What is faith?

Faith is believing that God exists and that His word is true and that he gave His Son Jesus Christ to save us. But it is more than knowledge. We must accept that without the salvation God offers, we are lost. We must believe that the sacrifice for sins that Jesus made was for us. We must repent of our sin and put our trust entirely on Him and totally rely on Him to save us. It is sometimes summed up in the acronym FAITH  – Forsaking All I Take Him.

A summary of the Gospel

God created us for His glory

“Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory” (Isaiah 43:6–7)

God made all of us in his own image so that we would image forth, or reflect, his character and moral beauty.

Every human should live for God’s glory.

“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

The way to live for the glory of God is to love him (Matthew 22:37), trust him (Romans 4:20), be thankful to him (Psalm 50:23), obey him (Matthew 5:16), and treasure him above all things (Philippians 3:8; Matthew 10:37).

When we do these things we image forth God’s glory.

All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

“Although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him . . . and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images” (Romans 1:21–23).

None of us has loved or trusted or thanked or obeyed or treasured God as we ought.

Therefore we all deserve eternal punishment.

“The wages of sin is (eternal) death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Those who did not obey the Lord Jesus “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).

God sent his only Son Jesus Christ into the world

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

“Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Eternal life is a free gift to all who will trust in Christ as Lord and Saviour

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).