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THE
BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?
EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?
GOD
- MAN
Is Jesus really God?
RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?
SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?
TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.
SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.
FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?
GUIDANCE
How does God guide?
REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.
BORN
AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?
SAVING
FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven
ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?
TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?
MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.
THE
CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the
new millennium.
PURPOSE
How
can I find a great purpose for living?
IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of
God.
SELF-ESTEEM
How
can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.
LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.
THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.
Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.
Aspects of saving faith
Saving faith is exclusive
It is trusting in Christ alone for my eternal salvation - not Christ and my good character, or Christ and my good works, or Christ and my religious observances, or Christ and some other religious leader. John Paton was a missionary last century to cannibals in the New Hebrides. When translating one of the gospels into a local language, he had a problem finding a word or phrase in their language that was equivalent to the New Testament's concept of trusting in Christ. The islanders trusted nobody and there was no word for "trust" in their language. His native assistant entered the room and Paton had an idea. "What am I doing?" Paton asked. The man replied that he was sitting at his desk. Paton then raised both feet off the floor and sat back on his chair. "What am I doing now?" he asked. In reply, the native used a verb which means "to lean your whole weight upon". This is the expression that Paton used through the gospel to translate "to believe in" Jesus.
Someone has put it in the form of an acrostic of the word "Faith":
| F | Forsaking |
| A | All |
| I | I |
| T | Take |
| H | Him |
Saving faith is personal
John Wesley put it like this:
Justifying faith implies, not only a divine evidence or conviction, that 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,' but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for my sins, that he loved me, and gave himself for me.
Saving faith is receiving, not giving
To use John Calvin's famous analogy, faith is like an empty, open hand, stretched out towards God, with nothing to offer and everything to receive. Or to quote one of today's leading theologians, Alister McGrath:
Faith is the final step in the process begun by the cross of Christ - we recognise its meaning, we realise its relevance and finally we receive its benefits.
Saving faith is not anti-intellectual
There is nothing anti-intellectual about saving faith. It means that, having been convinced that Jesus is indeed the divine Lord,* and that I need to be reconciled to him, I am then prepared to take the next step of committing my life to him. Evangelist Leighton Ford has said, "Belief is not faith without evidence, but commitment without reservation."
Saving faith involves commitment
Being a Christian involves a personal relationship with the living Christ. He cannot do the things he wishes to do in our lives without that relationship. As he is Lord of heaven and earth, this involves a willingness to accept him as Lord of our own lives. Jesus said, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46). Charles Spurgeon said, "Faith and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God, trusts God; and he that trusts God, obeys God." Negatively, this means that I must be willing, with God's help, to turn away from everything that would be inconsistent with living in a relationship with God. The Bible word for this is "repentance".**
*I have focused on
this question in the booklet Is Jesus Really God?
**I have explored the meaning of repentance further in the booklet Repentance:
What It Is and Why You Can't Get To Heaven Without
It.
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The kind of faith that will get you into heaven
If salvation is by faith, do good works matter?
Aspects of saving faith
