Over the past few evenings, we have looked at the things that man considers to be ways of salvation. If we do not twist the Word of God but trust in it, we will see from it that none of those things are a condition for salvation. As we have mentioned already, according to the Bible there is only one condition for salvation—faith. Together the words faith and believe occur in the Bible over five hundred times. Among these many verses, over a hundred verses tell us that salvation is by believing, that justification is by believing, and that we receive life by believing. In over thirty places we are told that through faith we receive this or that from God. These places show us that man is favored by God through faith and nothing else.
Why does the Bible put so much emphasis on faith? Tonight we will consider why faith has to be the way of salvation. But we must first ask a question. Is salvation a work of man or a work of God? Is it man's plan or is it God's plan? Does it originate with man or with God? Those who do not know God do not know salvation. Only those who know God know God's salvation. Those who know God have to admit that it is God who has initiated salvation. It is God who has planned it, and it is God who has accomplished this plan. As we have mentioned before, everything is done by God. On our side, we do not have to do anything except believe.
Why do we have to believe? It is because redemption is accomplished by Christ. God wants to make the method of salvation so simple that everyone can obtain it. That is why He requires only faith. If salvation is from God, it must be universal. If God's salvation were just for a certain group of people, God would be partial. If God's way of salvation required something from us, that something would become an obstacle to our salvation. If there were the simple requirement that man had to wait five minutes before he could be saved, even that would greatly diminish the number of saved ones in the world. Many people do not have even five minutes to wait. God would not have to require even perfect righteousness. If He were to require righteousness in only one thing, perhaps you could render Him this righteousness, but hundreds of thousands of people on earth might not be able to do so. If such were the case, salvation would not be so simple.