Salvation

The human side of salvation

1. Clearly stated in this verse the human side of salvation is faith in Jesus Christ: the verb pisteuw, to believe.

2. Faith is a non-meritorious system of perception in contrast to rationalism and empiricism.

3. The present active infinitive of pisteuw is a transitive verb. This means that the pisteuw has a subject and an object stated or implied. All transitive verbs have a subject and an object.

4. The subject of pisteuw in salvation is any member of the human race. The object is always the same, the Lord Jesus Christ the only saviour.

5. All the believing in the world provides nothing but condemnation from God. You can believe in anything you want to and all you have is condemnation from God. We all believe, we all have objects of faith from time to time. Believing is the most common type of perception, it is the normal system of perception for all of us in the learning process.

6. However, the tiniest faith in Jesus Christ secures eternal salvation. In other words, all you have to do is have is as much faith as you would find in the nucleus of an atom, just a little more than no faith.

7. The efficacy of faith lies in the object of faith, Jesus Christ.

8. Since Christ accomplished all the work of salvation on the cross the only way of salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ.

9. Therefore faith is not something we do but the channel by which we appropriate what God has done for us. E.g. John 3:16-18; 6:47.

The divine side of salvation

In eternity past the omniscience of God had the good sense to know that certain members of the human race would believe in Jesus Christ — Ephesians 1:3-9.