David Ray
As a member of the Lord’s church who was raised by faithful parents, I was taught the five steps to become a Christian: hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized. (Of course, we realize that the complete plan of salvation includes remaining faithful after baptism, even unto death, Rev. 2:10.) Because of the insistence of sound brethren on teaching these five steps, members of the church of Christ have been pejoratively called “five-finger Christians.” Yet, as any Bible reader can verify, these five points are taught in the New Testament. Therefore, each is an absolute necessity in order for a person to have forgiveness of his sins and the resulting eternal salvation.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it is impossible to please God without having faith, and Romans 10:17 says “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Therefore, the first of the steps expected of each human is obviously to hear the Word, since there is no way a person can respond in a positive way to the teachings of the Scripture without first hearing the Scripture.
Before looking at this further, let’s consider a problem that some brethren express regarding our teaching of these responsibilities on the part of each human. I recently read a blog by a person who is a member of the church of Christ. The blog had to do with salvation and prompted many comments, predominantly from members of the church of Christ. Sadly, one commenter said that we (members of the church of Christ) improperly focus on what we do and not on what God does (in salvation), thereby making salvation all about our actions.
The salvation of any soul requires God’s part and that soul’s part. God has already done His part in offering His Son as the atonement for our sins; this was done one time for all of mankind (Heb. 10:10-14), and this forgiveness is available for the whole world (1 John 2:1-2). The whole world, however, will not be saved (cf. Matt. 7:13-14). Therefore, something (or things) must be necessary for each human to do in order to receive the forgiveness of his sins. We do not in any way exclude God’s part when we instruct a lost soul of his own responsibility. The effectiveness of his actions is predicated upon his understanding of God’s. This is evident in the first two steps, hearing and believing. These include a recognition and understanding of what God did in offering His grace to all mankind. This is what we hear and then believe. So, let’s discuss the necessity of hearing the Word.
The requirement to believe naturally implies obeying what one has heard and believed. If someone told you there was a bomb in the building in which you currently reside, the evidence of your belief would be seen in your action of leaving the building after you heard the warning. The evidence of one’s belief in God and His word are seen in one’s obedience to the commands He has given in His word. A person who truly believes will repent of his sins (Acts 17:30), verbally confess Jesus (Rom. 10:9-10), and be baptized for the purpose of having his sins forgiven by God and washed away (Acts 2:38; 22:16). From there, he will continue to grow as a Christian (2 Pet. 3:18).
It is evident that obedience will not come without belief, and belief cannot come without hearing. One must hear what God has said in His word, the gospel message, in order to believe it. One cannot believe anything about Jesus Christ until he has heard about Jesus Christ.
But, “Be careful little ears what you hear.” These are part of the lyrics of a song I used to sing to my children when they were young, and the lesson is just as important for adults. There are a lot of messages out there being offered in the name of Christianity, but they have altered the truth of the Scripture, adding to and subtracting from the gospel message. Maybe the most popular general teaching is that all one needs to do in order to be saved is simply to believe in Jesus Christ as one’s personal savior. Therefore, once a person arrives at such a belief, he is saved; no further action on his part is needed, now or ever (once you’re saved, you’re always saved). Scripture does not teach salvation by faith only or “once saved, always saved.” These are false doctrines that will cost an inestimable number of souls their eternity! God is very clear in His Word that we are not to add to it or subtract from it (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Gal. 1:8-9; Rev. 22:18-19).
So, our message to non-Christians begins with imploring them to hear the gospel; it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe (Rom. 1:16). The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-4). It is only because of and through this selfless act of Jesus that anyone can be saved. This is how God demonstrated His great love for us that, even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). Each person needs to understand how much God loves him and how much He wants each person to be saved.
This gospel message is what a person must hear in order to understand and obey the steps that are necessary to become a Christian. But it also teaches and strengthens the Christian in his continued growth, helping him keep his focus on Heaven. Paul spoke to the Colossian brethren of “the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel” (Col. 1:5). When one hears the truth and obeys it, he now has the hope of heaven. This is because the gospel “bringeth forth fruit” in him (v. 6), “that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (v. 10). This shows the necessity to continue hearing the word throughout one’s life, increasing in your knowledge, not just stopping after being baptized and never growing beyond this, a failure that has characterized so many members of the church.
Therefore, it is our earnest plea to every human to find out what the Bible says and continue finding out. Do your own daily Bible reading. Set aside time to study it. There are many resources that can help in this endeavor: a concordance of Scriptural words showing other places a word is used, Hebrew and Greek dictionaries, and interlinear Greek/English Bibles can be very helpful. Electronic resources such as the E-Sword program include most of these. Also, commentaries on Bible books and topics can be very useful. Of course, one must recognize that, while Scripture is inspired by God, commentaries are not. This is especially important to remember when using study Bibles, which include the scripture on the top of the page and the commentary about the scripture on the bottom. In my experience, many people have difficulty understanding that commentary is just that—an uninspired human’s comments about scripture. These writers may be right or wrong. So, as the Bereans with Paul’s teachings (Acts 17:11), one must search the scriptures to see if the things he reads in commentaries, etc., are true.
As Christians, we need to apply the truth of Romans 10:17 to ourselves daily as the hearers and as the teachers. We must never forget that, first of all, our faith comes through hearing (reading) the Bible. It is the Bible that teaches us how to become a Christian, having our sins washed away in the waters of baptism (Acts 22:16). It is the Bible that teaches us that we must have Christ’s authority for everything we do in religion (Col. 3:17). It is the Bible that teaches us that God desires us to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) and that this truth is found only in His Word (John 17:17). And it’s the Bible that teaches us to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).
Christians must also apply the truth of Romans 10:17 to our teaching of non-Christians about how to be saved. For faith to develop in the heart and mind of a non-Christian, he must be exposed to the truth, particularly the gospel message of forgiveness as found in the New Testament. Too often, brethren have stressed that we should be examples to the lost, many times to the exclusion of actual Bible studies with them. As important as our godly influence is, it cannot teach a person what he needs to know. How does one’s good example at work teach a coworker the purpose and necessity of baptism? How does our being a godly, reliable employee instruct the boss on the only authorized acts of worship that God accepts? It is our words that can explain these things to a lost person (cf. Acts 11:14). We can’t use our good example before the lost as an excuse not to make the necessary efforts to get them to sit down and open our Bibles together. In order to be saved, these people need to develop true, biblical faith in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, by hearing His word. This is our responsibility.
If we will be saved from the soul-damning consequences of our sins, we start by hearing what God has said in His word. No necessary actions will come from a person who hasn’t believed the truth. And no belief can occur in the heart of a human who has not heard the word. Are you listening?
