It takes more than faith since we can't even have faith until we are born again. Re-birth has nothing to do with our faith, it is by the will of God.
There is a common debate between Arminians and Calvinists in regard to the Ordo Salutis or Order of Salvation; specifically whether faith precedes regeneration or regeneration precedes faith.
Lutherans have a very different take; for us one does not precede the other. Rather faith is regeneration. When a person is born again they have faith, when a person receives faith they are born again.
The Lutheran confession is that Justification is by grace alone through faith alone. That is central to our entire confession: It is only the imputed righteousness of Christ, received passively through faith, that sets us right before God. Vertically, between God and us, there exists only the Cross of Jesus Christ--there is nothing that is ours that fills that space, we contribute and offer nothing to God. Luther himself made the analogy that faith is the empty-handed beggar, in fact his last recorded words before his death were supposedly, "We are all beggars, this is true."
We have nothing to offer God, all we have and are is sinful and wretched, and deserving of damnation. God does not find what is worthy and reward it; God finds what is unworthy and makes it beautiful.
When God condescends and meets us in His grace, through Word and Sacrament, He is powerful to act, proactive in mercy. For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17), we are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves, but it is God's gift entirely apart from works so none may take credit (Ephesians 2:8-9), it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but rather by God's mercy, cleansing us by the washing of regeneration and renewing us by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).
When the Gospel is preached, it is not empty and vain words, it is the very living and active word of God (Hebrews 4:12) never failing and accomplishing what God has determined it to do (Isaiah 55:11), the Gospel is the very power of God to save all who believe (Romans 1:16) by it God's justice is revealed from faith to faith (Romans 1:17), the justice with which He justifies the unjust freely by grace through faith.
So the word is preached, and God acts, He creates and works and strenghtens faith. He makes us new people, new creations, a people of faith, a people alive now by the Holy Spirit (who gives us faith). Faith, contrary to the powers and wisdom of this world, for the things of God cannot be understood in our soulishness, but are Spiritually discerned--discerned and received by the Holy Spirit, by faith.
So the person who is baptized is new in Christ, having been born again (John 3:5), clothed with Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:27), united to Christ in His life, death, and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4), having received a new spiritual circumcision (Colossians 2:11-13). For the one who believes and is baptized is saved, but the one who believes not is condemned (Mark 16:16). We have been born not of human will, but by God (John 1:3), having been born not of perishable seed, but imperishable, born again by the enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:23), having been cleansed and washed by Christ by water with the word (Ephesians 5:26).
God's grace alone, not our works, meeting us in Word and Sacrament. God comes down, we don't go up; God meets us sinners in our nastiness, and says, "Come to Me weary ones, I'll give you rest" (Matthew 11:28), for the Son of God came in the form of sinful flesh in order to redeem Adam's fallen seed (Romans 8:3).
Our only righteousness is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us as pure gift, received through faith alone--a faith that is from God as His precious gift through the word. Thus we are new people, a new creation in Christ, formerly slaves to sin, death, and the devil; and now children of God by this precious adoption, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, for Christ has become for us an elder Brother. And all which is Christ's is now ours by grace.
O How deep, how long, how wide, how immense the love of God in Christ Jesus who saves us. The surpassing, unyielding, unceasing love of God who refuses to let us go by the wayside. Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, our Good Samaritan, who finds the lost bleating lambs and broken and left-for-dead on the side of the road. Who pays the full cost, to mend our wounds, give us rest, give us stay, invites us into the Chambers of God, to the Table of God,
"
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever." - Psalm 23:5-6
Come, let us go up to the house of the LORD, taste of His Feast, and know He is good.
-CryptoLutheran
