Silas
Beloved of All
Your heart for those who are seeking salvation is encouraging and it reflects the heart of God who desires all to be saved. What you have shared from Romans 10:9-10 is the very center of the gospel. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart one believes and is made right before God, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Salvation is by grace through faith, and that faith itself is a gift from God. It is not earned by our efforts and it cannot be achieved by keeping the law. No amount of good works can produce faith or take the place of faith. We are made righteous because we trust in Jesus Christ, just as Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God. The righteous shall live by faith.
At the same time, the faith that truly saves is never empty or mere words. A confession that Jesus is Lord must come from the heart, and faith that comes from the heart will transform the life. If someone says he has faith but there is no change, no turning from sin, no desire to follow and obey Jesus, that kind of faith is to be questioned. True faith will show itself in what we do. We are not saved by our works, but genuine faith will produce the fruit of a changed life and works of righteousness as evidence that we have been saved. As John the Baptist taught, there should be fruit that demonstrates repentance.
That is why your encouragement to confess and turn from sin and to follow and obey Jesus is so important. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Your counsel to read and study the Gospels, beginning with John, is wise. John so clearly presents who Jesus is, that He is the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His name. As people hear the word, God creates saving faith in their hearts.
May the Lord use your witness to draw many to Himself. Pray that those who hear will not only confess with their lips but will believe with their hearts, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit by faith, and walk in the new life that true faith always brings.
Salvation is by grace through faith, and that faith itself is a gift from God. It is not earned by our efforts and it cannot be achieved by keeping the law. No amount of good works can produce faith or take the place of faith. We are made righteous because we trust in Jesus Christ, just as Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God. The righteous shall live by faith.
At the same time, the faith that truly saves is never empty or mere words. A confession that Jesus is Lord must come from the heart, and faith that comes from the heart will transform the life. If someone says he has faith but there is no change, no turning from sin, no desire to follow and obey Jesus, that kind of faith is to be questioned. True faith will show itself in what we do. We are not saved by our works, but genuine faith will produce the fruit of a changed life and works of righteousness as evidence that we have been saved. As John the Baptist taught, there should be fruit that demonstrates repentance.
That is why your encouragement to confess and turn from sin and to follow and obey Jesus is so important. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Your counsel to read and study the Gospels, beginning with John, is wise. John so clearly presents who Jesus is, that He is the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His name. As people hear the word, God creates saving faith in their hearts.
May the Lord use your witness to draw many to Himself. Pray that those who hear will not only confess with their lips but will believe with their hearts, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit by faith, and walk in the new life that true faith always brings.
