(The Real Truth) 6. the Real Truth About Faith

Once we have repented, the next requirement for receiving God's forgiveness is faith.

The Bible says,

"By grace you are saved through faith" (Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8).

Grace is God's Hand reaching out to give us His help and His blessings. Faith is our hand reaching up to take that help and those blessings from God's Hand.

As we saw earlier, God does not want mindless robots who do things, just because He programs them to do so. No. He wants us to make a choice.

Do you believe that God is a good God Who loves you greatly?

Do you believe that that God sent His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die for your sins on the cross and that God raised Him from the dead after three days and that He is living in heaven today?

If so, then you can receive the forgiveness that God offers you right now. You don't have to wait.

There is no other Name on earth, other than the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which salvation from sin can be found. If you want to receive Him as your Lord and Saviour, it is essential, just as in marriage, to "forsake all else and cleave only unto Him". In marriage, a woman has to give up all her former lovers and cleave just to one man as her husband, for the rest of her life.

The Bible likens our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ to a spiritual marriage, where He alone is our Divine Husband. You cannot therefore say that you are willing to receive Christ and still worship or pray to other gods. You have to make a choice.

If you want to make that choice, now is the time.

Just kneel down right now and close your eyes, and say these words to God. He can hear you wherever you are. And He is interested in hearing you. Say these words meaningfully and slowly:

"Lord Jesus Christ, I am a sinner and I truly want to turn from all my sins. I believe that You died for all my sins, and that You rose again from the dead and that You are alive today. Please forgive me all my sins. Come into my heart and life and become Lord of my life from today onwards. I forsake all other gods and I want to worship You alone from now on."

That is a very simple prayer that will take you less than a minute to pray. But if you pray it in all sincerity, your soul will be saved for all eternity. You will become a child of God immediately.

This is no magic formula that will bless all who repeat it like a parrot. It all depends on the sincerity of your heart. If you mean what you are saying, God will forgive your sins, accept you and make you His child. If you are insincere, then you will remain unchanged.

God will never force anyone to receive Christ into his life. And neither will any true Christian force anyone to receive Christ. Forced conversions are not conversions at all.

The assurance that we have truly been forgiven and accepted by God and that He has made us His children is very important. God does not want us to remain without this assurance. God gives us this assurance through His Holy Spirit coming into our hearts and telling us that we are God's children. God also assures us through the promises He has given us in His written Word (the Bible).

The Lord Jesus Christ said,

"The one who comes to Me I will certainly not reject" (John chapter 6, verse 37).

We can rely totally on that promise of Christ for all eternity.

Did you pray that prayer just now in sincerity to the Lord Jesus Christ? Then you have indeed come to Him. Then you can be certain that He has not rejected you. He has accepted you. If you have done your part in coming to Him, you can be sure that God has done his part in accepting you.

You don't have to depend now on your feelings, as to whether you feel accepted by God or not. Feelings have to do with our physical bodies - and are always very deceptive on spiritual matters.

To put our trust in feelings is like laying the foundation of a house on sand. We must put our faith in God's promises in His Word - and that is like building on a rock.

Once you are sure of the fact that you have become a child of God, you should confess that fact publicly. The Bible says that what you believe in your heart, must be confessed with your tongue. So you must confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is now your Saviour and your Lord. You must tell your friends and relatives that Christ has forgiven your sins and that He is now the only Lord of your life.

You must then confess to your relationship with Christ through baptism. As soon as possible after you have made the decision to give your heart and life to Christ, you must be baptized. Baptism is not a religious ritual. It is a public testimony to God, to men, to angels and to Satan that you belong to Jesus Christ alone now.

In baptism, another Christian will immerse you completely into water (either in a river or in a tank) in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and then lift you up again out of the water. In that simple act, you will be testifying to the fact that the old person that you were, has died. You bury him symbolically in the water by total immersion.

Coming up out of the water, you acknowledge that you are now a new person (raised from the dead, spiritually speaking), wanting to please God alone.

You have not become perfect yet. It will take you a lifetime to become perfect. But you have changed the direction of your life. Now, you don't want to sin or to displease God any more.

You have become a citizen of heaven now, and a child of God.