act 16v31 Believe On The Lord Jesus Christ
"BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED"
Acts
Salvation is obtained by faith
alone. It is not obtained by faith and baptism, faith and obedience, faith and
experience, or even faith and faithfulness. Salvation is obtained by faith
alone, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true, faith is obedient. Faith is
confessed in baptism. Faith does bring both feeling and experience, and cause
faithfulness. But these things come as the result of salvation and life in
Christ. They are not the cause (Eph. 2:8-10).
What is this faith? The Amplified Version gives a
helpful translation of this verse. "Believe in and on the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is give yourself up to Him, take yourself out of your own
keeping and entrust yourself to His keeping, and you will be saved."
Believing on Christ is not "a bare historical faith, as only to believe
that he was the Son of God, and the Messiah, and that he was come in the flesh,
and had suffered, and died, and rose again, and was now in heaven at the right
hand of God, and would come again to judge the quick and the dead, for there
may be such a faith and no salvation" (John Gill). Paul's commandment,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ", requires us to LOOK TO CHRIST
ALONE FOR SALVATION AND LIFE, TO RELY UPON CHRIST, TRUSTING HIM AND COMMITTING
THE CARE OF OUR IMMORTAL SOULS TO HIM, AND TO EXPECT PEACE, PARDON,
RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ETERNAL LIFE FROM HIM. To believe on Christ is to TRUST
HIM, VENTURE EVERYTHING UPON HIM, COMMIT EVERYTHING TO HIM, AND RECEIVE HIM.
FAITH IS LEAVING OUR SOULS IN THE HANDS OF CHRIST.
THIS FAITH IN CHRIST IS THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD (I
John