FAITH AND SALVATION

  Unless you believe in Jesus – unless you have faith that He is who He said He was - you’ll never make it into heaven.
  Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
 And John 3:36 declares “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Faith in Jesus is the core of our response to God to accept His gift of forgiveness.

   However, faith in Jesus is more than just a statement of: “I believe.” It has to be more than that. For example, if a man says “I believe I HAVE a wife” that would be a “faith statement” … but there wouldn’t be much power behind it. That man might live with his wife, but the way he said what he said implies that he probably doesn’t love her or have a commitment to her.
  But if, instead, that man was to say “I believe IN my wife” that would be a declaration that she means something to him. By making that declaration he’s saying he trusts her and relies on her. And that’s what “saving faith” in Jesus is all about. It’s a declaration that you trust Christ and you intend to rely upon Him.

   That’s why the statement “you are saved by faith alone” makes no sense. To say you have faith in Jesus without repentance of sins, confession of Jesus as your Lord, and being baptized into Christ - is only so many words. True Biblical faith calls for us to act on what we believe… and the action God requests from us is for us to repent of our past, confess Jesus as Lord, and be buried in the waters of baptism. These are part of God's plan of salvation... however, without faith, those other items have no value. Faith is the core of our response to Christ.

   Remember, while faith in Christ is critical (you can’t be saved without it), the Bible NEVER says we are saved by “faith alone.” Instead Scripture tells us of several things that are involved in our forgiveness, such as:

• The grace of God (Acts 15:11; Ephesians 2:8).

• Repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38)

• Confession that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9)

• Baptism (I Peter 3:21; Mark 16:16)

• Enduring to the end (Matthew 10:22)

   Faith is the core of our acceptance God's gift of salvation - but saving faith is more than a one-time decision. It’s LIVING by our faith in that guarantees our ultimate destiny. Paul said it this way: “The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved men and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

  One last thought. A famous preacher once said “I prayed for faith and thought that someday it would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith didn’t seem to come. One day I read in Romans that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” I had up to this time, closed my Bible and prayed for faith. Now I opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.”

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