Study God's Word Unto Faith

The most desired answer of the churches of Christ is the answer to the question what must one do to be saved.  This is the most important question that must be ask of everyone and is one that I am going to answer through the next few articles.  What should be asked, is what does God say “His” Plan of Salvation is.  Through a careful study of God’s Word we will see there are six steps that must be taken to ensure we, as God’s creation, make it to live with Him for eternity.  These steps are: hear or study God’s Word, put one's faith in Jesus the Christ, repent or turn to God, confession of Jesus as Lord, baptism for the remission of sins, and live a faithful and upright life.  For this article we are going to examine the first step in God’s Plan of Salvation which is to hear God’s Word or to study His Word.  Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Most everyone understands that in order to become a Christian there must be at minimum a belief in Christ but what we learn from Romans 10:17 is, that the only way to get faith in Christ is to hear or study about Christ.  This is done by (1) studying who Jesus is and (2) studying what Christ has done for us (Acts 2:14-40; 8:30-35).  Through being taught with the Scriptures and confirming what has been taught with the scriptures (Acts 17:11) it is only then that one has the ability today to really get a sense of what Jesus did for each of us, which was to die on the cross for each of our sins, be buried in an used tomb, and then be raised to sit at the right hand of God (Matthew 27-28; Romans 8:34).  Through this studying everyone has the ability to not only know the truth about Jesus (John 8:32; 17:17) but believe in Him as the Savior and give oneself over to Him in obedience because of this truth (John 3:16; John 14:15; Hebrews 11:6).  Without this seemingly simple step, which is the first building block in God’s Plan of Salvation, no one can have proper faith in Christ Jesus.