Why is faith required for salvation?

[snarflemike]

I have sensed an odd view of why Jesus requires faith for salvation, mostly among some Protestants, but I’m sure some Catholics have it too. Or maybe I just misunderstand.

The question is, why does Jesus require that we have faith in order to be saved? The odd view that I sense is that unless we somehow give Jesus credit for saving us, he won’t save us. This doesn’t sound very Christian to me.

So please discuss why Jesus actually requires that we have faith in order to be saved.

 

[jschutzm]

I have sensed an odd view of why Jesus requires faith for salvation, mostly among some Protestants, but I’m sure some Catholics have it too. Or maybe I just misunderstand.

The question is, why does Jesus require that we have faith in order to be saved? The odd view that I sense is that unless we somehow give Jesus credit for saving us, he won’t save us. This doesn’t sound very Christian to me.

So please discuss why Jesus actually requires that we have faith in order to be saved.

Faith roughly equals TRUST.

Trust is required for LOVE and in order for our will and intellect to cooperate with God.

A “gift” is not really a gift if it is ‘forced’
God designed his grace and mercy to be received as a ‘gift’ and one thing we know about gifts is that they must be ‘accepted’ to be received.

Acceptance implies some sort of response. The least response one can give is to merely believe and trust that if one accepts the gift, that they will receive it. - RIGHT?

I mean if I say that I will take you to lunch. You accept my offer of a free lunch and trust that I will deliver on my promise.

God could have required much more from us. Perhaps a certain pilgrimage to a mountaintop or a trial of some sort. But no, instead, he simply wants us to accept his grace by having “trust” in the form of faith that he will deliver on his promise.

I think that’s pretty reasonable… don’t you?

 

[jschutzm]

In a larger context… faith is required for a LOT of things.

Faith that the chair I’m sitting in will hold me.
Faith that the other car will stop at the red light.

Some faith is rewarded or ‘verified’ quickly… like in the 2 above cases. Within seconds I will confirm if that faith was warranted and the promise was fulfilled OR I will prove that faith was not warranted and typically something bad will happen.

But either way… we probably can’t get through a day without putting our faith in a number of things.

Salvation, because it is a future event, requires ‘faith’ – aka ‘trust that the promise will be fulfilled.’

IF we don’t at the very least, trust that God will fulfill his promise…then we probably won’t have enough trust to follow his commandments, his teachings, etc. EITHER…because some of those things are even harder to do.

For instance… be less selfish and trust that God will provide for me and my family. That’s much harder to let go of control and “have faith” in.

So I see ‘faith in Christ’s sacrifice’ as the gateway to all other trust in God.

 

[Mumbles140]

Building on (and trying to shorten) what J said:

Catholics believe one needs faith and works to share in the salvation Christ offered to all of us. This is how humans show their love to God. God created us out of love with the hopes of us loving Him back (although to a lesser degree than God’s love for us). God loves us so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son to die and be resurrected so that sin no longer resulted in only death - it could also lead to eternal life. Catholics believe in single predestination - that God wills everyone to Heaven. However, God loves us so much, He also gave us free will, and therefore, the ability to not love Him. In fact, this gift was so great, He created a place where He was not present for those who rejected Him. God offers salvation to everyone - faith isn’t required for that, but it is required to attain salvation because that is a choice we have to make.

Think of salvation as the place where one can share in God’s love by experiencing God in His full presence. Conversely, think of Hell as the only place where God is not. The opportunity salvation shows God’s love - the acceptance of that (shown by faith and works) reflects our love (or lack thereof) to God.