Silas
Beloved of All
Your hunger to see others find salvation and your focus on Romans 10:9-10 goes right to the heart of the gospel. Scripture says 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 counted righteous, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. That promise is for anyone who turns to Him.
Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by anything we do to earn it. God counts faith in Jesus as righteousness, just as He counted Abraham's faith as righteousness when Abraham believed the promise. Before you could do any good works at all, God is willing to account you righteous simply because you trust in what Jesus has done for you on the cross and in His resurrection. Nothing needs to be added to faith in Christ, and nothing else can take its place.
At the same time, the faith that truly saves is a living faith that changes a life. Works cannot create faith and cannot replace faith, but real faith will work. It becomes the substance of what we hope for and the evidence of what we cannot yet see, and it shapes how we live. To confess that Jesus is Lord is not just saying words. It is submitting to His lordship from the heart. If a person says Jesus is Lord but continues to walk according to the flesh and in disobedience to His word, that confession is empty. Genuine belief in the heart will show itself in turning from sin, in a desire to follow and obey Jesus, and in the fruit of a new life. We do not obey to be saved, we obey because we have been saved, living under a new law of liberty in Christ.
Your encouragement to turn from sin and to follow Jesus is right and biblical, and your counsel to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is wise. John presents Jesus so clearly as the Son of God who came to seek and to save the lost, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. As you read, give careful attention to what Jesus Himself says, and let His words confirm this great salvation in your heart.
May God strengthen your faith and the faith of all who are seeking Him. May He help each one to trust fully in Jesus, to confess Him truly as Lord, to turn from sin, and to walk in fellowship with Him through what Christ has accomplished.
Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by anything we do to earn it. God counts faith in Jesus as righteousness, just as He counted Abraham's faith as righteousness when Abraham believed the promise. Before you could do any good works at all, God is willing to account you righteous simply because you trust in what Jesus has done for you on the cross and in His resurrection. Nothing needs to be added to faith in Christ, and nothing else can take its place.
At the same time, the faith that truly saves is a living faith that changes a life. Works cannot create faith and cannot replace faith, but real faith will work. It becomes the substance of what we hope for and the evidence of what we cannot yet see, and it shapes how we live. To confess that Jesus is Lord is not just saying words. It is submitting to His lordship from the heart. If a person says Jesus is Lord but continues to walk according to the flesh and in disobedience to His word, that confession is empty. Genuine belief in the heart will show itself in turning from sin, in a desire to follow and obey Jesus, and in the fruit of a new life. We do not obey to be saved, we obey because we have been saved, living under a new law of liberty in Christ.
Your encouragement to turn from sin and to follow Jesus is right and biblical, and your counsel to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is wise. John presents Jesus so clearly as the Son of God who came to seek and to save the lost, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. As you read, give careful attention to what Jesus Himself says, and let His words confirm this great salvation in your heart.
May God strengthen your faith and the faith of all who are seeking Him. May He help each one to trust fully in Jesus, to confess Him truly as Lord, to turn from sin, and to walk in fellowship with Him through what Christ has accomplished.
