Obedience of Faith and a Proper Call to Salvation

Romans 1:5

By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His name.

I have fallen in love with the underlined phrase Paul used in Romans 1:5.  Paul also uses this phrase to finish out his letter to the Romans in 16:26; obedience of faith.  The visual picture for this phrase is that of a coin and the coin represents salvation.  On one side of the coin you have faith in Jesus Christ the risen God.  Throughout scripture it is written that it takes belief in Jesus Christ to be saved (Mark 16:16, John 3:16, John 6:40, Acts 10:43, Romans 1:16, I Peter 2:6, I John 5:13).  I absolutely believe that statement to be true, but is salvation only demonstrated by belief?

 Recently in front of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino, I spoke with a gentleman from the Chicago area.  We talked for about seventy-five minutes and he told me that he came to Las Vegas to get drunk, gamble, and go to strip clubs. He informed me, that he told his wife he was going to Louisiana to visit his friend’s family.  He admitted, he purposely lied to his wife because he didn’t want her to know what he was doing. As much as I was troubled by this confession, it did not hurt nearly as much as the moment he professed his salvation because he believed in Jesus Christ.  He felt that his belief in Jesus Christ and a small prayer he said years before were evidence of his salvation. For the glory of God, before we finished our conversation, this gentleman said he needed to go back to his hotel room and not do any of the things he came to do.  For the first time he saw how willfully sinning (iniquity) was evidence of his lack of salvation.

 As I speak to so many people on the streets of Las Vegas, they are quick to tell of their belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord.  But I rarely hear about the other side of the coin of salvation; obedience.  This scares me because Jesus Christ reports that those who profess their belief but show no obedience are not saved.

Matthew 7:21-23.

Not every one that saith unto me, “Lord, Lord”, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in they name have cast out devils, and in they name done many wonderful works?”  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The important word in verse 23 is iniquity.  This means to violate the will and law of God.  For the true Christian they are not saved by observing the law, but there is a departure from breaking God’s law as evidence of their salvation.

This past weekend I spoke to a gentleman on the Fremont Street Experience who professed Jesus as his Savior but said he was living his life as a backslider.  I asked him what he meant by backsliding, and he first said he knew Jesus and was sure of his salvation.  He was a backslider because he couldn’t stop himself from doing what he knew was wrong.  I asked him if he had truly repented and departed from his sins.  He didn’t really know what that meant and after I explained it he admitted that he never turned from his sins.  He admitted to me that he had just been paroled two weeks prior from prison.  In fact he had spent a majority of his life in prison.  He also admitted that he was on his way to bye some “rock” to get stoned when he heard me talk and felt led to stop.  As we talked I kept telling him about the departure from sin, and how until that truly happened, he was still dead in his sin.  Eventually the light bulb went on and this gentleman’s entire demeanor changed.  This guy then grabbed my hand and said he wanted to pray.  He began praising God for the chance to hear about true salvation, and the need for obedience and prayed that he would seek the Holy Ghost in the battle to defeat his fleshly desires. 

At the end of our time together this guy reported that several years earlier he had died in a drug overdose and was brought back to life by the paramedics.  When he regained consciousness in the emergency room a nurse told him he was blessed to be alive.  This gentleman then looked at me and said, “Now I know that God brought me back so that I could learn about the truth.”  We finished up our time talking about the fruit he should expect to see within his life from true salvation.

I must admit that one of my greatest concerns is the number of professing Christians who claim their salvation by the lone evidence of their belief.  When you ask them how they were saved, so many claim that it came from a prayer they repeated one day in church.  I then ask these same people about repentance, and a majority claim that they repented when they asked for forgiveness in their prayer.  But forgiveness is not equivalent to repentance.  Repentance produces both a forgiveness of past sins, and a turning away from future sins.  Some folks are surprised to find out the gospel calls for a repentance of sins for salvation (Luke 13:3 & 5).    This is the first act of obedience in the walk of a born again believer. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming that everyone who repeats a prayer with a pastor is not saved.  But if obedience and faith are not present after their prayer, is there evidence of a new birth?  And is a disservice done by the pastor who calls them to pray who never tells them about the turning from iniquity and the fruit they will produce if they are saved?  I believe that a proper call to salvation should be given to each sinner instructing them of the fullness of their sin, the need to repent, and the fruit that will be evident from true salvation.  Anything less is just opening the door to a false conversion.  And what will God say to those pastors who assure so many that belief in Christ is the sole requirement for salvation.  And what things will the false convert say to the pastor who felt his salvation was sure through a prayer, only to be told by Christ, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”