Before the foundation of the world, God the Father designed the plan by which He would reconcile sinful man to Him (Ephesians 3:10-11). He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live as a man and die on the cross to make it effective (John 3:16; Matthew 1:21; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:22).

Following His ascension back to heaven, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to reveal that plan to the apostles and other inspired writers. They, in their writings, made known what God requires man to do to be a recipient of the blessings that Christ’s sacrificial death made possible (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:10-16).

For, you see, there are two sides to salvation—one Divine, the other human. While salvation is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8), there are certain things the Lord sets forth in His Gospel that one must do in order to receive that gift. When a person obeys those commands, God imparts the gift of salvation to him.

Faith

Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1 as "...the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It is an assured trust in God upon which rests a person’s conviction that God can accomplish all of the promises He has made. It gives the believer both the desire and endurance to serve the Lord diligently and to strive for the eternal reward God gives to the faithful—a life in heaven.

Faith is necessary for salvation. Such passages as John 3:16; Hebrews 11:6; Ephesians 2:8; and Romans 5:12 all say it is. Jesus said, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).

Such a faith does not come by a vision or special revelation. One does not get it by a direct operation of the Holy Spirit on the heart separate and apart from the word of God or some inner ecstatic feeling. Faith is produced in the heart (mind) of the believer when he hears what God’s word, the Bible, reveals about God and Christ and what they have done for man. Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” In stating his purpose for writing his inspired account of the life of Jesus, the apostle John shows how the
Scriptures develop this faith in a person’s heart.

He wrote, “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30-31).

One must have faith in order to receive eternal life. Yet, it is sad to think that many people who believe on Jesus stop at the point of faith. They have been taught that it is the only thing necessary for life. While it is a requirement, it is not the only one. In addition to having faith, if one is going to have eternal life, he must obey all that God commands in the Gospel for the salvation of the soul. Consider the following passages.

Hebrews 5:8-9. “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”

Matthew 7:21. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

James 2:24-26. “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

Man does not have any right to single out just one condition of salvation, such as faith, to the exclusion of all others. All of God’s commands in the Gospel which pertain to salvation are equal in importance and cannot be over-looked. Not a one of them may be disregarded if one is honestly seeking salvation.

Repentance

Those seeking salvation are also commanded to repent. While in the Athens, speaking by inspiration, the apostle Paul said, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).

Repentance is a change. W.E. Vine, in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, says of it, “In the New Testament the subject chiefly has reference to repentance from sin, and this change of mind involves both a turning from sin and a turning to God” (p. 962).

When a person is penitent, he becomes repulsed by sin. Knowing its horror and the tragedy it causes, he no longer desires to be its servant but determines to be a servant of righteousness (Romans 6:17-18). He will no longer live in pursuit of sin, worldly lusts, and fleshly appetites. Instead he decides to live for God, seeking Him and His will first in all things (see Romans 6:12-14; Matthew 6:33).

The one who repents subdues his own will and honors the will of God. His attitude is the same as that of Jesus in John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Abandoning personal will and desire in spiritual matters, one must look to God and say, “Lord, you have spoken and I must obey.”

Confession

Confession is also a condition of salvation. Romans 10:10 states, “For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.”

In the act of confession, one simply states before men his firm conviction that Jesus is the Son of God. While one’s mind accepts all the facts and testimony of the Divinity of Jesus, his mouth tells men of this faith.

Jesus stressed the importance of this confession in Matthew 10:32-33 when He said, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him will I confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

The case of the conversion of the eunuch from Ethiopia that is found in Acts chapter 8 supplies us with a good example of this confession. After hearing the Gospel preached and understanding his sinful condition, the Ethiopian desired to be baptized (Baptism will be discussed later in this course). Philip, the evangelist, told him that if he believed he could be baptized. The eunuch then confessed his belief by saying, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37).

One who truly believes what the Bible teaches about Jesus and comes to the conclusion that He is the Son of God, must allow that belief to motivate him to make that same confession.