How does one trust God for salvation? Like, what are the steps to trusting God for salvation? I'm having trouble understanding what it means. Because although I have a will to serve God and get closer to God, and though I've repented of my sins and believe, I don't know if I trusted God for my salvation. I don't know what that means. Salvation is a gift from God, so how does someone trust God for salvation when they are given it? Do they trust that God will save them? Is that what it means? Sorry for rambling, I'm just really worried. I want to have a relationship with God and desire to be who he wants me to be, I'm just unsure if I received salvation or not.
Hello,
The Bible begins and ends by speaking about the Tree of Life, and everything in between is about how to walk in God's way, which is the narrow way that leads to eternal life through relationship with Him (Matthew 7:14). The content of a gift can itself be the experience of doing something, such as giving someone the opportunity to experience driving a Ferrari for an hour, and in a similar way, the content of God's give of eternal life is experientially/relationally knowing God and and Jesus (John 17:3), in His law is His gift for teaching us how to know Him, which is why Jesus said in Matthew 19:17 that the way to enter eternal life is by obeying God's commandments. Likewise, in Roman 2:6-7, He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. In Romans 6:19-22, no longer presenting ourselves as slaves to impurity, lawlessness, and sin is contrasted with now presenting ourselves as a slaves to God and to righteousness leading to sanctification, and the goal of sanctification is eternal life in Christ, which is the gift of God, so obedience to God's law the content of God's gift of eternal life.
In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him His way that he might know Him, and Israel too, and in 1 Kings 2:1-3, God taught how to walk in His way through His law, and knowing God is again eternal life. In Jeremiah 9:3 and 9:6, they did now know God and refused to know him because in 9:13, they had forsaken God's law, while in 9:24, those who know God know that he delights in practicing steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in all of the earth, so delighting in expressing these and other aspects of God's nature through our obedience to His law is the way to experientially know Him, and Jesus, who is the exact expression of God's nature (Hebrews 1:3). In 1 John 2:4, those who say that they know Jesus, but don't obey his commands are liars, in 1 John 3:4-6, those who continue to practice sin in transgression of God's law have neither seen nor known him, and in Matthew 7:23, Jesus said that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them, so knowing Christ is the goal of the law for righteousness for everyone who has faith (Romans 10:4).
The Bible frequently connects our belief/trust in God with our obedience to His commandments and connects unbelief with disobedience. In James 2:17-18, faith without works is dead and he would show his faith by his works. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that faithfulness is one of the weightier matters of the law. In Romans 3:31, our faith upholds God's law. In Revelation 14:12, all those who kept faith in Jesus are people who kept God's commandments. In John 3:36, believing in Jesus is equated with obeying him. In John 6:40, the way to have eternal life is by believing in Jesus, so that combined with Matthew 19:17 means that obedience to God's commandments is the way to believe in Jesus. In Romans 1:5, we have received grace in order to bring about the obedience of faith. In Hebrews 3:18-19, they did not enter into God's rest because of their disobedience/unbelief. Every example of faith listed in Hebrews 11 is an example of people doing works.
The way that we live expresses what we believe to be true about God, so when we express aspects of God's nature through our obedience to His, such as justify, we are expressing the belief that God is justice, we are gaining experientially knowledge of His justice, we are expressing our love for His justice, we are testifying about His justice, or in other words, we are believing in Him. We are putting our trust in God's nature to be the guide for how to rightly live our lives, to teach us how to know Him, and to guide us on the narrow way that leads to life. Obedience to God's law has never been about earning our salvation, but rather it is the gift of teaching us how to know Him and have a relationship with Him.
In Titus 2:11-14, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, so God graciously teaching us to obey His law for how to experience these aspects of His nature is itself part of the content of His gift of salvation. Furthermore, in Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to God's law is the way to believe in what Jesus accomplished through the cross (Acts 21:20). Our salvation is from sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), so while we do not earn our salvation by our obedience to it, living in obedience to it through faith is nevertheless inherently part of the content of the gift of Jesus saving us from living in transgression of it.
