Let me use the illustration of a chair to
explain faith. Let's say for the sake of this illustration that I need to
change a defective light bulb. I look around and see a chair that I can
stand upon to reach the light bulb to replace it. However, the chair doesn't
appear too sturdy. Yet, I decide to take my chances and place all my body's
weight upon the chair by standing on it, unaided by any support in case I
fall or the chair breaks apart. By doing so I have placed 100% of my faith
in that chair, even though I had doubts about its sturdiness and ability to
support my body's weight.
Likewise, a person may place their faith in Jesus Christ and be saved even though they still have some doubts, uncertainties and speculation. Faith is not the absence of doubt; but rather, the presence of belief in the gospel. The gospel according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 is that Christ DIED, was BURIED and RESURRECTED from the dead after three days. God saves anyone who receives the gospel as full payment for their sins.
May I say, optimism is not faith. Optimism is a positive outlook. Optimism is standing, looking at the chair, and saying, “Boy brother, you just gotta believe!,” but without actually standing upon the chair. That is not faith! Intellectual assent to the facts of the gospel is not faith. Faith is personally making the gospel YOUR hope for Heaven, believing that Christ died for YOUR SINS! Faith is believing that Christ has risen from the dead and is alive forevermore. Christ died, that's history; Christ died for me, that's salvation!
Even if you
have 99% doubt, it is nothing less than 100% faith if you trust the chair
enough to place your body's full weight upon it. The beautiful thing is that
no matter how messed-up your life may seem and in spite of all your doubts,
you can trust the chair simply by standing upon it (that is, you can trust
upon Jesus Christ). Please notice that the type of lifestyle you live has
nothing to do with standing upon the chair. The right to stand upon the
chair is a gift from God.
It Is The Literal, Physical, Blood Of Jesus That Saves!
Eternal life is a free gift, paid for by the literal, physical, precious, blood of Jesus Christ. 1st Peter 1:18-19, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Salvation is receiving, not giving. God does not require anyone to cease from sinful bad habits to be saved. What God DOES require is that we realize and acknowledge our sinfulness, our sinnership. Romans 3:19, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” God's law diagnoses man's problem, which is SIN. CHRIST is the answer (Galatians 5:24-26).
The Lord has
promised in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;
and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Anyone
will be saved if they willfully come to Jesus, believing that He is the
Christ Who died, was buried and resurrected from the dead after three days.
It is the applied blood of Jesus on the heavenly Mercy Seat that makes the
gospel the power of God unto salvation.
Romans 1:16, “For I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek.”
The Simplicity That Is In Christ
2nd Corinthians 11:3-4, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”
Standing upon a chair is simple. Walking through a door is simple. Jesus said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” Getting saved is as easy as walking through a door, and JESUS IS THE DOOR! You don't have to stop smoking cigarettes, drinking booze or committing adultery to walk through a door. Anyone who teaches that a person must forsake the world, stop living in sin or change their ways to get saved is complicating the gospel. The Bible plainly teaches that believing on Christ is the way of salvation. John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
The simplicity
of Christ is that you get saved by believing that He is the Christ, the Son
of God Who died, was buried and resurrected from the dead after three days.
That's it! John 20:31, “But these are written, that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing
ye might have life through his name.”
Making Salvation Hard
We started off using the illustration of a chair. Getting saved is as simple as standing upon a chair. Faith is not optimism (a positive outlook) that the chair will hold you up. Rather, faith is getting up on the chair, which is trust. Optimism is passive, but trust is dynamic. As hard as it may be for some people to grasp, there are preachers who preach the gospel, exploiting it, not believing a word of it. At best they might believe that a man named Jesus once lived and died, as do all men; but they completely reject Christ's bodily resurrection from the grave, as did Martin Luther King Jr. No one is saved who rejects the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection is a part of the gospel.
Roman Catholics foolishly ADD keeping sacraments to be saved. The so-called “hero” of evangelicalism, C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), was too much of a coward to criticize the satanic cult of Catholicism. Instead, Lewis instilled legitimacy in people's minds toward the hellish demonic cult of Roman Catholicism. Lewis' teachings on salvation are so vague that even unsaved Mormons sing high praises to the man. Seventh Day Adventists require turning over a new leaf and living a changed life to be saved.
In fact, this is the
same FALSE understanding of repentance that Ray Comfort, John MacArthur,
Chip Ingram and hundreds of other popular preachers in America are sinfully
teaching today. Biblically, repentance (such as in Mark 1:15, “Repent ye,
and believe the gospel”) is simply “a change of mind.” The only
repentance which God requires for salvation is the admission that one is as
sinful as God hath declared him to be in God's holy Word.
Get On The Chair!
Again, even if you have 99% doubt, it is nothing less than 100% faith if you trust the chair (Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, i.e., the gospel) enough to place your body's full weight upon it. The beautiful thing is that no matter how messed-up your life may seem and in spite of all your doubts, you can trust the chair simply by standing upon it (that is, you can trust upon Jesus Christ). Please notice that the type of lifestyle you live has nothing to do with standing upon the chair.
The right to stand upon the chair is a gift from God. It is only by God's grace that any man, woman or child can be saved. All you have to do is LOOK TO JESUS! Trust the Savior! Make Jesus' death, burial and resurrection your hope for Heaven, receiving the gospel as full-payment for your sins. That is how to be born-again! It's ok to be filled with doubts, just so long as you obey the gospel by believing (relying) upon Jesus, the Son of God, the Christ, Who raised up from the dead after three days, Who is now seated in Heaven on the right-hand of the Father (Colossians 3:1-3). Thank you Jesus!
John 3:20 Explains The Meaning Of Repentance
