19  The Faith  That Does  Not Save (8:9-24)

Now there was a certain man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city, and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.” And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. And even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip; and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” (8:9–24)

One of the most fearful realities in all of Scripture is that some who think they are saved will be eternally lost. Thinking they are on the narrow way of saving truth that leads to heaven, they are in reality on the broad way of religion that leads to destruction (cf. Matt. 7:13–14). They will one day hear from the Lord Jesus Christ the most shocking, terrifying words any human could ever hear: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23). To their horror, they will discover too late that there is an entrance to hell at the edge of the very gates of heaven.

Whenever the gospel is preached, it will inevitably produce both genuine saving faith and false faith. The seed of the Word will fall on good soil and bad soil. There will be branches who abide in the vine, and those that are cut off and burned. There will be those with working faith and those with demon faith. There will be those to whom Jesus discloses Himself and those to whom He does not entrust Himself. There are those who “have faith to the preserving of the soul” and those who “shrink back to destruction” (Heb. 10:39). There will be wheat and there will be tares.

In Matthew 13:24–30, Jesus told a parable illustrating that truth:

As often happened, the disciples missed the point, and requested an explanation:

This text presents an example of genuine saving faith, the Ethiopian eunuch. But first it presents the first known satanic attempt to sow a tare in the church, Simon Magus. Simon appeared to be a genuine believer; even one as discerning as Philip accepted him as such and baptized him. Simon even “continued on with Philip” (verse 13). He thus manifested three marks of a genuine believer: he believed, he was obedient in baptism, and he continued with Philip. He illustrates the difficulty of telling the wheat from the tares. It was not until he attempted to buy the authority to confer the Holy Spirit that he was unmasked.

Where did Simon go wrong? How did one who came so close miss out on true salvation? Faith must be grounded in the truth, and his was not. This passage reveals four glaring, massive faults in Simon’s theology: He had a wrong view of self, salvation, the Spirit, and sin. Those faults kept him from genuine faith and left him in the position to perish eternally.

A WRONG VIEW OF SELF

Now there was a certain man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city, and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.” And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. (8:9–11)

A faulty view of man keeps myriads out of the kingdom. The view that man is essentially good is as pervasive as it is damning. It lulls its victims into a false sense of security, causing them to think that God applauds their good deeds. In reality, He views the supposed good works with which they clothe themselves as “a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6). Any view of man as basically good and capable of earning acceptance with God deadens people to the reality of God’s impending judgment and blinds them to their need of a Savior. Those who fail to see themselves as sinners will see no need for a Savior.

Simon had an egotistical view of himself. Practicing magic in the city, and astonishing the people of Samaria led him to claim to be someone great. He saw in Philip’s teaching a means to gain more greatness for himself. Magic referred originally to the lore of the magi—the priests of the Medo-Persians. It was a mix of science and superstition, combining astrology, divination, and occultic practices with history, mathematics, and agriculture. It could be trickery or demonic. (For further information on the magi, see Matthew 1–8, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1985], 26–28.)

Simon’s hold on the people of Samaria was complete. All of them, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him. Impressed by his occult powers, they exclaimed, This man is what is called the Great Power of God. That title shows that Simon claimed deity for himself (cf. Mark 14:62). That Simon viewed himself as God betrays the most heretical view of self imaginable. The early church Fathers reported that Simon was one of the founders of Gnosticism and that he viewed himself as God incarnate:

Simon’s perverted view of himself gave Satan an opening to use him to spread false doctrine through the church. His false teaching, later elaborated into full-blown Gnosticism, was to threaten and embattle the church from Paul onward for centuries.

Like many charlatan magicians of his day (cf. Acts 13:6), Simon probably believed in his powers. That he may not have been a conscious fraud rendered him even more dangerous and believable. It is not surprising, then, that the Samaritans were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. After all, they believed in God and had messianic hopes. That made them especially vulnerable to someone like Simon. Sadly, people in our supposedly sophisticated age are equally vulnerable to charlatans who claim to be miracle-workers in the name of God.

As long as Simon believed he was God, or nearly God, he could not come to a proper sense of himself. People must see themselves as lost, weak, and helpless without God before they can be saved. Simon, locked firmly in pride’s grip, did not.

Pride is a universal and deadly sin. It is the most characteristic and controlling sin in all human fallenness. Pride is an easy sin to indulge in, since it does not entail the loss of public reputation, prestige, health, or wealth associated with other socially unacceptable sins. Pride, in fact, has been redefined as a virtue. Sinful pride often masquerades under seemingly upright motives. In Herod, it masked itself as integrity and beheaded John the Baptist. In the Pharisees, it masked itself as holiness and rejected the Holy One. Among the Jewish authorities, it masked itself as zeal for God and executed the Son of God.

Pride cost man Eden, and the fallen angels heaven. It doomed Sodom and Gomorrah. It cost Nebuchadnezzar his reason, Rehoboam his kingdom, Uzziah his health, and Haman his life.

The Bible has much to say about the evil of pride. Job 35:12 says, “They cry out, but He does not answer because of the pride of evil men.” The psalmist points out that “the wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, There is no God’” (Ps. 10:4); and he implores the Lord to “cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things” (Ps. 12:3). Proverbs 6:16–19 describes seven things the Lord hates. Heading the list is “haughty eyes.” Proverbs 8:13 reads, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way,” while Proverbs 16:5 cautions that “everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly, he will not be unpunished.” The familiar words of Proverbs 16:18 warn that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling,” while Proverbs 21:4 states plainly that “haughty eyes and a proud heart … [are] sin.” Paul advises that “if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6:3). No one can be saved while clinging to their pride, because “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

In Luke 18:9–14, the Lord Jesus Christ told a parable teaching that the proud cannot be saved:

It is only those with the humility of little children who are fit to enter the kingdom (Matt. 18:2–4). In one of the most powerful invitations to sinners, James wrote,

Only the humble, aware of their inadequacies and shortcomings, have that sense of lostness that drives them to God. It is the poor in spirit, not the proud in heart, who experience saving faith (Matt. 5:3). Nothing short of a true estimate of one’s wretchedness, and a broken and contrite heart coupled with longing for forgiveness, prepare the soul for salvation.

A WRONG VIEW OF SALVATION

But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. And even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip; and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. (8:12–13)

Simon’s magical arts were no match for Philip’s Spirit-given power (vv. 6–7). Through Philip’s ministry, a revival broke out in the city. When the people believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Philip’s message consisted of two parts. The kingdom of God refers to God’s sovereign rule over the sphere of salvation that is entered by those who belong to Him through faith in His Son. The name of Jesus Christ symbolizes all that He is. Philip preached to them about the realm of the saved and then zeroed in on the truths about the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone provides entrance into that realm.

Because of Philip’s preaching, the people believed and were being baptized, men and women alike. As more people believed, Simon saw his following dwindle. His declining popularity, a desire to be associated with God and the Messiah, and a desire to learn what he perceived to be Philip’s power, motivated Simon himself to believe. After being baptized, he continued on with Philip, for at least three perceivable reasons. First, he wanted to sustain contact with the people following the preacher. By joining Philip’s movement, he went where the action was and kept his opportunity for influence alive. Second, as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. He had, so to speak, a professional interest in finding out the source of Philip’s amazing powers. Third, as his later conduct shows, he wanted to figure out how to acquire that power for himself. Magicians often sold each other their tricks and incantations.

It becomes clear soon that Simon’s baptism did not save him. Baptism has no power to take away sin. It is important, however, and commanded of all believers following salvation, though it plays no part in it. (For a further discussion of this point see the discussion of Acts 2:38 in chapter 6.)

Simon viewed salvation as a purely ritualistic, external matter, an additional act in his life instead of the total transformation of his whole person on the inside (2 Cor. 5:17). Faith that does not transform the life is not saving faith. James wrote, “What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works’” (James 2:14, 17–18). The demons have faith (James 2:19), but are not saved. They believe, and even tremble, but do not love righteousness and hate sin—the evidence of salvation. Nor were those described in John 2:23–25 saved by their shallow faith: “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, beholding His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man. Simon believed in the signs but not in the One whose power was behind them. True salvation is not mere profession or ritual act. It is the divine transformation of the soul from love of self to love of God, from love of sin to love of holiness.

A WRONG VIEW OF THE SPIRIT

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” (8:14–19)

Word of the amazing success of Philip’s ministry reached the apostles in Jerusalem. When they heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to check it out. That Samaritans were included in the kingdom was shocking to devout Jews, who despised them as half-breed outcasts. Peter and John’s mission was threefold: First, they came to help Philip with the spiritual harvest. The response of the Samaritans was too great for one man to handle. Second, they came to give apostolic sanction and blessing to Philip’s work among the Samaritans. The apostles were the leaders of the church and maintained that position even after the church spread from Jerusalem. Finally, they came down from Jerusalem and prayed for the Samaritans that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Although they had believed and been baptized, the Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Many who teach that Christians receive the Spirit subsequent to salvation appeal to this and similar passages for support. Here is a clear example, they argue, of people who were saved, yet did not have the Holy Spirit. Such teaching ignores the transitional nature of Acts. (For further discussion of the transitional nature of Acts and the issue of subsequence regarding the coming of the Spirit, see my book Charismatic Chaos [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992].) It also flies in the face of the plain teaching of Scripture that “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Rom. 8:9). There is no such thing as a Christian who does not yet have the Holy Spirit, since “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” at conversion (1 Cor. 12:13).

Why did the Samaritans (and later the Gentiles) have to wait for the apostles before receiving the Spirit? For centuries, the Samaritans and the Jews had been bitter rivals. If the Samaritans had received the Spirit independent of the Jerusalem church, that rift would have been perpetuated. There could well have been two separate churches, a Jewish church and a Samaritan church. But God had designed one church, in which “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female,” but “all [are] one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

By delaying the Spirit’s coming until Peter and John arrived, God preserved the unity of the church. The apostles needed to see for themselves, and give firsthand testimony to the Jerusalem church, that the Spirit came upon the Samaritans. The Samaritans also needed to learn that they were subject to apostolic authority. The Jewish believers and the Samaritans were thus linked together into one body.

Today, believers receive the Spirit at salvation (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). There was no need for delay after Jews, Gentiles, Samaritans, and Old Testament saints were already included in the church.

When they arrived, Peter and John began laying their hands on the Samaritan believers, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. That was too much for Simon. When he saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money. Evidently, the believers were speaking in tongues as on the Day of Pentecost so that there was a perceivable sign of this great reality sufficient to arouse Simon’s interest. Philip had impressed him, but Peter and John overwhelmed him. Simon asked them brashly and excitedly, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” He treated the two apostles as though they were fellow practitioners of magic, and was ready to negotiate the price to buy the secret of their power. By this act, Simon gave his name to the term “simony,” which through history has referred to the buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices.

Nothing God has, however, is for sale—certainly not the Holy Spirit! Indeed, there is nothing sinful men have to offer Him. Salvation and spiritual blessing He pours out freely to His children. In Isaiah 55:1 God cries out, “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” Yet countless thousands, ignorant of that fact, are striving desperately and futilely to buy God’s blessing.

Peter unhesitatingly reacted with outrage at Simon’s attempt. With his characteristic bluntness, he said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.” Peter was irate, as his inflammatory prose indicates. The literal meaning of the Greek text has been softened by most translations. J. B. Phillips’s rendering, “To hell with you and your money!” conveys the actual sense of Peter’s words. Simon’s view of the Spirit as a commodity to be bought and added to his repertoire was utterly and blasphemously wrong, and betrayed his lost condition.

A WRONG VIEW OF SIN

“Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” (8:22–24)

Peter follows his condemnation of Simon with a call for his repentance. He commands Simon to repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. He challenges Simon to have a correct view of his heinous sin—one that sees it for what is and turns from it. As noted in chapters 6 and 10 of this volume, metanoeō (repent) involves turning from sin to God. If Simon did so, the intention of his heart to do evil would be forgiven him. Peter, using Old Testament expressions for the most serious offenses against God (cf. Deut. 19:18–20), warns Simon of the seriousness of his situation: “I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” The phrase gall of bitterness is very strong. Chole (gall) refers to a bitter ingredient or bile. Coupled with pikria (bitterness), it conveys an extremely bitter, harsh, and distasteful condition. It vividly pictures the reality of one in the bondage of iniquity. Sin is a harsh taskmaster. Proverbs 5:22 warns that “his own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin.”

Simon, however, was not persuaded. Although shaken and afraid, he refused to ask the Lord for forgiveness. Instead, he said to the apostles, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” His only concern was to escape the temporal consequences of his sin. True repentance, however, consists of more than mere sorrow for sin. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:9–10,

Simon had a wrong view of self, of salvation, of the Spirit, and of sin. All that added up to a faith that did not save.