Faith is another foundational doctrine of the Christian faith (Hebrews 6:1). The Bible tells us we gain victory by faith (1 John 5:4)! Understanding faith is vital to salvation. In fact, without faith, it is impossible to be saved!
Faith, like repentance, is interwoven with surrender. We must have faith in Jesus to be saved.
We learn from scripture that we are saved by grace through faith, NOT by our own works so that no one can boast (Eph 2). This means that you cannot earn salvation on your own merits. You could feed orphans with all you have and pray for 10 years straight and still you will not earn salvation, salvation is a gift of God. You are not given salvation because you are special or because you are extra good. It is only by the marvelous grace of God that you are saved and you can only get this salvation by faith.
The Bible tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (Heb 11:1). Faith is something so simple that a child is our best example of it.
A young child trusts their parents. They have faith in their parents to take care of them and love them. Think of a 2-year-old child. They don’t try to go out and work to feed themselves, they trust that their parents will feed them and care for them. It is the same way with us. When we have faith in God, we put our trust in Him like a little child. We trust in what He did for us on the cross is enough to save us. We trust that He loves us and cares for us. We trust that His saving power is enough. We trust that in baptism, the old us dies with Christ and we rise again new because of the power of God. Faith is really so simple and it is the KEY to freedom from sin and the key to salvation.
People struggle for years and years with sin because they believe that no one can stop sinning. Their faith is in their ability to faith. But as soon as they get their eyes off of their selves and onto Jesus and by faith they trust Him like a child to keep them from sin and to cleanse their hearts, they suddenly are given a pure heart and stop sinning! It is amazing. He is able to keep us from falling (Jude 1:24-25)
God doesn’t want you to try, try, try to stop sinning in your own strength. He wants you to realize you CAN’T stop sinning and you can’t be saved without Jesus! You must stop trying in your own flesh to save yourself and instead you must come to Jesus like a child and tell Him earnestly “Lord, I cannot save myself. But you, Oh Lord, are mighty to save. Please come and touch my heart and make me clean. Please come and wash me in your blood. Please come and open my eyes so that I can see. Please give me a new heart. I give myself completely to you and I trust you that you will do it. I trust in your love for me because you gave your very life for me. I trust you are mighty to save. Please come into my heart and life and make me new.”
This is the essence of faith.
Faith is NOT an intellectual belief that has no action. In fact, the Bible tells us that faith without works/action is a dead faith. As a body without the spirit is dead, faith without works is dead also (James 2:26). This doesn’t mean we are saved by works, what it means is that true faith WORKS! True faith is trust IN Jesus, it is an action word. Real faith is a surrender of your life to Jesus.
Saving faith is this:
You must have faith and belief that Jesus is the Son of God who died for your sins on the cross and rose again and you must give your life to Him and trust in Him alone for salvation.
You must believe that HE alone saves and cleanses and transforms so you must stop trying to do it in your own strength and instead transfer all of your trust into His loving arms. It is not by trying in the flesh, it is about DYING to the flesh and letting Christ come in and radically change you. Transfer your trust off of yourself and onto the savior.