Saved By Faith?

It’s true, we are saved by faith

By Carl O. Cooper

            Yes it’s true. We are saved by faith. The Bible declares it in more than one place. Almost everyone who knows anything about the Bible can quote John 3:16. Look at John 3:16 but look at the verse before it to understand the context.

John 3:14-16 (NKJV)

               And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

            Now what in the world does “Moses lifting up the serpent” have to do with the faith that saves us? How could lifting up the serpent save anyone? Well, before we go into that, let’s explore some other things that have saved people.

            Another common and well known Bible story is Noah and the ark. God destroyed the world by a great flood but Noah was saved. Look at these Scriptures.

Genesis 6:13-14 (KJV)

                And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

¹⁸ but with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark,

22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

            So Noah did all that God commanded him to do. He built the ark according to the pattern God gave him and at the proper time he entered the ark. By doing all that God told him to do, he was saved.

            Now, tell me. Why did Noah build this ark? It took many years. Don’t you know this was asking a lot to have a man follow these complex directions year after year? Would it really sound reasonable that a great flood would come upon the earth and float a huge ship such as the one Noah built? So why did Noah do it? We know the answer, don’t we? It was faith. The only reason Noah followed God’s instructions was because he had enough faith to do so.  Now we are not talking about “belief”. That type of faith is just not enough. Look at how James describes that type of faith.

James 2:14 (NKJV)

            What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

            Be honest with yourself here. If Noah had refused to obey God and refused to build the ark, would he have been saved? Or just suppose Noah had reasoned to himself that the ark was just too big, or suppose he decided that cedar is a better wood than “gopher wood”, would this have been enough faith to save Noah? No, Noah was saved because he had enough faith to obey God and do exactly what God told him to do.

            And then there was Abraham.

            There are several stories about Abraham. In every case recorded Abraham displayed great faith. Enough faith, in fact, to obey everything God told him to do without question. But look at the story about the time God told Abraham to kill his son, Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice to God. Look again at what James has to say about Abraham’s faith.

James 2:20-24
                    But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says,“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.  You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

            So just like Noah, Abraham’s faith saved him. But also like Noah, would Abraham’s faith have been enough to save him if he had refused to obey God’s instructions about sacrificing his son? According to James it was Abraham’s faith that caused him to obey God. James says that this is the kind of faith it takes to save anyone. It is a faith that is strong enough to obey whatever God tells you to do. You see, faith alone is not enough. James says the devil has that kind of faith, and that is just not enough to save. The kind of faith that is counted to us as righteousness is the kind of faith that Noah and Abraham had. It is the kind of faith that will cause us to obey anything God tells us to do.

            Now, fast forward up to today. If faith alone will not save us, then what kind of faith will it take to save us? Has God given us any special instructions such as the instructions He gave Noah and Abraham? Well, yes, He has. God told us to have faith, alright. But He told us He requires some other things to be saved as well. Do we have enough faith for our faith to be counted as righteousness, like Abraham and Noah? One other thing God told us to do is to “repent”. Look at this Scripture.

Luke 13:5 (NKJV)

                I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

Acts 17:30 (NKJV)
                    Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,

            Any doubt about it? It is as clear as can be that repentance is required by God in order to be saved. Once again we see that James understood that “faith alone will not save”.

            But there is still more instructions from God about our salvation. Check this out.

Romans 10:9-10 (NKJV)

                that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Matthew 10:32 (NKJV)
                     “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

            There is still more to the Gospel that saves than repentance and confession.  We know that the type of faith that saves us and is counted to us as righteousness, (like Abraham and Noah), is the kind of faith that does not refuse to obey anything God tells us to do.

            Look at the passages about baptism. Remember the type of faith that saves us.

Acts 2:36-38 (NKJV)

                “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”  Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 22:16 (NKJV) And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the                                                   name of the Lord.

1 Peter 3:20-21 (NKJV)

               who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us–baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

            So there you have it. What kind of faith saves us? You can see that it is the type of faith that Noah had. And it is the type of faith that Abraham had. It is the type of faith that causes us to obey anything God tells us to do. And, like Abraham, we don’t have to fully understand why God requires it. We just have to have the type of faith that causes us to obey God no matter what. This is the kind of faith that James describes and this is the kind of faith that is counted to us as righteousness.

            Now how about that story of the bronze serpent that Moses made for the children of Israel? Look at the Scripture.

Numbers 21:9 (NKJV)

            So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

            What did it take to be healed by this bronze serpent? Well, first it took the type of faith that would cause someone to look up at the bronze snake. Faith alone would just not do the job. It took action on the part of the person who wanted to be saved. It was simple enough, but something besides faith was required. And as you can now clearly see, that has always been the way people have been saved by faith.

Carl O. Cooper