Believe Unto Salvation
The wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ
contains within it the power to save my soul. No matter what I have done or how
vile my life here on earth has been the gospel can work a cleansing that will
leave my conscience spotless and pure. The words of Jesus Christ have been
written down and preserved for me throughout time so that I might have the hope
that only the gospel can instill in me. God has prepared men to go out and to
teach proclaim His word since He has first revealed His will to man. There is
no one on this earth that has the desire to hear the gospel that cannot be
accommodated. Unfortunately all of this is not worth anything. That is right;
all the effort that has been expended by both God and man is worth nothing in my
life, unless I choose to believe.
God is of course the ultimate power in this
universe. He has the ability to and has spoken worlds into existence. God
certainly has within His power the ability to cause you and I to do what ever He
wishes. He has no real need of our worship, love, or obedience; yet He desires
those things. However, it is not enough for Him to desire those things; he
wants us to desire them. He seeks those who seek Him. He has given us the gift
of choice that we might choose to turn to Him. All of this is summed up in
Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes
to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him.”
John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the
world that He gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in Him would not
perish but have everlasting life.” Romans 10:9 says “that if you… believe in
your heart that God has raised Him (Jesus) from the dead, you will be saved.”
One cannot help but make the connection between salvation and belief. How could
we come to have the knowledge that it is only through Jesus Christ that we can
come to the Father and only in His name that we can find salvation, not believe
and still expect our salvation? Clearly and plainly the Bible teaches
otherwise. However, we need to come to understand what this concept of Bible
belief entails.
Most people in the religious world today
feel that there is no work that I must do in order to obtain salvation. This
concept comes from an interesting definition of the word work. When the word
work is used by many in the religious world they intend the idea of meritorious
works, or works of merit. In other words, if works are necessary for salvation
then I earn my way into heaven and deserve eternal life. The Bible teaches that
I cannot do this. There is simply no way in which I can earn or deserve my
salvation (Titus 3:4-5). However, this is a rather narrow definition of works.
A work simply defined is that which one undertakes to do (Strong’s). In other
words, whatever I am busying myself with doing is a work. There may be much
that I do in a given day that is necessary without meriting anything special.
For instance, this morning I got out of bed and prepared myself for the day.
This is a work that I have done, however, it bears no special merit and
certainly I deserve no special commendation for doing such. Yet, had I not
gotten out of bed I could never have accomplished the goals of the day. So we
can see that doing a “work” may simply imply doing that which must be done. I
feel it necessary to examine the concept of work in this context because in many
cases the same person that would tell me there is no work necessary to salvation
will then turn and tell me that I must believe in Jesus in order to go to
heaven. This causes me a great deal of consternation because of the
conversation that Jesus had with the Jews in John 6:27-29. The Jews had
followed Jesus across the Sea of Galilee seeking food from Him. Once they
approached Him He told them to labor “for the food which endures to everlasting
life.” They then asked Him a very pointed question, “What shall we do, that we
may work the works of God?” Notice the reply that Jesus gives, “This is the
work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” According to the teaching
of most today this was the wrong answer to the question! Clearly the subject is
works. Clearly the question deals with doing. Surely Jesus should have
answered simply, “Nothing!” At least this is what is taught in most of the
major religious organizations today. But, Jesus said that they had a work to do
and not only did they have a work to do that work was belief. Now we can not
have it two ways. Either belief is a work or it isn’t. Either works are
necessary to please God are they are not. Which one is it?
Some might say that belief is a mental
effort not to be confused with those things that are done outwardly. That
belief is not something that requires me to act, but just a thought process and
that this somehow differentiates it from an action such as baptism. However this
is simply not what we see in the Bible. It is interesting to me to see how
often in the Bible belief is connected with an action, and that this action is
connected to salvation. Romans 10:9-10 we see here belief connected with
confession. Notice what verse 10 has to say about this action of confession;
“with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” In Mark 16:16 we find
belief connected to baptism for salvation. When the rich young ruler of Matthew
19 came to Jesus and asked what he should do to inherit eternal life.
The very question that he was asking and way that Jesus dealt with him implied
his belief, and what did Jesus say, “go, sell what you have and give to the
poor” (vs. 21). Would any one argue that this was a work? When the Philippian
Jailer of Acts 16 asked Paul “what must I do to be saved?” Paul “spoke the word
of the Lord to him” (vs. 32), faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of
God (Rom 10:17), then he was baptized. We could go on and on but James summed
up the whole matter for us. “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is
dead” James 2:17. Let us then believe in the God who made us and thereby live a
life of obedience to Him.
By Shawn Chancellor
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