An Almost Saving Faith

Scripture Reading: John 12:36-43

              Paul famously wrote in Romans 10:13 “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Some, taking this out of its context, turn it into a “salvation by prayer” text. They tell people, “Just pray this prayer,” with the promise that repeating by rote a “sinner’s prayer” is the sure path to salvation. The problem is we are not saved by prayer, we are saved by faith. So what, then, does Paul mean? Context…

              He goes on in verse 14, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed…” Calling is the fruit or evidence of believing. Or better, calling is the evidence of saving faith. I added that word “saving” because there is a kind of belief that isn’t saving, and the evidence of that kind of belief is in not calling.

              This kind of faulty faith is illustrated in John 12. In verse 42 John tells us that many authorities believed in Jesus, but they did not confess it because they were afraid of the Pharisees. The Pharisees had threatened excommunication to anyone who confessed Jesus as the Messiah. John adds the commentary that these men “loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

              John also shows us this kind of non-saving faith earlier in chapter nine. There we find the story of the man who was born blind. Jesus healed him. His parents were called in to testify about what happened. They refused to tell what they knew about Jesus because “they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.”

              There is a kind of belief that is not saving. It is evidenced by an unwillingness to confess Christ and this is often motivated by fear of what will happen if an open confession is made. We are not saved by our confession, but our confession is the first fruit of saving faith.

              A failure at this point does not have to be the final word. God is gracious. Nicodemus seems to have come to a saving belief out of a non-saving belief. He’s not alone. Others have gone from an almost saving faith to saving faith. They have moved from silence to confession. And “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9).