The following analysis presents the Biblical concept that belief in Jesus Christ is the only means to secure salvation—the experience whereby a person receives both forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God. The analysis first examines who Jesus is, and then discusses the requirement that a person place his or her faith/trust/confidence in Jesus for salvation.
A. Consider, first, what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
1. Mat 1:1 - “. . . Jesus Christ the son of David . . . .”[1]
2. Mat “ . . . His mother Mary . . . was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”
3. Mat (God to Joseph, the husband of Mary) “‘. . . you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’”
4. Mat -23 - (God through a prophet) “‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’--which means, ‘God with us.’”
5. Mat 2:2 - (Magi from the east to King Herod) “‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.’”
6. John 1:1-4 - (Christ is the Word of God): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
7. John “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
8. John “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”
9. John 1:17b - “. . . grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
10. John “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”
11. John The testimony of John the Baptist: “‘I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.’”
12. John Further testimony of John the Baptist: “. . . the Lamb of God!”
13. John Testimony of Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother: “‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ).”
14. John Testimony of Nathaniel: “‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.’”
15. John 6:68-69 - Testimony of Peter: “Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’”
16. John “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
17. John 9:5 - Jesus: “‘While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’”
18. John 10:9 - Jesus: “‘I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.’”
19. John 14:6 - Jesus: “‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
20. Acts “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.”
21. Acts “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they [the apostles] never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”
22. Acts , 22 - Immediately following Saul’s experience on the way to Damascus Damascus
23. Acts -43 - Peter to Cornelius, a centurion in the Italian Regiment: “‘He [Jesus] commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’”[2]
24. Acts 17:2-4 - When Paul was in Macedonia: “As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,’ he said.”
25. Acts 17 - In Athens
26. Acts 18:5 - “When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia
27. Acts Regarding Apollos’ visit to the disciples in Achia (Greece
28. Acts 26:22-23 - “. . . I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen--that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”
29. Acts 28:23-24 - Regarding Paul’s meeting with Jewish leaders in Rome
30. Rom 1:2-4 - “The gospel he promised beforehand though his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
31. I Cor 15:2-4 - “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” [As to the importance of believing in the resurrection, see also verses 12-23.
32. Heb 11:6 - “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
33. I Jn 2:22-23 - “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist--he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
34. I Jn 4:2-3 - “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
35. I Jn “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.”
36. I Jn 5:1 - “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”
37. I Jn 5:5 - “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
38. I Jn 5:10-13 - “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given us about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
B. Then consider the Bible’s promise that believing Jesus is who he says he is—the only way to the Father, the Christ, the Son of God, and that He rose from the dead—provides salvation. Each text omits any discussion of any additional requirement, such as remorse for sin, confession of sin, baptism, doing good works, etc.
1. Luke23:42-43 - (the thief on the cross to Jesus): “Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’”[3]
2. John 1:11-12 - “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
3. John - Following Jesus’ turning water into wine: “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee . He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.”
4. John 3:14-18 - Jesus to Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council: “‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert,[4] so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but who ever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.’”
5. John - John the Baptist to his disciples: “‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.’”
6. John 5:24 - Jesus: “‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.’”
7. John 6:28-29 - “Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’”
8. John 6:35-36 - “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.’”
9. John - (Jesus:) “‘For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.’”
10. John - (Jesus:) “‘I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.’”
11. John 6:63b-64 - (Jesus to his followers:) “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.”
12. John - (Jesus:) “‘Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”
13. John 8:24 - (Jesus to Jews who were questioning him:) “‘I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.’”
14. John 8:28-30 - “So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.’ Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.”
15. John 9:35-38 - After Jesus restored the sight of a man who was blind since birth, and the Pharisees questioned the man regarding the nature of Jesus who was able to restore his sight, the man told the Pharisees that if Jesus were not from God, he would not have been able to do what he did. At this the Pharisees threw him out of the synagogue. “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”
16. John 16:8-11 - Christ teaching about the Holy Spirit: “‘When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.’”[5]
17. Acts 2:22-38 - Following Pentecost, Peter addresses a crowd of people who were making fun of the believers who were speaking in tongues, saying that they had too much to drink. Peter explains to the crowd that Jesus is the Messiah, the descendant of David, and that though the Jews put him to death on the cross, God resurrected him from the dead and set him at the right hand of God. “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”
· “Repent” in this passage does not suggest a requirement regarding a person’s reaction to his or her own sin; rather, it identifies a person’s need to acknowledge to God his or her disbelief in Christ and to begin believing the truth about Christ.
· Forgiveness of sins is a result of belief in Christ.
18. Acts -43 - Peter to Cornelius, a centurion in the Italian Regiment: “‘He [Jesus] commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’”
· Note that forgiveness of sins is automatic for those who believe in him.
19. Acts 11:17-18 - Peter to a group of Jewish believers who did not yet understand that the gospel was being offered to Gentiles as well as to Jews: “‘So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?’ When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, God has granted even Gentiles repentance unto life.’”[6]
20. Acts -39 - Paul to Jews [and Gentiles who worship God] in Antioch Turkey
21. Acts 15:9 - Paul to the Council at Jerusalem
22. Acts - Paul and Silas to the Philippian Jailer in response to his question “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”: “‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household.’” Later in verse 34, “he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole family.”
23. Acts 19:1-5 - In Ephesus, Paul asked the believers if they had received the Holy Spirit, to which they replied that they were not aware of the Holy Spirit. “So Paul asked, ‘Then what baptism did you receive?’ ‘John’s baptism,’ they replied. Paul said, ‘John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.’ On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.”
24. Rom 1:16-17 - "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”
25. Rom 3:20-23 - “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[8]
26. Rom 5:1 - “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
27. Rom 10:4 - “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
28. Rom10:9-10 - “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
29. Rom “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
30. Rom , 23 - In discussing the salvation of the Jews being offered to the Gentiles, “Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. . . . And if they do not persist in their unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
31. Rom - In addressing the issue of eating food sacrificed to idols as offending the conscience, “But the man who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”[9]
32. I Cor 15:2-4 - “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” [As to the importance of believing in the resurrection, see also verses 12-23.]
33. Eph - “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”
34. Eph 2:8 - “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
35. Phil 3:4-10 - In addressing those who “have confidence in the flesh,” Paul speaks about his own confidence prior to his salvation; he describes himself in detail: “a Hebrew of Hebrews”; then he states that “as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”[10] He then states that he considers all his goodness as “a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
36. Col
37. II Thes - “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”
38. Heb 4:2-3 - “For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they [the unbelieving Israelites who, having left Egypt
39. Heb 11:6 - “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
40. I Pet 1:8-9, 21 - “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls . . .. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
41. II Pet 1:2-4 - “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”[11]
42. I Jn 2:22-23 - “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist--he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
43. I Jn - “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”
44. I Jn 4:2-3 - “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
45. I Jn - “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.”
46. I Jn 5:1 - “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”
47. I Jn 5:5 - “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
48. I Jn 5:10-13 - “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given us about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
49. Jude 5 - “Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt
[1] This claim is highly significant to the Jews and particularly to the Davidic line. God promised David that one of his descendants would occupy a very special position: “‘I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.’” (I Chron. 17:14) Thus, it was recognized that this descendant of David would be the Messiah.
[2] Note what Jesus commanded his disciples to preach.
[3] Incredibly, though Jesus is on the cross under sentence of death, the thief recognizes that Jesus is the descendant of David who will rule in Zion
[4] When the Israelites were waiting, in the wilderness after having left Egypt
[5] Note why the Spirit convicts of guilt in regard to sin.
[6] Note what repentance is: believing in the Lord.
[7] Note that believing in Jesus brings justification.
[8] “[A] righteousness from God” is belief in Christ which is apart from the law which brings consciousness of sin.
[9] Thus, disbelief is sin.
[10] It is interesting that at the moment of his salvation, he considered himself to be “faultless.”
[11] Note that through the knowledge of God and Jesus we “escape” sin.
[12] Those who do not believe now will also be destroyed.
