6.1 Isn’t faith a leap in the dark?
No. Actually faith demands the surest evidence, and finds it in the Word of God, the Bible. As previously said there is nothing as certain as God’s Word. His word is truth (6a). To have faith, or trust, in Him is the most sane, logical and reasonable thing a person can do. What is more reasonable than that the creature should trust his Creator Who cannot lie (6b), deceive (6c), or be deceived (6d)?
6.2 Isn’t the gospel too easy or cheap?
In one respect it is easy to be saved because someone else has done all the work for you. Also this easy way is available to all (6e). It is cheap for the sinner as it is absolutely free (6f). However it wasn’t cheap for the Saviour. He had to leave heaven’s glory, come down to this world of sin, suffer, shed His precious blood and die a horrible death in order to purchase forgiveness with God (6g).
6.3 You say that you don’t have to do anything to be saved and that all you have to do is believe. Isn’t that a contradiction?
- While it sounds like a contradiction here is what it means. There is nothing that you have to do, or can do, to earn God’s favour. You are not saved by: membership of a religion, faithfulness in obeying any religion’s rules and good works etc (6h).
- Believing is not itself a work that earns God’s favour. You don’t earn heaven because you did the believing, or had faith. You cannot boast because you did believe (Ephesians c2v8-9 has already been quoted). When a person believes in another person and what they have done, then it is the effectiveness of that other person that saves the believer. So when a person believes in Christ they rest in who He is and what He has done by His death and resurrection.Believing in Christ is effective because He brings you into acceptance and peace with God. Working is the opposite of believing or resting.
6.4 How can I tell if I have believed in the right way, if I have enough faith, or if I have the right kind of faith?
Faith is not the saviour but the Lord Jesus is. True faith lays hold of or trusts in Him. It’s not intellectual assent to facts but trust in a Person. It’s not the amount of faith but the object of faith that matters.
6.5 If I trust Christ, will I have a great emotional experience?
Some do and some don’t. To some, especially those saved from lives of deep sin, there is often a dramatic experience of deliverance. To others it may be the quiet acceptance of the offer of salvation from God. There is no question that salvation involves the emotions, but sometimes the emotional impact may not come until later, and even then, over a period of time.
6.6 How can I know that I’ll be able to hold on to salvation after I’m saved?
You will be no more able to keep yourself saved than you were to save yourself in the first place. Christ not only saves but also keeps. John’s Gospel c10v27-29 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” 1 Peter c1v5 says about believers in Christ, “Who are kept by the power of God” When He begins a good work in you, He will finish it (6i & 6j).
6.7 If all you have to do is believe, then can’t you go out and live any way you want?
When you trust Christ as your Saviour God gives you everlasting, or eternal, life (6k) and changes your wants. You basically do not want to sin. You lose your fierce appetite for sin. You don’t want to continue in that which caused the death of your Saviour. You will have a love of and enjoyment of the things of God.
2 Corinthians c5v17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” There will be a struggle against sin and a desire of help from God so as to please Him.
Bible References:
6a John’s Gospel c17v7 “Your word is truth.”
6b Titus c1v2 says “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.”
6c Hebrews c6v18 “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”
6d Hebrews c4v13 “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”
6e Romans c10v13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
6f Romans c8v32 (written to believers in Christ) “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
6g 1 Peter c2v24 “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, … by whose stripes you were healed.”
6h Titus c3v5a “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”
6i Philippians c1v6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
6j Jude v24 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
6k John’s Gospel c3v36 “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.”