What Does It Mean To Have Saving Faith In Jesus Christ?

 We live in a time when there is a super abundance of churches in the U.S. and around the world. However, we also live in a time of great confusion as to what we must "do" to inherit eternal life and forgiveness of sins.

Ask a hundred regular church attending folks "What must I do to be saved?" and you will receive a number of different answers to that question. 

Perhaps you will become very lucky and one of those church goers will tell you that you must "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved"! That would truly be wonderful because that is the correct answer.

The next big hurdle you will face is even trickier in today's confused church world. That hurdle is answering this question, "What does it mean to have saving faith, or what does it mean to believe in Jesus?".

To answer that question I want to share a portion of a recent blog post by Dr. Bob Wilkin from his site faithalone.org.

In my book The Ten Most Misunderstood Words in the Bible, I write this about saving faith:

Saving faith means believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for everlasting life (cf. 1 Tim 1:16). Nothing else is saving faith. Not only is believing in Him for everlasting life enough, but it is also the only way to have everlasting life. Jesus guarantees everlasting life to all who simply believe in Him for it—with no strings attached (p. 22).

In his book Absolutely Free, Zane Hodges wrote, “The truth that Jesus is the Christ—the truth that He is the Giver of eternal life to every believer—is saving truth. Belief in this truth produces immediate—and permanent—new birth” (p. 38).

In my opinion, Dr. Wilkin, is one of the best theologians at defining what it means to believe. I hope you didn't miss it. Believing is simply "believing". Believing is being persuaded that a proposition is true. 

Dr Wilkin quoted the late Zane Hodges who properly identified what that proposition is. That proposition is "The truth that Jesus is the Christ - the truth that He is the giver of eternal life to every believer - is saving truth. Belief in this truth produces immediate and permanent - new birth."

The Apostle Paul talked about those who would confuse people concerning the simplicity of Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 11:3 it says...

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Friend, it really is that simple. Jesus Christ died on a cross over 2000 years ago. He shed His blood willingly to take away your sins. He was buried and three days later He rose from the dead to give you eternal life. If you are persuaded that this truth is true for you then you have eternal life. As Zane Hodges said, that eternal life becomes yours immediately and permanently once you believe.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved today!