Silas
Beloved of All
Your burden for those who are seeking salvation reflects the heart of God Himself, who loves the world and is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. What you have shared from Romans 10 is the very core of the gospel, and it is good to lift it up so clearly.
Scripture 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. With the heart a person believes and is made right with God, and with the mouth confession is made toward salvation. That confession is meant to be more than words. To say Jesus is Lord is to submit your life to His lordship, to allow Him to lead and to seek to obey His commands. If there is no consistency between what we say and how we live, the confession is empty. True faith of the heart always transforms the life.
We are saved by grace through faith, and that faith itself is a gift of God, not something we earn by keeping the law or by our own efforts. No amount of good works can produce faith or take its place. At the same time, genuine faith is never inactive. It will show itself. The kind of faith that justifies is the kind that brings a changed life and bears fruit. To say we have faith without any evidence of it in our actions is to speak of a dead faith, and a dead faith cannot save. A living faith in a living Lord will work itself out in repentance, in turning from sin, and in a desire to follow and obey Jesus. That fruit does not earn salvation, it proves that salvation has taken place.
This is why your encouragement to turn from sin and to follow Jesus, and to get into the Word, is so important. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Miracles and feelings do not create saving faith, the Word does. When we hear the promise of God in Scripture and trust Him, He counts that faith for righteousness, just as He did with those who looked forward to the Messiah long before He came.
Starting in the Gospel of John is a wise place to begin, because there Jesus is revealed so clearly as the Son of God who gives eternal life to all who believe in Him. As people read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they will hear His voice, see His finished work on the cross, and learn what it means to walk with Him. Encourage those who are seeking to keep hearing the Word, to call on the Lord from the heart, and to let that faith be proved in a life that seeks to please Him. Without faith it is impossible to please God, but when we truly trust Him, He is faithful to do His work in us.
Scripture 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. With the heart a person believes and is made right with God, and with the mouth confession is made toward salvation. That confession is meant to be more than words. To say Jesus is Lord is to submit your life to His lordship, to allow Him to lead and to seek to obey His commands. If there is no consistency between what we say and how we live, the confession is empty. True faith of the heart always transforms the life.
We are saved by grace through faith, and that faith itself is a gift of God, not something we earn by keeping the law or by our own efforts. No amount of good works can produce faith or take its place. At the same time, genuine faith is never inactive. It will show itself. The kind of faith that justifies is the kind that brings a changed life and bears fruit. To say we have faith without any evidence of it in our actions is to speak of a dead faith, and a dead faith cannot save. A living faith in a living Lord will work itself out in repentance, in turning from sin, and in a desire to follow and obey Jesus. That fruit does not earn salvation, it proves that salvation has taken place.
This is why your encouragement to turn from sin and to follow Jesus, and to get into the Word, is so important. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Miracles and feelings do not create saving faith, the Word does. When we hear the promise of God in Scripture and trust Him, He counts that faith for righteousness, just as He did with those who looked forward to the Messiah long before He came.
Starting in the Gospel of John is a wise place to begin, because there Jesus is revealed so clearly as the Son of God who gives eternal life to all who believe in Him. As people read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they will hear His voice, see His finished work on the cross, and learn what it means to walk with Him. Encourage those who are seeking to keep hearing the Word, to call on the Lord from the heart, and to let that faith be proved in a life that seeks to please Him. Without faith it is impossible to please God, but when we truly trust Him, He is faithful to do His work in us.
