“Obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:9).
In the end, if we remain faithful of the Lord, the result will be eternal salvation. As Peter said, the “outcome” of faith is “salvation” (1 Peter 1:9).
Paul made this same point in his second letter to Timothy. He wrote, “From childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Salvation is “through faith.” That faith ultimately comes from the “sacred writings” that produce “wisdom.” In other words, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Paul also told the brethren in Ephesus, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). We are saved by grace through faith. Again, salvation is tied necessarily to faith. We cannot be saved without having faith in God.
Of course, when the Bible teaches that faith saves us, it is not saying that we are saved by faith alone, though this is what many in the denominational world teach. They believe that the only part that man plays in salvation is mentally acknowledging and accepting the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for their sins. Many who believe this also believe that it is only possible for one to have this “faith” if it is given to him by God. In other words, they believe that God has arbitrarily chosen certain ones to be saved and has bestowed on them a measure of faith so that they can be saved. The unavoidable conclusion to this thinking is that those who will be lost are the one that God simply does not want to save. Yet the apostle Paul said that God “desires all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4).
Faith saves. Not only that, but all can be saved by faith. However, this faith is more than just a mental acknowledgement of some truths about Christ. James wrote, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). In the surrounding verses, James made the point that faith – real faith – and works are inseparable from one another. “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works’” (James 2:17-18). “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).
The Scriptures are clear that a saving faith is an obedient faith. Paul’s mission as an apostle of Christ and preacher of the gospel was to “bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles” (Romans 1:5). He also closed his letter to Rome with the same point about the “obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26).
Without an obedient faith, we cannot be saved. The Hebrew writer said that Jesus is “to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:9). Paul indicated that when the Lord returns in judgment, there would be two types of people who would be lost – “those who do not know God and…those who do not obey the gospel” (2 Thessalonians 1:8). He went on to say, “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
Through faith, we can avoid the “eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9) that we deserve. Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Salvation is a free gift. We can accept it by faith. But how do we define faith? Will we listen to men or accept the definition given to us in the word of God? Our soul’s eternal fate depends on us knowing the right answer to that question and acting upon it.
