Saving Faith Explained: Ongoing Trust, Living Hope, and Lasting Joy

Summary

Saving faith is more than agreeing with historical facts about Jesus’ life and resurrection. Scripture teaches belief as an ongoing trust in Christ that shapes life now and forever. Through faith, believers experience love, joy, and hope in part today, with fullness yet to come. The prophets and angels longed to understand this salvation, which Christians deepen through Scripture, prayer, worship, and faithful service.

Saving Faith Explained

In Jesus Christ, God entered the world in human form. Jesus’ resurrection, a historical fact, proves He is God. Saving faith, explained, goes beyond agreeing with the facts of history.

Belief as Ongoing Trust, Not Past Agreement

“Believe” (1 Peter 1:8) is present tense. Belief is not like throwing a stone into a pond when you were fifteen. Over and done. Belief is an ongoing, unswerving trust in God’s character and promises that affects our lives now and forever.

Present Blessings and Future Glory

Jesus pointed to the blessings of believing for those who had never seen Him. “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’” (John 20:29 NIV).

Trusting Jesus’ promise to save us injects our souls with life, love, and joy. We love Him because He first loved us. He demonstrated His love by dying for us.

We rejoice because of the glorious future we have with Him. We are experiencing some of the positive results of our faith here and now, but not yet in their fullness.

My family lived in a parsonage in a rural community. When the washing machine and the faucet in the kitchen were running, the stream of water in the bathroom was, at most, the diameter of a pencil.

Nevertheless, it could satisfy our thirst. So it is with the hope, love, and joy of the living waters of salvation. In the world to come, there will be Niagara Falls-like torrents.

Salvation Foretold and Fulfilled

The prophets foresaw some but not all aspects of the great salvation we have experienced. They wrote of a grace (undeserved favor) that was to come to us (1 Peter 1:10).

They did not understand how. They longed to know when the Messiah would arrive and the surrounding events. None of them could put it all together.

Yet, through the Spirit of Christ in them, they prophesied the sufferings and glories of Christ (1 Peter 1:11). They knew the glories would follow the sufferings.

The gospels reveal those sufferings. They include the Jews hating Jesus, a friend betraying Him, His disciples forsaking Him, and the Romans scourging and crucifying Him. His glories include His transfiguration, resurrection, glorious return, and eternal reign.

The last part of 1 Peter 1:12 reveals that angels are intensely interested in human salvation. They cannot experience it. But they put themselves out to get a better understanding of it.

Living Out the Gift of Salvation

How much more should we strive to get the firmest possible grip on it? We enjoy salvation’s present benefits by applying God’s word to our lives, prayer, worship together, and serving God and others. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.

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God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 7,590 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 17,681 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting. 

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