It was pointed out in a previous article that we would present six conditions, that God has set, that we must meet in order to have eternal salvation. In our last article, we noted the first of these conditions is that one must hear the word of God (Rom. 10:13-14). In this article we wish to present “faith” as a condition for salvation. In truth, this is one of the least opposed conditions that God has set, yet also one of the most misunderstood conditions. Most agree that one must have faith, but there is disagreement on just what faith is, how one gets it and whether anything else is required or not.
Let us start with just a few passages that show clearly that faith is a condition for salvation. The apostle Paul stated, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). He told the Romans, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). To the Galatians he wrote, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). And of course, the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews stated, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6). Needless to say, numerous more verses could be cited that show the necessity of faith in order to procure salvation.
So, just what is this faith that one’s salvation is so dependent upon? First realize that the word “faith” simply means “belief”. In many versions the word is translated faith when used as a noun and believe when used as a verb. A good example of this is seen in the Hebrews passage just cited. The writer said that without “faith” it is not possible to please God because to come to God one would have to “believe” certain things (Heb. 11:6). It is the same Greek word that is translated both faith and believe in that text. Some would have one believe that Bible faith is something other than what they believe, but such is not the case. The word can and is sometimes used to denote a whole system of belief, such as the entirety of the Christian doctrine (Jude 3), but when speaking of an individual’s faith, it is their belief. Included in this consideration of what just what faith is would be a consideration of what one must “believe” in order to be saved. For some, this is to simply believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. To some, that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died on the cross to save us from our sins. When Jesus first began His earthly ministry, He “…came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Just before ascending into heaven, Jesus gave the apostles the great commission saying, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16). According to Jesus, it is the gospel that must be believed in order to be saved. In other words, belief of the gospel of Christ is the faith that brings one to salvation. Included in that, of course, would be the facts concerning who Jesus was and is and what He did to provide that salvation; but it also includes much more than that.
How does one go about getting this soul saving faith? One verse would suffice to answer this question, but we will provide a bit more than the one. The one verse states, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). In our consideration of the condition of “hearing”, we noted that Paul had said that, “…whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” (Rom. 10:13-14). On the day of Pentecost, after the gospel had been preached, Luke records, “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). Luke also recorded in the book of Acts, “And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized” (Acts 18:8). In fact, the gospel accounts written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written to produce faith in the minds of the readers. John wrote near the end of his gospel record, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30-31).
In short, the faith that one must have in order to have eternal salvation is a complete faith in the gospel of Christ. “It is the power of God unto salvation…For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17). Learn it, believe it and obey it if you desire eternal salvation.