Our eternal life is linked to our personal belief (faith) in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. By belief I don’t mean believing something is true. I mean trusting in something, clinging to something, resting in the knowledge of something as true. That something is the sacrificial death of Jesus winning for us eternal life in heaven. When you believe in Jesus it doesn’t matter whether you have a little faith or a lot of faith. God gives each of us enough faith to believe in Him. The important thing to remember is it’s not the amount of faith we have in Jesus that saves us. It’s Jesus, the object of our faith, that saves us. There is a huge gap between our desperate need for God’s forgiveness and His provision for our need. When we attempt to jump across the abyss to God it’s not our leap of faith that saves us. What saves us is being caught by God’s outstretched loving arms, and God never misses! Salvation has always been a two part deal. We exercise our faith and God grants us redemption. God wants us to exercise our free will to decide who we will serve, God or Satan.
John 3:16 – (Jesus speaking) – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 5:24 – (Jesus speaking) – Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My words and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 6:40 – (Jesus speaking) – And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 11:25-26 – (Jesus speaking) – I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?
In the Old Testament God illustrated how the process of salvation works so we can make the analogy with Jesus. Remember the story of Moses leading the Israelites in the wilderness. The Israelites sinned against God and He sent poisonous snakes among them and many died. The Israelites begged for mercy so God had Moses make a bronze serpent to put on a pole. Moses told the Israelites to look upon the bronze serpent whenever they were bitten and they would not die. Faith was believing they would not die if they looked upon what God had made for their salvation. The obvious New Testament parallel is all believers who look to Jesus for their salvation will be saved by their faith. They shall live and not die.