Turn to the Lord

and be saved

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:16

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

God is gracious to us and wants us to understand what saving faith is. Therefore, the Bible uses several words for saving faith and gives us different analogies to help us understand what it looks like. None of them by themselves are the whole story, but together they give us a full picture. Depending on our own experiences and knowledge, one or more of them may be more helpful to us than others.

Here, in this text, saving faith is described as “turning to the Lord.” That is a descriptive way of looking at it. When we hear those words, we can visualize someone who is looking or going in one direction and, as the saying goes, does a 180. They turn in the opposite direction and head the other way.

That is also a good way to define repentance. That is why sometimes we read or hear about repentance and faith together. They are twin sisters of saving faith. They are two sides of the same coin. Turning to the Lord necessarily includes a turning away from all that was leading us away from salvation in Jesus Christ. That could be immorality, idolatry, or false forms of a works-based Christianity. Or it could be all of the above.

When we trust Christ as our Lord and Savior, we necessarily cease trusting in other means of saving ourselves.

It is not wrong to tell people to turn to the Lord to be saved. It is not the only way to describe saving faith, but it is one way and it is a legitimate and biblical way.

Have you turned to the Lord?