Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Grace I get. Don't deserve it, but I understand it. My salvation is a gift, not a reward.
Faith, intellectually I understand. Faith is the "conviction of things not seen." (Heb. 11:1 ASV) It is an absolute belief in something we have not seen or touched. It is necessary for salvation. BUT. . .
Faith in what? This may sound like such a fundamental, "duh!" question, but what exactly must one have faith in/believe/confess in order to have the assurance of salvation?
Jesus- of course. But what about Jesus?
God- of course. But what about God?
Does the the Bible contain a list of necessary "have faith in's"?
Romans 10:9 tells us "if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Is this the sum total of necessary belief? But that denies a belief in Christ's divinity, virgin birth, perfect life, etc. So what exactly must one believe in order to be saved? Faith in what?
No comments:
Post a Comment