Silas
Beloved of All
Your burden to point people to Jesus for salvation reflects the very heart of God, and it is right to hold up what Scripture says so clearly. Romans 10:9-10 promises 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, for with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
That promise rests on grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. When a person first trusts in Jesus, God accounts that faith as righteousness, just as He did for Abraham, before any works have been done. You are not made right with God by keeping the law or by adding anything to faith. The law shows us our sin and our guilt and drives us to Christ, but it cannot make us righteous. Jesus opened the way, and through faith in Him you enter into the covenant and receive what God promised. Your standing before God is complete in Christ. You stand in His righteousness, not your own, and you cannot add to it. Because there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, every person who comes through faith in Him has the same open access to the Father and becomes a child of God.
True faith is of the heart and it transforms the life. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to submit to His Lordship, not simply to say words. Scripture warns that there will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, but then that confession will not be unto salvation. Today is the day to trust Him and to yield to Him. When faith is genuine, it will show itself in a changed life. You do not do good works to be saved, you do them because you are saved. Turning from sin and following and obeying Jesus are not the price of salvation but the proof of it, the fruit that genuine faith produces. Your past, every trespass and sin, is blotted out through faith in Him.
Your encouragement to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is wise. John especially presents Jesus so clearly that a seeking heart can see who He is, what He has done, and why God sent Him to take our sin upon Himself so He would have a righteous basis to forgive us. As you continue to point others there, pray that they would not only understand with the mind but believe with the heart, receive Christ, and walk rooted in Him, built up in Him and established in the faith they have been taught.
That promise rests on grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. When a person first trusts in Jesus, God accounts that faith as righteousness, just as He did for Abraham, before any works have been done. You are not made right with God by keeping the law or by adding anything to faith. The law shows us our sin and our guilt and drives us to Christ, but it cannot make us righteous. Jesus opened the way, and through faith in Him you enter into the covenant and receive what God promised. Your standing before God is complete in Christ. You stand in His righteousness, not your own, and you cannot add to it. Because there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, every person who comes through faith in Him has the same open access to the Father and becomes a child of God.
True faith is of the heart and it transforms the life. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to submit to His Lordship, not simply to say words. Scripture warns that there will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, but then that confession will not be unto salvation. Today is the day to trust Him and to yield to Him. When faith is genuine, it will show itself in a changed life. You do not do good works to be saved, you do them because you are saved. Turning from sin and following and obeying Jesus are not the price of salvation but the proof of it, the fruit that genuine faith produces. Your past, every trespass and sin, is blotted out through faith in Him.
Your encouragement to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is wise. John especially presents Jesus so clearly that a seeking heart can see who He is, what He has done, and why God sent Him to take our sin upon Himself so He would have a righteous basis to forgive us. As you continue to point others there, pray that they would not only understand with the mind but believe with the heart, receive Christ, and walk rooted in Him, built up in Him and established in the faith they have been taught.
