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What Are You Trusting In?
Getting Our Toes Wet:
Anyone who likes to float on the water loves having a brand-new raft. You can relax, secure in the knowledge that because it’s new, it will keep you afloat without adding anything to it – no patches, no water sealer, no marine caulking. Our faith in Jesus’ finished work on the cross should be like that – secure that it’s all you need for salvation – without anything added to it.
Diving in Deep:
When a person hears the Good News of the Gospel, the response required for them to be saved is faith. Faith is the lone instrument in salvation. Saving faith is having a total reliance on the fact that Jesus died on the cross and suffered God’s wrath in your place as your substitute, satisfying God’s justice for your sin. Jesus’ blood shed for sin does not need our good deeds, our Bible study, or anything else added to it. Our debt is paid in full. We will stand before God as empty-handed beggars with nothing to offer for our salvation that we did ourselves. Faith is counting 100% on what Jesus did for us.
Repentance is a word that often gets added to faith when talking about salvation; but repentance is a fruit of faith. A heart that responds to the Gospel in faith will feel conviction for having offended its Creator, prompting them to repent. They will have a true feeling of remorse; not over the bad circumstances the sin caused, but sorrow for disobeying God. Faith alone in Christ alone is what saves. Nowhere does the Bible teach that we must have faith plus anything – not baptism, not our good works, nor speaking in ‘tongues.’
When the Philippian jailer asked Paul “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s answer was, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” - Acts 16:30-31
Back on Dry Land:
The greatest need of every human is that when we stand before God, He declares us “righteous” and not “condemned.” When we trust in Jesus’ death on the cross as atonement for our sin, we are declared righteous by God. Jesus said, “It is finished.” And it is! No additives needed.
About this Plan
The word “Gospel” literally means, “Nearly too good to be true good news.” The Gospel is not just the message we need to know for our salvation. It is the life-saving, life-giving, and life-transforming message of our Almighty, Triune God! To study it, to know it, and to be able to articulate the Word of God is not so much our responsibility as it is our privilege!
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