|
The Necessity of Faith for Salvation |
 |
 |
 |
Faith is both a gift of God and a human response to God. It is the ability and willingness to say "yes" to God's offer of salvation.
Faith is...
- our awareness of our utter dependence upon God,
- the surrender of our selfish wills,
- the trusting reliance upon God?s divine mercy.
The candidate for baptism answers ?I do? to the question ?Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord??
Our personal response of faith requires conversion in which we turn away from sin and turn instead to God. It entails...
- a decision to commit our lives to the Lordship of Christ,
- an acceptance of the forgiveness of our sins,
- the death of our old selves,
- an entering into a new life of the Spirit -- being born again (John 3:3-5, 2 Corinthians 5:17).
All persons do not experience this spiritual rebirth in the same way. For some, there is a singular, radical moment of conversion. For others, conversion may be experienced as the dawning and growing realization that one has been constantly loved by God and has a personal reliance upon Christ. John Wesley described his own experience by saying, ?I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.
(modified from By Water and the Spirit)
|
United Methodist Church Websites
|
|
|
