temple treasury, under the watchful eye of the Lord Jesus, and the poor widow dropped in her little copper coin, the Lord was pleased with the smaller gift, because it was given out of love, sacrifice – and faith. The lack of faith, was one of the things which made Judas’ confession of sin worthless. He was absolutely right in that he had sinned against God and against innocent blood. But his confession and repentance was not mixed with faith that the Lord would, or had, forgiven him. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin, no matter how good it might appear to be to the eyes of man or priest.

This is the general principle.

Now think specifically of SALVATION FROM SIN.There is only one way for God’s creature to touch its infinite and sublime Creator. Despite some people’s misinterpretation of the Old Testament, that touch doesn’t come through sacrifices and offerings. And it’s not through obedience to a thousand laws or ten simple commandments. Religion, piety and presumed spirituality cannot bring us into intimate contact with the Holy God. I’m not sure that any of these things would have provided Adam with means to speak to the Lord – even prior to his sin. It was by grace that the Lord came into the Garden of Eden in the cool of the evening to spend time with man – the pinnacle of His creation.

But the problem intensified a trillion-fold after Adam transgressed and poisoned all his children with sin. Not only had there been a great gulf fixed between the finite creature and the Infinite God, but today the problem is between the infinitely HOLY God and the unspeakably CORRUPT sinner. No amount of sacrifice, good works, generosity, piety or religion can bridge that gulf. There is no earthly material and no human engineering strong enough to reach from where we are to where the Lord is. The other day a friend emailed some pictures to me. There were shots of about 40 different vehicles which had been overloaded with things. There were trains in India with hundreds of people, like ants, all over them. There were people with boxes on their backs piled three times their own height. There were cars so buried under stuff that you could only see the wheels. And there was a bridge half fallen into a raging river, crushed by an overburdened truck. The gap between creation and the Lord, broadened and deepened by sin, can be bridged only by God Himself. He has come toward us in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. This bridge looks terribly dangerous and inadequate to the eye of most sinners. It looks like nothing more than a swinging rope bridge. So most people who have any desire to meet and touch God, try to improve upon the Lord’s bridge. They add baptism; they add church membership; they try to stabilize God’s bridge with their works. But the Lord will have none of their improvements and would sooner cut down His bridge than let those people pass over based upon their sinful improvements. No sir, there is only one way to pass from the world of sin to God – by humble faith across God’s bridge.

Of course I could spend the rest of the morning, giving you scriptures about the necessity of faith in Christ. I won’t do that today, because I haven’t yet gotten to my primary subject. Let’s let John 3 be sufficient for now: Christ Jesus said, “the Son of man (must) be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” As Paul says, “whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” and “without faith it is impossible to please (God).” We prove ourselves to be children of God, when in faith we step out onto the Lord’s bridge. We are saved by grace through faith, and not through anything of ourselves. If you will not repent of your sin before God and trust Christ Jesus to save you, you will die in your sins.

Now, before returning to Paul’s theme in Romans, let me return to something else first. As I said, just because a person has some kind of faith, that doesn’t mean that the gulf has been bridged. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” but it is not true that whatsoever is of faith is righteous. For example, the two sons of Adam brought sacrifices to God, as they had been taught. I know that Abel believed that the Lord would accept his sacrifice, and would bless him for it. In a sense, Abel reached out by faith and touched God. Cain also brought a sacrifice. I can’t say whether or not it was brought in faith, but I can say that he didn’t touch the Lord through it. It doesn’t matter how much faith Cain may have had, the sacrifice was contrary to God’s instructions. Cain’s sacrifice was not a blood offering, and therefore it was sinful in God’s sight. Even if Cain had twice the confidence of Abel that his gift to God would be accepted, it was not, because it was rooted in sin.

Similarly, all the works, the prayers, the service that we present to the Lord in hopes that He will forgive us of our sins, are nothing more than turnips, rotten potatoes and moldy lettuce in His sight. Not only does God demand faith, He demands that it be faith in His promises and according to His Word. Those prayers to Mary, that she would talk to her son and convince him to forgive us, are all sins. Trust in today’s sacrifice of the mass is idolatry and sin. The expectation that when the baby is sprinkled with holy water that his original sin is washed away – that expectation and faith is sin, because it is contrary to God’s revelation.

Not only is “whatsoever not of faith sin,” but whatsoever unbiblical faith is placed either in God or in other things – that faith, too, is sin. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” These are declarations taken from the Word of the Lord, and this kind of faith is true.

Now let’s return to what Paul was saying here in Romans 14.“It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

There were some people in the church at Rome who believed that eating meat was sin. Some of them might have been total vegetarians. Some of them may have rejected those meat which were forbidden by Jewish Law. And some of them may have felt that eating meat which was slaughtered by heathen idolaters was sin. Paul was convinced that they were all wrong, and that there was no sin in either eating or not eating. The sin arose when those Christians started condemning their brethren for whatever position they had on the question.

But there was potential for another sin. The “weak” brother refused to eat meat, but someone “strong” in the faith didn’t have a problem in eating. That “stronger” Christian might have so belittled his neighbor that he shamed him into taking a bite. Or perhaps the “weaker” brother so admired his neighbor in other areas that he decided he would force himself to eat what he considered forbidden food, but which his friend approved. It wasn’t that he was convinced that it was the right thing to do. He forced himself contrary to his conscience and contrary to what he believed – contrary to his faith. Remember Hebrews 11:6 – “Without faith it is impossible to please (God.)” Without faith with are out of touch with the Lord; without faith whatsoever we do becomes sinful. Until that so-called “weaker” brother is convinced and believes “that there is nothing unclean of itself” (v.14) then for him to eat that which he considers unclean – is sin.

A word of caution is necessary at this point: This Christian’s sin is not something which can condemn his soul to hell. No true child of God will be disowned by the Lord through any sin which he might commit. The blood of Christ covers all that person’s sin – even those sins not yet committed. So don’t be overcome by the word “damned” in verse 23. It doesn’t mean that the person is being sent to hell, because he has eaten something contrary to his conscience. It is essentially the same word as “condemned” in verse 22. It does not imply that the Christian is going to be cast away from God and robbed of God’s saving grace. It simply means that he will “condemn” himself, making himself feel miserable.

Verse 22 essentially tells the so-called “stronger” saint to keep his faith in this matter to himself. “Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God.” After the truth has been clearly taught, if the non-eating man, continues unconvinced, don’t keep rubbing his nose in that food. “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” The person who acts contrary to his conscience will never be a happy man, and no one should force someone else to act contrary to his conscience.

So here comes a Christian man, who has been offered a job working at a grocery store. He asks me what I think; does the Bible forbid him to take this job? My reply is that the Bible doesn’t say a word about grocery stores. But aren’t there some aspects to the job which are objectionable and perhaps even sinful? What about selling tobacco, beer and wine? If his heart tells him that it is wrong to work at the grocery store, even though he might not be directly involved in that department then it would be sin for him to work there. Someone else, however, may not see any problem working in the produce department of that same store. We could probably say the same thing about buying milk and eggs at that store. If you feel that by buying milk at such a place you are supporting the sins of others, then you should raise your own goats.

There might be a thousand questions similar to this one, some which are life-changing and others almost nothing. But what does Romans 14:23 tell YOU about the matter? “He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”