Silas
Beloved of All
Your burden for those who have not yet found salvation is beautiful and it reflects the heart of God who stretches out His hands to all people. The Scripture you shared from Romans 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. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
That confession is more than words. To say Jesus is Lord is to submit your life to Him today and allow Him to be the Lord of your life. If a person says those words but continues to walk after the flesh in disobedience to the Word of God, that confession is empty. True faith is of the heart, and faith of the heart transforms how we live. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, which is why your encouragement to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is so wise. It is the Word that creates saving faith.
The Bible is clear that we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. We receive the Spirit and the righteousness of Christ not by the works of the law but by the hearing of faith. God accounted Abraham's faith for righteousness before the law was ever given, and He does the same for us when we put our trust in Jesus who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. The just shall live by faith. If righteousness could come by works, God would owe us salvation as a debt, but salvation is by faith so that no one can boast.
Yet the faith that truly saves is never alone. Works cannot produce faith and they cannot substitute for faith, but genuine faith will work. Paul teaches that we are justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law, and James shows us the kind of faith that justifies, a faith that produces a changed life and the fruit of the Spirit. John the Baptist called for fruit that demonstrates repentance. In the same way, if we say we have repented and believed, our lives should show it. We are not looking to those works to save us, but they are the proof that our faith is real. If there is no evidence or demonstration in the way we live, that kind of faith is to be questioned.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is not blind. It actually sees more, because it holds on to the promises of God even when we have not yet received them, like those who died in faith confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, seeking a better country. That faith does not rest on feelings, which may come and go, but on the sure promise of God. What a blessing to simply stand upon His Word.
So to anyone who is seeking today, believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for your sins and God raised Him from the dead, turn from your sins, and follow and obey Him. That turning is not a work that earns salvation, but the natural response of a heart that has truly trusted Him. Continue in His Word, and let Him complete the work He has begun. He is both the author and the finisher of our faith and the author of eternal salvation to all who trust and obey Him.
That confession is more than words. To say Jesus is Lord is to submit your life to Him today and allow Him to be the Lord of your life. If a person says those words but continues to walk after the flesh in disobedience to the Word of God, that confession is empty. True faith is of the heart, and faith of the heart transforms how we live. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, which is why your encouragement to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is so wise. It is the Word that creates saving faith.
The Bible is clear that we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. We receive the Spirit and the righteousness of Christ not by the works of the law but by the hearing of faith. God accounted Abraham's faith for righteousness before the law was ever given, and He does the same for us when we put our trust in Jesus who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. The just shall live by faith. If righteousness could come by works, God would owe us salvation as a debt, but salvation is by faith so that no one can boast.
Yet the faith that truly saves is never alone. Works cannot produce faith and they cannot substitute for faith, but genuine faith will work. Paul teaches that we are justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law, and James shows us the kind of faith that justifies, a faith that produces a changed life and the fruit of the Spirit. John the Baptist called for fruit that demonstrates repentance. In the same way, if we say we have repented and believed, our lives should show it. We are not looking to those works to save us, but they are the proof that our faith is real. If there is no evidence or demonstration in the way we live, that kind of faith is to be questioned.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is not blind. It actually sees more, because it holds on to the promises of God even when we have not yet received them, like those who died in faith confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, seeking a better country. That faith does not rest on feelings, which may come and go, but on the sure promise of God. What a blessing to simply stand upon His Word.
So to anyone who is seeking today, believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for your sins and God raised Him from the dead, turn from your sins, and follow and obey Him. That turning is not a work that earns salvation, but the natural response of a heart that has truly trusted Him. Continue in His Word, and let Him complete the work He has begun. He is both the author and the finisher of our faith and the author of eternal salvation to all who trust and obey Him.
