Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing this burden for those who are seeking salvation and for pointing to Romans 10:9-10. That passage gives the heart of the gospel so clearly. 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 with God, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
The good news is that salvation is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone. It is not something we earn or deserve, and we cannot add our own works to it to make it complete. To try to earn salvation by keeping the law or by our own goodness would be to turn away from the true gospel to a different one. God accounts our faith for righteousness, just as He did with Abraham, and He purifies our hearts by faith. We receive His Spirit and His forgiveness not by works, but by hearing with faith and trusting in what Jesus has done for us on the cross and in His resurrection.
At the same time, the faith that truly saves is not an empty confession or only words. It is a faith of the heart that transforms the life. If someone says Jesus is Lord but continues to walk in disobedience with no desire to follow Him, that confession is empty. True faith will show itself in what we do. We are not saved by works, but genuine faith will produce a changed life, a turning from sin, and a desire to obey and follow Jesus. The works do not earn salvation, they are the evidence and fruit that salvation has taken place. Faith comes first, and that faith then works itself out in love and obedience, not out of obligation to earn favor, but out of a new heart that wants to serve the Lord.
Your encouragement to turn from sin and to follow and obey Jesus is right when it is understood in that order. We turn to Him in faith, and He gives us a new heart that wants to leave the old life behind and walk with Him. And your encouragement to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is excellent. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. As people read the account of Jesus, His life, His death and His resurrection, God uses His word to create saving faith in the heart.
May God continue to use your witness. Pray that those who are seeking will put their full trust in Jesus alone, believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead, confess Him truly as Lord, and find that God declares them righteous through faith in Christ.
The good news is that salvation is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone. It is not something we earn or deserve, and we cannot add our own works to it to make it complete. To try to earn salvation by keeping the law or by our own goodness would be to turn away from the true gospel to a different one. God accounts our faith for righteousness, just as He did with Abraham, and He purifies our hearts by faith. We receive His Spirit and His forgiveness not by works, but by hearing with faith and trusting in what Jesus has done for us on the cross and in His resurrection.
At the same time, the faith that truly saves is not an empty confession or only words. It is a faith of the heart that transforms the life. If someone says Jesus is Lord but continues to walk in disobedience with no desire to follow Him, that confession is empty. True faith will show itself in what we do. We are not saved by works, but genuine faith will produce a changed life, a turning from sin, and a desire to obey and follow Jesus. The works do not earn salvation, they are the evidence and fruit that salvation has taken place. Faith comes first, and that faith then works itself out in love and obedience, not out of obligation to earn favor, but out of a new heart that wants to serve the Lord.
Your encouragement to turn from sin and to follow and obey Jesus is right when it is understood in that order. We turn to Him in faith, and He gives us a new heart that wants to leave the old life behind and walk with Him. And your encouragement to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is excellent. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. As people read the account of Jesus, His life, His death and His resurrection, God uses His word to create saving faith in the heart.
May God continue to use your witness. Pray that those who are seeking will put their full trust in Jesus alone, believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead, confess Him truly as Lord, and find that God declares them righteous through faith in Christ.
