What Is Saving Faith?...

 "... [A]nd a large number of priest became obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7, NIV).

"Through him we have received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from or his Name's sake" (Romans 1:5, NKV). 
"... [S]o that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith" (Rom. 16:26,NIV).

Everyone has faith; in what is the question.  We are a religious creature made to worship and will worship someone or something if not God, which is idolatry.  Dostoevsky said that "man cannot live without worshiping something."  We are made for God and can only find our fulfillment in living for Him.  But why is man opposed to God when He offers Himself to them?  Man is a slave to sin and doesn't want to change his way of life, doing his own thing his way.  He doesn't want to submit to authority and grant the ownership of his life to the One who made it.  A person of no organized religion may have their faith in the scientific method, that science can solve all our problems--but he is nevertheless a person of faith.  And so everyone is a person of faith!  We have sound reasons to believe and need not commit intellectual suicide.

Real faith in God is when we go a step beyond so-called story-book faith or head belief and it registers in the heart and we desire to live it out in trust and commitment.  We must be obedient to the gospel and to the faith.   Saving faith is always accompanied by genuine repentance--they go hand in hand!  And we must never divorce faith and faithfulness, for we live by faith and it must grow, not being dead.  Dead faith produces no works and that kind of faith cannot save.  Good soil produces fruit and saving faith produces the fruit of good works.  As the Reformers said, "We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone."  If we have no works, our faith is suspect.  James says that faith without works is dead!  James 2:18 also says, "I'll show you my faith by my works!"  But we are not saved by works, but not without them either.  We don't have faith in ourselves or our ability in trying to save ourselves, because it's the object that matters.  We must realize that genuine faith expresses itself!

God opens our eyes to have faith, for we are blinded by Satan.  He quickens or kindles faith within us by grace and it's not a meritorious work as Rome would have you believe--for then we would be saved by merit or works.  We will have nothing to boast of in God's presence.  Faith is the work of God but our act.  We must put our faith in the right object to be saved, for we don't have faith in faith, but faith in Christ--faith doesn't save, Christ does!   But this faith must be penitent as we turn from sin to God and believe in Christ.  That's why it may be termed penitent faith or believing repentance that saves.  We have believed through grace, a supernatural act of God regenerating us.  God grants both repentance and faith as a privilege of being the elect (cf. Acts 5:31; 11:18).  He opens the door to faith and repentance (cf. Acts 14:27).

There is a profession of faith and reality of faith, whereas bogus faith is misplaced and insincere.  God doesn't ask for perfect faith, only sincere, unfeigned faith (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:5).  Without faith, we cannot please God (cf. Heb. 11:6).  There are people of great faith but it's misplaced (cf. Romans 10:2; Proverbs 19:2)--sincerity matters but it's not everything (you can be sincerely wrong).  There are believers in name only or nominal Christians who go through the motions and have memorized the Dance of the Pious.  Saving faith is obedient as Bonhoeffer says, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."  (cf. Romans 16:26; Romans 1:5, Acts 6:7).  They shall know we are Christians by our love--the ultimate obedience.  That is the litmus test!  Faith and obedience are correlated in Heb. 3:17-18, HCSB, as follows:  "And who did He swear to that they would not enter His rest, if not those who disobeyed?  So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief."  We desire to obey, even if we fall short of perfection (cf. Matt 5:48).

The faith you have is the faith you show!  The rallying cry of the Reformation was that we are saved by faith alone and Rome pronounced anyone anathema that adhered to this doctrine at the Council of Trent (the Counter-Reformation).  We are not saved by good works, and faith is not a work, but we are saved unto good works, that we may accomplish the will of God.  Works are no substitute for faith, but only evidence of it. In fact, God foreordains good works for us to do for His purposes.  We must be saved by grace, for this is the only way to have assurance.  And "salvation is of the LORD," as Jonah found out (cf. Jonah 2:9) which means it's God's accomplishment, not man's achievement.  We receive faith, we don't achieve it, i.e., we don't conjure it up by ourselves, but it's totally a gift of grace (cf. Acts 18:27; John 6:29; 2 Pet. 1:1).  But we must put our faith to work and turn our creed into deeds, for faith is knowledge in action.  Keeping the faith only works if it's in Christ!

Rome reduces faith to assent or acquiescence or acknowledgment with the church dogma.  Just realizing Christ is God and rose from the dead, if one doesn't put the faith into action, will not save.  Believing Christ rose from the dead is history; believing He died for you and rose for you and personalizing this is salvation.  By faith Abraham obeyed!  True saving faith is a surrendered, substituted, inhabited, relinquished, and even yielded life to the will of God, whereas Christ lives in us through the Holy Spirit's residence--in other words, He owns us because He bought us and redeemed us!  We must take a spiritual checkup or spiritual inventory to find out whether we have the Spirit or not and if Christ is living in us--if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His and he is reprobate (cf. Romans 8:9).  In sum, if we love Jesus we will obey Him (cf. John 14:15) and there is a curse on anyone who doesn't love the Lord (cf. Rom. 16:22)--true faith trusts in Christ as Savior and submits to Him as Lord, as Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will obey My commands."        Soli Deo Gloria!