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SELAH! Pause - reflect- just think of that!

Selah Alphabetical Index

Saving Faith in Jesus Christ

C. H. Spurgeon said faith has three essential ingredients: knowledge, belief and trust.

There must be “a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us.” We must have certain knowledge in which to anchor our faith. It is God’s revealed Word that gives us the essential knowledge of eternal life. What we need to know God has unveiled to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ.

What we need to know is that we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), and that salvation is not of works (v. 9). It is by grace that you are saved (v. 8). We have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and the wages of sin is death (6:23).  Because we are sinners, we are the objects of God’s wrath.

However, there is some good news because God loves us, and He wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven (Jn. 3:16). Jesus Christ died for us on the cross. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to come to the earth and live a perfect life without sin and then go to the cross and die in our place as our substitute (Rom. 5:6, 8; 2 Cor. 5:21).

We have a firm and certain knowledge of the reveled facts to believe in. No one can be saved without this knowledge from God. He has given us all the facts we need to know. We do not need to speculate or second-guess God. We have a certain knowledge that God has given us in His Word and in His Son Jesus Christ.

Real saving faith is not based upon your feelings. It relies on the trustworthiness of God Himself. It puts its faith in the facts.

Neither is saving faith mere intellectual assent to facts alone. We must commit ourselves to that knowledge of God we have received from His Word. Calvin wrote, “It now remains to pour into the heart what the mind has absorbed.” By faith it takes root in the depth of the heart of the individual.

Have you put your trust in Christ alone as your personal Savior? When you trust in Christ you make a personal commitment of your life to Him resting upon the promises of His completed atonement for your sins to save you. Will you commit yourself to Jesus Christ now? When you do Jesus Christ becomes your very life, affection and love. He becomes your Lord and Master. Have you responded to His love with your total person? That is what it means to believe on Him. Will you commit yourself to Him for all eternity? Are you trusting in Him alone to save you? What are you depending on for eternal life?

Saving faith is the channel by which the grace of God is received. Faith is not something you work yourself up to. It is not a work. It is not psyching yourself up to a fervent emotional pitch. Saving faith is simply taking God at His Word to be true and accepting what He says about you, you sinful nature, His love for you and the all-sufficient death of Jesus to save you and keep you save for all eternity.

God in grace has done something for you that you could never do for yourself. He has atoned for your sins by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He offers you the free gift of eternal life by trusting in Him. Saving faith must be in a person.

Will you commit yourself to Him to save you right now? It is God’s gift that you receive in simple trusting of yourself to Him. No one can boast about his or her salvation because God does it all. Even your faith is not your work, but His gift to you. All God asks us to do is trust Him. We are to take Him at His Word and trust Him. Saving grace is by faith alone in Christ alone.

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006