If you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -- Romans 10:9, RLIV.
We are living in a day when faith of any definite kind is coming into disrepute. To believe anything definitely and positively is to mark oneself as narrow minded in the estimation of the worldly wise. In the pulpits of Christendom it is growing proper to declare, directly or indirectly, that the essence of Christianity is works and not faith -- that a man may believe or disbelieve what he pleases so long as his life is a moral, respectable one, and particularly if he be a regular attendant of worship in one of the popular sects. This, however, is contrary to the proposition laid down in the Scriptures. There we are told that even perfect works would not be acceptable before God without faith. (Hebrews 11:6) We are told also that perfect works are impossible under present conditions, each one of Adam’s race being declared to be more or less depraved, mentally, morally and physically. The Scriptures point out that, this being the case, God is not judging his people during this Gospel age according to a rule of works, which would surely condemn all, but is testing them according to a rule of faith, on account of which he imputes to them righteousness, perfection, and requires no more of works than they are able to perform, rewarding them according to their perfect faith and not according to their imperfect works. -- Excerpt adapted from the sermon by C. T. Russell, "Faith in the Resurrection".
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