Silas
Beloved of All
What you have shared is the heart of the gospel and it is good to lift it up so clearly. The Scripture you quoted in Romans 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, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
That belief is not mere agreement in the mind. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. It is trust in what God has promised even when we cannot see it with our eyes. Without that kind of faith it is impossible to please God. From the beginning God has received people on the ground of faith, as with Abel who was declared righteous because he believed God, and Enoch who walked with God by faith.
Salvation is by grace through faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. No one is made right with God by keeping the law or by good deeds. If someone answers the question of how they have eternal life by saying my faith is in Jesus Christ, they have answered well. The moment we add anything to Jesus, we are in trouble. Even Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God, and that same faith in Christ is counted to us for righteousness today. We receive the Holy Spirit not by working for it but by hearing with faith.
Yet the faith that saves is a living faith, and living faith always shows itself. Works cannot create faith and they cannot replace faith, but true faith will work. Paul teaches that we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law, and James shows what kind of faith justifies, a faith that produces a changed life. To say we have faith and have no evidence in how we live is to have a dead faith, and dead faith cannot save. Demons also believe that God exists, but that belief does not save them. Real faith is proved by what it produces, and it is made complete as it works itself out in obedience. We are not looking to those works to earn salvation, we look to them as the proof that salvation has taken place.
That is why confession must be more than words. To confess that Jesus is Lord means to submit your life to Him as Lord, to be willing to obey His commands and to turn from sin. If a person confesses Jesus as Lord with the mouth but continues to walk after the flesh in disobedience to His Word, that confession is empty. The faith that is of the heart transforms actions and life. Where there is true repentance there will be fruit that fits repentance.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Miracles do not create saving faith, the Word does. Your encouragement to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is wise. John so clearly presents Jesus as the Son of God that believing you may have life in His name. As you read, do not look for a feeling to base your faith on, stand on the promise of God itself. Feelings come and go, but the Word of God stands.
Remember also that God Himself took the initiative in salvation. He so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He is both the author of our salvation and the author and finisher of our faith. He will be faithful to complete what He begins in those who truly trust Him.
If you have believed in your heart and confessed Jesus as Lord, continue in that faith with patience, trusting His grace daily, and let that faith be seen in a life that follows and obeys Him.
That belief is not mere agreement in the mind. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. It is trust in what God has promised even when we cannot see it with our eyes. Without that kind of faith it is impossible to please God. From the beginning God has received people on the ground of faith, as with Abel who was declared righteous because he believed God, and Enoch who walked with God by faith.
Salvation is by grace through faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. No one is made right with God by keeping the law or by good deeds. If someone answers the question of how they have eternal life by saying my faith is in Jesus Christ, they have answered well. The moment we add anything to Jesus, we are in trouble. Even Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God, and that same faith in Christ is counted to us for righteousness today. We receive the Holy Spirit not by working for it but by hearing with faith.
Yet the faith that saves is a living faith, and living faith always shows itself. Works cannot create faith and they cannot replace faith, but true faith will work. Paul teaches that we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law, and James shows what kind of faith justifies, a faith that produces a changed life. To say we have faith and have no evidence in how we live is to have a dead faith, and dead faith cannot save. Demons also believe that God exists, but that belief does not save them. Real faith is proved by what it produces, and it is made complete as it works itself out in obedience. We are not looking to those works to earn salvation, we look to them as the proof that salvation has taken place.
That is why confession must be more than words. To confess that Jesus is Lord means to submit your life to Him as Lord, to be willing to obey His commands and to turn from sin. If a person confesses Jesus as Lord with the mouth but continues to walk after the flesh in disobedience to His Word, that confession is empty. The faith that is of the heart transforms actions and life. Where there is true repentance there will be fruit that fits repentance.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Miracles do not create saving faith, the Word does. Your encouragement to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, beginning with John, is wise. John so clearly presents Jesus as the Son of God that believing you may have life in His name. As you read, do not look for a feeling to base your faith on, stand on the promise of God itself. Feelings come and go, but the Word of God stands.
Remember also that God Himself took the initiative in salvation. He so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He is both the author of our salvation and the author and finisher of our faith. He will be faithful to complete what He begins in those who truly trust Him.
If you have believed in your heart and confessed Jesus as Lord, continue in that faith with patience, trusting His grace daily, and let that faith be seen in a life that follows and obeys Him.
