The FAITH That Will Save You

Everyone has some faith.
You may not have thought of it before, but everyone has some kind of faith. One must have faith in something or faith in someone. Hence, no one is a stranger to faith. There is a faith which is basic in family life. Destroy mutual trust between husband and wife, parents and children, and the home is ruined. The faith children have in their parents often presents to the world a sublime example. They do what their parents ask because they believe in them.
 
A well ordered society could not be sustained without faith. There is faith in our government when we buy bonds. There is faith in our bank when we open a savings or checking account. There is an element of faith in the salesman when we buy a product hoping it will do all that is claimed for it. One goes to a certain doctor because he has faith in him. All of these acts of faith and many more are present in our modern society.

The Bible requires faith.
The Bible teaches that we must have faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, to be saved from our sins. The necessity of faith is clearly seen in the words of our Lord and Savior: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15,16). In these words, belief is made a condition of salvation; disbelief is the ground for condemnation. The urgency of faith is seen in the golden text of the Bible: “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” (John 3:16). The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews declares: “… 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” (Hebrews 11:6). The language of this Scripture could not be plainer. Faith is essential for any person who would please God. To be baptized and to meet around the Lord’s table, one must have faith.

Where is the object of this faith?
First, note a Bible definition of faith: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, NAS). Someone has defined faith as “the title-deed of things hoped for.” Faith is accepting without doubt every promise of God! It is taking God at His Word! It is a conviction about things not seen with our own eyes. We have not seen Jesus, yet we believe upon Him! We have not seen heaven, yet we believe it exists.

Secondly, note that the New Testament makes it clear that we are to believe Jesus Christ “who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25). The object of our faith is both the person of Chris and the Biblical facts concerning Him. The Philippian jailor cried out to Paul and Silas: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul told him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:30,31). The object of the jailor’s faith was Christ. The account of this conversion continues as they spake the word of the Lord unto him, and to all that were in his house. “And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway” (Acts 16:33).

Salvation comes through Jesus Christ and what He accomplished. This is the object of our faith. As we are told in Romans 10:9, man must confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead.

How is this faith acquired?
The mission of our Lord was not only to offer Him-self as a sacrifice for sin upon the cross for mankind, but also to provide adequate evidence that would prove that He is the Son of God and Savior!

The Bible is the “file-record” of evidence which convinces man that Jesus is the divine Son of God, and has power to save.

The apostle John writes: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30,31). The apostle Paul tells us that our “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). Faith does not come to the mind or heart in some mysterious sudden fashion or through some emotional experience which cannot be rationally explained. Faith comes when we listen to the facts about the coming of Jesus Christ, and we are so persuaded of our personal need of Him that we say with Thomas: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

How does a man act upon this faith?
A few examples from the Bible will give the answer to this question. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice was a result of his faith.

Noah was a man of faith. God commanded Noah to build an ark, and told him exactly how to build it. The historian says that “according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Genesis 6:22). All of this was simply faith in action, for we read that “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (Hebrews 11:7).

Abraham was called the father of the faithful (Romans 4:11). He set a sterling example of faith. “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed’ and he went out, not knowing whither he went” (Hebrews 11:8).

All of these men believed God, and did what He commanded, and were rewarded for their faith! Obedience is an expression of genuine faith! Salvation by faith (genuine Christian faith as defined and illustrated in the Scriptures) includes the necessity of obedience to any of Christ’s commands, such as Christian baptism! The faith that saves is never put in opposition to the works of faith. It rather stands in contrast to meritorious works. When Paul writes in Galatians 2 that “a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” he is talking about the impossibility of justifying oneself through the keeping of the law of Moses. Contrary to the popular doctrine of “faith only,” in this same book of Galatians the apostle clearly shows the relationship of faith and baptism: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:26,27). James was not contradicting Paul when he wrote in his epistle: “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only” (James 2:24). When one believes, he seeks to honor the authority of Christ by obeying His commandments. Obedience to the gospel plan of salvation is proof that one has faith. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ produces faith in our heart, and we are led to repent of our sins, and to bury the old sinful life in the watery grave of baptism, and to arise to walk in the newness of life (Acts 2:37: Romans 6:3,4).

Faith is essential, for without faith it is impossible to please God. True faith expresses itself in obedience to the gospel commands of our Lord. Having this faith, accept the Lordship of Jesus, obey His commands, and let Christ be your Savior.

All information in this article has been provided by The Christian Restoration Association and is copy righted by them.