Your faith does not save you, Jesus does

It can be said that faith saves, and also charity, provided it is believed that both the faith and charity, when they are true, are from the Lord.
For everything true which is of true faith (not to be identified with some erroneous teachings about faith), and all the good which is of charity, is from the Lord, and belongs to the Lord alone. But indeed, it is the Lord who saves, not something of man's own. And yet the faith and charity are contingencies of regeneration, and then also salvation.

Faith is needed to help you to accept the gift of salvation Eph. 2: 8

bling said:

Faith is needed to help you to accept the gift of salvation Eph. 2: 8

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That faith comes from the Lord.

Jeff Saunders said:

What is your definition of faith?
Mine is-faith is believing something we can not see, yet we still believe.

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Faith = trusting.

All mature adults have a God given ability to trust in things and people (including once self). Adults can direct their God given "general faith" toward stone objects they trust to be a god, but they can turn and trust in a benevolent Creator's Love and acceptance of God's Love in the form of forgiveness.

Vambram said:

That faith comes from the Lord.

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All mature adults have a God given ability to trust in things and people (including once self). Adults can direct their God given "general faith" toward stone objects they trust to be a god, but they can turn and trust in a benevolent Creator's Love and acceptance of God's Love in the form of forgiveness.

"Your faith has made you well". Jesus.

Jeff Saunders said:

2 Tim 1:9-10 " ( God ) Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, NOT ACCORDING TO OUR OBSERVANCES, but according to his own purpose and grace, which is given to us in the Anointed One Jesus from before the times of the ages, But which is now made manifest by the appearing of our savior the Anointed One Jesus, abolishing death, and having brought life and incorruption to light by the good tidings."
On this forum, I have seen many times people saying their faith saves them but according to 2 Tim 1:9-10 we are saved not by our observances, faith is a observance that the west says we must do to be saved, but this verse says that we are saved by God according to his own purpose and grace.
This was done before any human ever was created, yet many think that by them conjuring up enough faith, jumping through whatever hoops your tradition says you have to do, this is what saves them.

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1 Peter 1:21 Who by Him (Jesus) do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead,
and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Colossians 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

Saved by the steadfast belief and confidence in God who is able to raise the dead,
and give eternal life by the Spirit of holiness. Committed to His Trust.
Romans 1:
4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to
the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe
in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

1 Corinthians 15:
13 But if there be is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God
that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

Do you confess and belief that God resurrected His Son Jesus Christ
from the dead in flesh and bones?

Proximus said:

provided it is believed that both the faith and charity, when they are true, are from the Lord.

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This is His second commandment, acting in servitude to God's will and to each other

Faith is trusting in the will of God to supersede our will which is backwards.

There is this.

Matthew 8:5-13
5 And when Jesus had entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him
6 and saying, “Lord, my servant lieth at home sick with the palsy and grievously tormented.”
7 And Jesus said unto him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof. But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, ‘Go!’ and he goeth; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he cometh; and to my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he doeth it.”
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled and said to those who followed, “Verily I say unto you, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.
11 And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.
12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, “Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” And his servant was healed in that selfsame hour.

I think verse 11-12 disproves the once-saved-always-saved doctrine.

I think important to the conversation is where faith comes from, or, how do you get faith.
The general idea presented is that faith is the result of a choice. You "choose" to believe. Your choice results in faith being present.
Let me suggest that this may not be so. I would suggest that faith comes without the choice, and the "choice" that you make is not to believe, but is merely an acknowledgement that is already inside you. That faith did not come by some choice you made, rather, that faith was inserted into you by the Spirit of God.

Rom 10:17
17 And this proves that faith comes from a Message heard,
and that the Message comes through its having been spoken by Christ.

I understand it to mean this:

Faith comes by a revelation, and a revelation comes by a word spoken by Christ.

When the living spirit of Christ speaks a word into your spirit, that word becomes faith within your spirit.

I think a good example of this is found in the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 1:

Eph 1:17-18
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

This is how faith is inserted into your spirit. He gives you living spiritual words into your spiritual knowledge AKA faith.

At that point your only choices are if you will acknowledge the information imparted to your spirit, and will you begin to alter your behavior to match this knowledge. I refer to this knowledge within you as "assurance." One of my favorite preachers use to say "you know that you know" without and logical support. The process of "renewing" your mind is building up scripture and logical patterns that agree and support your inner assurance.

The other thing I hear a lot is 'I am growing my faith.' I do not think that is how faith works. I think you either have faith or you don't, you either are a Christian w/ the Holy Spirit or you are not. Faith is a gift, he doesn't give you half a gift, he gives it to you or he doesn't, & whatever he gives you is sufficient. If you were to grow it somehow, hypothetically, he's the one doing it, all glory to God

So I thought 'well, doesn't Jesus say 'if you have that kind of faith, you can overthrow mountains?' If = since

DragonFox91 said:

The other thing I hear a lot is 'I am growing my faith.' I do not think that is how faith works. I think you either have faith or you don't, you either are a Christian w/ the Holy Spirit or you are not. Faith is a gift, he doesn't give you half a gift, he gives it to you or he doesn't, & whatever he gives you is sufficient. If you were to grow it somehow, hypothetically, he's the one doing it, all glory to God

So I thought 'well, doesn't Jesus say 'if you have that kind of faith, you can overthrow mountains?' If = since

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Excellent. One thing I have noticed is I cannot escape faith via logical arguments against it. Someone piles a bunch of logical arguments against a truth that God put in my heart, and my mind may say..."yeah, I can see that...". But my heart (spirit) just won't let it go. It keeps coming back and back again.
I concluded some years ago that the overall truth is this. "If faith is present, anything is possible." It is not like you are trying to drum up some faith from out of nothing or you are straining your brain to work up some belief. No. If the faith is already present, then you have it. If the faith is not present, then you will not. That does not come by some mental choice. Most important is this: What faith you have did not come to you via the same mental mechanism that decides what socks you will wear or what kind of burger you want. Faith does not come by choice. Faith comes by revelation and that revelation comes by a word spoken into your heart by the Spirit of God. If this "faith is not present" then no amount of rational thought is going to bring it there. That is simply not how faith comes. And as I suggested above, faith is not overcome by mere logical arguments. You did not get "talked into" faith, and you are not going to get "talked out of" it either.
So on the other side of the question, and I think this addresses some difficult questions. We said that "if faith is present" then anything is possible. But this also means "if faith is not present" then those things may not be possible. So the question asked is this: "why is faith not present?" Not, "why is your faith weak, or "you are failing spiritually." Now the devil steps in at this point and, in his subtle way, will tell the seeker "they are saying you do not have faith, and it is your fault that you are spiritually weak!" I have seen this a thousand times. The seeker will latch onto that reasoning, and not even listen, much less hear what you are saying about "how to get faith." They will wrap themselves up into a defensive stance where they only hear you attacking their faith (or lack thereof). It is almost impossible to break through that wall. You are trying to find out why faith is not present, not attacking them for something that, as we have said, is not really something within their control to start with. You get faith by His speaking it into you, not by some virtuous trait of your own. If you want faith, the first thing to do is pray that prayer in Ephesians 1.

Eph 1:17-19
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."

The result of "revelation" and "knowing" (in your heart) is the establishment of faith words.
That is how you "GET" faith.

Faith grows as our understanding of the Kingdom grows. We are told to keep seeking it for a reason. Finding it is only the start.