Luke Warm?

What does it mean to have a "luke warm" faith?  I have seen this concept described in various ways.  But one way that has particularly troubled me and stuck with me is this idea that there are three chairs.  I won't name names as to where I saw this concept, but the three chairs go like this:  In the chair to the right, the person in that chair has absolutely no faith.  Then there is a chair in the middle, this is the luke warm chair.  In that chair there is a person who has faith but isn't necessarily "gung-ho" or crusading for Christ.  Then there is the chair on the left where the people are who have a true faith and assurance in their salvation.  

I remember I heard this and was immediately bothered by it.  Is there a way to measure a "true" faith?  Is there a way to measure saving faith?  Scripture says, "3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).  In light of this, how can there be different "chairs" of faith?  If someone believes and is baptized, they are saved (Mark 16).  Although it is good to be excited about your faith, to make your joy in God through Christ into a commandment that we have to follow like the Law, makes it something we will fail at.  Too many evangelical preachers go after you with the Law, and the Law only.  The Law is essential, but the Law served up without the Gospel or with a tiny sliver of the Gospel leads people down the wrong road.  

If we make our joy a command to follow as though it were Law, we fail.  There is no possible way we can go through the next five minutes, let alone the rest of our lives, without displeasing God.  THANK GOD, we don't have to worry about it!  We are dead to sin and alive in Christ by our faith.  "The righteous shall live by faith."  This is our battle cry.  There are no chairs, there are no degrees of saving faith: "4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6).  There is ONE faith.  My post earlier today being "Blessed Assurance" is no coincidence.  We live by our faith and by the Gospel we are spurned to love God and to have joy in Him.  If it were up to us, like everything else, we would fail.  And indeed we do fail.  No one is ever always gung-ho God.  Sanctification takes a life time.  But justification happened immediately when we were baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and sustained in the one faith.  

The next time someone asks you, "I feel like I can't please God and I'm not always real 'happy' about my faith like some are, is something wrong with me?" Answer with an absolute "Yes, there is something wrong with you.  You, like the rest of us, are a sinner.  Repent and believe.  Jesus saves, not you."  It's good to be mindful of the Law and to be excited about faith.  But if the Gospel is not at an equal balance with the presentation of the Law, it leads down a road without assurance and people wondering why they can't earn their way into the left chair.  Jesus earned it for you.  In faith you are in.