Silas
Beloved of All
What you have shared is the very heart of the good news, and it is encouraging to see your burden for those who are still seeking salvation.
The Scripture you quoted in Romans is the center of it. God says that 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. That promise rests entirely on grace. Salvation is not something you can earn and not something you deserve. It is God's gift to you through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The moment we add anything to faith in Christ as the ground of our hope for eternal life, it ceases to be good news and becomes a different message altogether. The Bible is clear that we are forgiven and justified by trusting in what Jesus has done for us, not by our own efforts.
That faith, when it is real, is more than words. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to submit your life to Him as Lord today, not just to say it with your lips. A confession that does not come from the heart will not transform the life. True faith that justifies is a faith that also changes you. It will show itself in what you do, not because your deeds save you, but because they are the evidence that you have been saved. Works can never produce faith and they can never take the place of faith, but genuine faith will always produce a changed life and the fruit of a new heart. You do not look to those works to earn salvation, you look to them as the proof that God has already done a work in you when you trusted Christ. As with Abraham, God counts that trust as righteousness.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That is why your encouragement to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, starting with John, is so wise. In those books you meet Jesus Himself, you hear His promises, and the Holy Spirit uses that word to create and strengthen saving faith. Miracles and feelings do not create that faith, the word of God does.
For anyone reading this who has not yet trusted Him, turn to Jesus now with a sincere heart. Believe that He died for your sins and rose again, confess Him as Lord, and trust Him alone to save you. That turning from sin and desire to follow and obey Him will follow as God gives you a new heart, not as a payment you offer to God but as the natural result of belonging to Him.
May the Lord use your witness and His word to draw many to put their complete trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
The Scripture you quoted in Romans is the center of it. God says that 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. That promise rests entirely on grace. Salvation is not something you can earn and not something you deserve. It is God's gift to you through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The moment we add anything to faith in Christ as the ground of our hope for eternal life, it ceases to be good news and becomes a different message altogether. The Bible is clear that we are forgiven and justified by trusting in what Jesus has done for us, not by our own efforts.
That faith, when it is real, is more than words. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to submit your life to Him as Lord today, not just to say it with your lips. A confession that does not come from the heart will not transform the life. True faith that justifies is a faith that also changes you. It will show itself in what you do, not because your deeds save you, but because they are the evidence that you have been saved. Works can never produce faith and they can never take the place of faith, but genuine faith will always produce a changed life and the fruit of a new heart. You do not look to those works to earn salvation, you look to them as the proof that God has already done a work in you when you trusted Christ. As with Abraham, God counts that trust as righteousness.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That is why your encouragement to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, starting with John, is so wise. In those books you meet Jesus Himself, you hear His promises, and the Holy Spirit uses that word to create and strengthen saving faith. Miracles and feelings do not create that faith, the word of God does.
For anyone reading this who has not yet trusted Him, turn to Jesus now with a sincere heart. Believe that He died for your sins and rose again, confess Him as Lord, and trust Him alone to save you. That turning from sin and desire to follow and obey Him will follow as God gives you a new heart, not as a payment you offer to God but as the natural result of belonging to Him.
May the Lord use your witness and His word to draw many to put their complete trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
