After a person gets saved, by coming to Jesus in faith and trusting Him for cleansing, he is by Scriptural definition a new ‘creature.’ He has been made righteous having his sins forgiven, and his record cleansed. He now is seen by the Heavenly Father through the righteousness of His Son, Jesus.

Salvation makes a person righteous and alive in Christ. However, getting saved does not in itself complete the process of transforming one into the image of Christ. Salvation is but the first step of a lifetime of spiritual growth, where God brings trials and tests across our path that we might learn to fully depend on Him. Those trials have a desired effect of pushing out the impurities, all the selfish and sinful tendencies in our lives that are remnants of the life we lived before Christ.

One of the more difficult lessons to learn in our new life in Christ is to live by faith, and not our own self effort. We are all very independent, and go through life thinking that we can do it on our own. Just like the toddler who wants to do everything for himself, but soon learns the hard way that he needs help, we are utterly helpless apart from the Lord.
                                                                                                              
Faith is simply taking steps according to our belief. Faith is more than just knowing something; it is actually acting upon it. We can say that we believe that the ice will hold us, but until we actually walk out on it, we are only speculating. Faith involves commitment. Of course, faith is also dependent upon the facts. We may think the ice will hold us, but if we have not thoroughly tested it, and carefully calculated its depth by the number of subzero days, our ‘faith’ may turn out to be foolishness.

We came to Christ and trusted Him to save us. Why? Because we chose to believe that the Bible is true, and it told us of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how that by trusting in Him we could be saved. There were authoritative facts, and we chose to believe them. We acted upon our belief, and that was faith.

Faith is believing, but it is really more than just believing. Faith involves action. Our salvation demanded more than just believing the facts of the gospel, we had to actually determine to trust in the Lord. Our belief had to be acted upon.

Once we are saved, the Bible says we are to live by faith. That simply means we are to regularly act upon what we believe. For instance, the Bible teaches us to care for the poor. We can believe the truth, but if we see a need, and choose to ignore it, we are not living by faith. We might say that our faith is dead.

James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Faith must be exercised by actions. When the Bible teaches me that I should do something, I may say I believe the Bible, but until I choose to obey what it says, my faith is dead.

Let’s keep our faith alive.