"SAVING FAITH"

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

“There may be a real faith in Christ, though there be mixed with it many and grave errors concerning His work and the manner of receiving the blessings which He bestows… I do not wish to underrate for one moment the absolute necessity of clear and true conceptions of revealed truth, in order to develop a vigorous and mature faith; but, while there can be no faith worth calling so which is not based upon the intellectual reception of truth, still there may be faith based upon an imperfect reception of the truth. The power and vitality of faith are not measured by the comprehensiveness and clearness of belief… He that knows and trusts the Lord as Brother, Friend, and Savior, in whom he receives the pardon and cleansing he needs and desires, may have very many misconceptions and errors yet clinging to him, but Christ accepts him anyway.”
(Alex. Maclaren – Adapted.)

A person’s faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is what saves him, not the amount, degree or perfection of his understanding of Bible teaching. If it were otherwise, who could be saved? The wisest man, with the best education and resources, could spend a lifetime studying the Word of God and at the end of his days, be forced to exclaim with Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33). Of course, a man should keep on studying the great things of God and eagerly seek to know all the mind of God and the facts and wisdom revealed in Scripture—and what joy that is to the child of the Lord!—yet it is comforting to know that it is not a perfect understanding that saves us!
Some think men are saved by a complete and correct intellectual comprehension of every doctrine in the Bible. Others center salvation in a rote, legalistic obedience of Bible commands—perfectly executed. Obviously a great many associate salvation with belonging to the right party, denomination, theological mindset, or by which great theologian, preacher, or author one idolizes. Thank goodness, none of these are correct!
Simple faith in Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture, faith as small as a mustard seed and as trusting and innocent as that of a little child, here is what saves a man when he acts upon it! Jesus Himself says so!

Larry Atkin, Preacher