Not all types of faith are created equal. In my last two posts I’ve written about evidence-based faith and ordinary faith. But neither one of these kinds of faith will earn anyone brownie points with God. The reason is because they simply treat God as an object.
For example, a person might say, “I’ve considered all the philosophical arguments for the existence of God and I’ve now concluded that God exists.” Or, “I’ve studied the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I now believe that Jesus Christ actually did die on a cross and rise bodily from the grave.”
While these statements are good as far as they go, neither one of them describes someone with saving faith. The problem with these two statements is the term “that.” In these statements, “that” tells us what the person believes to be true. But it doesn’t tell us what the person has done with these truths. The Bible says that propositional faith – simply stating that one believes something to be true – is not saving faith.
“You believe that there is one God. Good! The demons also believe – and shudder.”1
Saving faith, on the other hand, is much more than simple mental ascent to God’s existence or to Christ’s death and resurrection. Saving faith involves understanding who God is, how we have sinned against him, and then entrusting ourselves to Jesus and his work on the cross to save us from God’s wrath.
The Bible uses an important preposition to describe saving faith: “in” (and sometimes “on”).
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.2
“To the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”3
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”4
In all of these passages, and others like them, the preposition “in” means to entrust or to rely on Jesus to save us from our sin. This is a very different kind of faith than simply believing that something is true about God and Jesus.
For example, I can believe that a plane can take me from Denver International to Los Angeles International. But simply believing that fact doesn’t get me from Denver to Los Angeles. To get from Denver to LA, I have to step from the airport causeway at DIA onto the plane. I have believe in the plane: entrust myself – my very life – to the plane.
That is what the Bible is talking about when it comes to saving faith. To get from our miserable, sinful state to heaven, We have to entrust ourselves to Jesus, God’s provision for our sin, to save us from God’s just and righteous wrath.
So, here’s my question: have you done that? Have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ to save you? If not, I invite you to settle this issue right now. Pause for a moment and tell God in prayer that you acknowledge that you are a sinner and that you are entrusting your soul to Jesus as the one who paid for your sin on the cross.
If you have done that, then welcome to the kingdom, my friend.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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