Question: “HOW MUCH FAITH DO I NEED TO GET SAVED?”

Answer: “NONE, NIL, ZERO, ZILCH, NANA!”

WHAT! YOU’RE JOKING?
No I’m not. If you think you have to have faith to get saved, how much do you need? Will you be sincere enough? Will you just fool yourself? How hard do you have to try?

BUT THE BIBLE SAYS I NEED FAITH TO GET SAVED!
No it doesn’t! Let me say it again in several languages: English: none, nil, zero, zilch, nana, zippidy-do-dah, nought, nothing! French: aucun! German: nichts! Swedish: ingen! Dutch: geen! Spanish: ninguno! Polish: zaden! Mexican: es ninguno! Chinese: mei you! Indonesian: tidak! Hindi: koi nahin hai! …….. Capisci? That’s Italian for “Do you understand?”

BUT THE BIBLE SAYS THE OPPOSITE!
You are correct “…by grace are ye saved through faith…” (Eph 2:8), but finish the verse “… and that NOT OF YOURSELVES: it is the gift of God…” (Eph 2:8). Your faith cannot save you. The faith that saves you comes from God.

I DON’T UNDERSTAND?
You asked me “How much faith do I need to get saved?” You need none. All you have to do is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” like the jailer (Acts 16:31). God then supplies the faith you need.

WELL, WHAT DOES IT MEAN ‘TO BELIEVE’?
To BELIEVE something is to be FULLY PERSUADED, like Abraham (Rom 4:21).

Do you believe if you jumped out of a flying airplane, with no parachute, you would hurt yourself?

Do you believe if jumped out of a ninety-story building you would damage yourself?

Do you believe if you put your hand on a hot stove you would burn yourself?
You will answer “Yes” to all three because YOUR belief is based on FACTS.
Well here are some more facts, and what is at stake is your soul will spend eternity.

 WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
The faith to get saved comes from God, not from yourself (Eph 2:8-9). The Bible says “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that NOT OF YOURSELVES: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph 2:8-9). Your faith, compared to the Lord Jesus Christ, is the equivalent of a small and pathetic teaspoon of water taken out of all the oceans in the world. You need God’s ‘oceans of faith’ to get saved. Christ has the perfect faith to get you saved.

You see, when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are spiritually baptized by the Holy Ghost into his death. Your life is now dead, but as Christ has risen and will die no more, you will be the same. As the Bible says “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20).

If Christ’s faith is now my faith, it was his faith that saved me - right? It was Christ’s faith in God that God would send him into the world, punish him for the sins of the world, but then raise him up again into heaven. Now that is faith! Christ lived a life of perfect faith. This faith is put into your spiritual bank account.

 WHAT DOES ‘BELIEVE’ MEAN?
It means to be fully persuaded and 100% convinced. The Bible says “He (Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And BEING FULLY PERSUADED that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” (Rom 4:20-21)

God told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations even though he was 100 years old and Sarah his wife was dead in the womb.

First: In the natural there was no way that Abraham could become a father – and he knew it!

Second: Abraham knew that there was nothing too hard for God Almighty (Gen 18:14)

Third: Abraham had hope even though there was no hope in the natural. The Bible says “Who against hope believed in hope…” (Rom 4:18), where this hope arose from the knowledge that God was Almighty and that nothing was too hard for him (Gen 18:14).

Fourth: He was fully persuaded, that is by mental logic and reasoning (God says come let us reason together Isaiah 1:18) that God wasn’t lying and believed what God had told him.

AH HA! I’VE GOT YOU! IT SAYS ABRAHAM WAS ‘STRONG IN FAITH’!
Of course, it was his faith. His tiny, weany, little pathetic ‘teaspoon’ of faith was his own human faith, and this couldn’t get him into heaven. His soul was always attached to his flesh and could never have the spiritual circumcision we have today, where the body of our sins are cut away from the soul (Col 2:11). He could never be placed into Christ as we are today. As the Bible says, Abraham had to live by his faith “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by HIS (Abraham’s) faith.” (Hab 2:4). Furthermore, God made a special place in the earth where he would go when he died, and God named it after him – Abraham’s Bosom.

SO, WHAT IS FAITH?
It’s something you can’t see or put your finger on. It’s a spiritual thing. The Bible says “…faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1).

Out of hope, comes belief and out of belief comes faith – God’s faith. Even your hope must come from God. You have ‘seen’ and have knowledge of the historical facts of Christ, and this gives hope, out of which comes belief. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Eph 2:8-9).

 BUT HOW CAN I BELIEVE ALL THIS!
Well, first of all, you’d better ask God to help you see that you are a sinner and there is no hope for you in the natural. All the good works in the world can’t wash away one sin. Then ask God to give you the hope you need so that you can believe on him like Abraham.

There’s a man in the Bible that had a son with a dumb spirit and “… straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” (Mark 9:24). This man, after many years of seeing his son foaming at the mouth and being torn by an evil spirit, was not fully persuaded to believe, but he had hope, and he wanted to believe Christ would heal his son.

 
Dear Reader, Are you sinner?
The Bible says you are and there is no hope for you in the natural.
All the good works in the world can’t save you!
What is your hope of going to heaven?
Your hope must be in Christ!
Your belief must be on Christ!

As Christ says he “… that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37).

 Dear Reader, if you are sincere you can pray to God and say “Lord, I’m not fully persuaded about all this but you can give me the hope and belief I need. I must have your hope and I want to believe.”

 If you do your bit, God will then do the rest and put ‘the oceans of saving faith’ into your spiritual bank account whereby you will be saved.    

**** ****

Harley Hitchcock

HOW CAN I BE SURE OF

GETTING TO HEAVEN?

 The Bible says YOU CAN KNOW FOR SURE!
(1John 5:13)

 “CONTACT US”

Australian Bible Ministries, PO Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East, 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com