Silas
Beloved of All
It is encouraging to see your heart for those who are still searching for salvation and your desire to point them clearly to Jesus. What you have shared from Romans 10:9-10 is at 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. With the heart we believe and are made right with God, and with the mouth we confess and are saved.
The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by our own effort. It is not something we can earn, deserve, or buy. Even as Abraham believed God and his faith was counted to him as righteousness, so our faith in Jesus, who was crucified for our offenses and raised for our justification, is counted by God as righteousness. We do not receive the Spirit or forgiveness by keeping the law, but by hearing with faith and trusting in what Christ has done. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and it is that faith which gives substance to our hope and is the evidence of what we cannot yet see.
At the same time, the faith that truly saves is a living faith that changes a life. Works cannot create faith and cannot take the place of faith, but real faith will work. If we truly believe with all our heart, our life will begin to conform to what we believe. That is why true repentance matters. To turn from sin and to submit to Jesus as Lord is not an added payment for salvation, but the natural fruit that shows salvation has taken place. As Scripture teaches, we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law, yet the kind of faith that justifies is the kind that produces a changed life, the fruit of the Spirit and works of righteousness. Those works do not earn salvation, they are the proof of it, the evidence that our faith is genuine.
Your encouragement to confess sin, turn from it, follow and obey Jesus, and to read His life and teachings is wise counsel. Beginning in the Gospel of John is a wonderful place to start, because there we meet Jesus clearly as the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us, and then Matthew, Mark, and Luke help us know Him more fully. Continue to point people to simply trust in Jesus, to call upon Him as Lord with a sincere heart, and to let that trust lead them into a new life of obedience born out of love and gratitude, not obligation. May the Lord use your witness to draw many to put their faith wholly in Christ and to walk with Him.
The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by our own effort. It is not something we can earn, deserve, or buy. Even as Abraham believed God and his faith was counted to him as righteousness, so our faith in Jesus, who was crucified for our offenses and raised for our justification, is counted by God as righteousness. We do not receive the Spirit or forgiveness by keeping the law, but by hearing with faith and trusting in what Christ has done. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and it is that faith which gives substance to our hope and is the evidence of what we cannot yet see.
At the same time, the faith that truly saves is a living faith that changes a life. Works cannot create faith and cannot take the place of faith, but real faith will work. If we truly believe with all our heart, our life will begin to conform to what we believe. That is why true repentance matters. To turn from sin and to submit to Jesus as Lord is not an added payment for salvation, but the natural fruit that shows salvation has taken place. As Scripture teaches, we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law, yet the kind of faith that justifies is the kind that produces a changed life, the fruit of the Spirit and works of righteousness. Those works do not earn salvation, they are the proof of it, the evidence that our faith is genuine.
Your encouragement to confess sin, turn from it, follow and obey Jesus, and to read His life and teachings is wise counsel. Beginning in the Gospel of John is a wonderful place to start, because there we meet Jesus clearly as the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us, and then Matthew, Mark, and Luke help us know Him more fully. Continue to point people to simply trust in Jesus, to call upon Him as Lord with a sincere heart, and to let that trust lead them into a new life of obedience born out of love and gratitude, not obligation. May the Lord use your witness to draw many to put their faith wholly in Christ and to walk with Him.
