THE WAY OF SALVATION | FAITH

1. The way of Salvation

a) Christ's death on the cross is the ground of God's wonderful plan of salvation. It was completely necessary and at the same time perfectly sufficient.

b) There are four words in the Bible which further tell about God's work in saving men. These are: Election, Predestination, Calling, and Adoption. We will also think of two words which tell about man's part in God's plan of salvation: Repentance, and Faith.

2. What is Faith?

a) Faith is to believe what someone else says. Thus God makes known to man His love, and a Christian tells the gospel story. A man who hears it and believes it is a man who has faith.

b) The word faith is also used for what we can trust in: Christian truth as a whole. "Contend for the faith", Jude 3.

c) We also read of the faithfulness of God, Romans 3:3. This means that we can trust Him and know that He will never fail us. Thus we believe that the Gospel message is true and that God is faithful. We commit ourselves to Him. This is faith.

d) What a person does and how he acts shows if he has true faith or not. Just to agree in your mind that something is true is not the kind of faith God wants us to have. Demons believe that there is one God and are afraid, but this does not save them. Faith that does not show itself by actions that are pleasing to God is dead faith, and a person with that kind of faith does not have eternal life at all, James 2:14-26.

e) Election, predestination, calling and adoption all show that God is in control over all. Man's part is to repent and have faith.