The Simple Act of Appropriation

Having come so far, let me restate what we’ve already seen: that there is a vital difference between faith in the mind, which is nothing more than the intellectual acceptance of the facts of the gospel, and faith in the heart, which always results in a positive response to the facts. The whole New Testament makes it plain that the experience of salvation comes to each soul only as a result of this personal response to the gospel.

Various different words are used in the New Testament to describe this personal response to the gospel. All the words thus used have one essential point in common: they all denote simple, familiar acts which anybody can understand and carry out.

For example, in Rom. 10:8-9 Paul explains that salvation comes through believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth the truth of the gospel.

“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

He concludes his explanation of the way of salvation by saying:

“For ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” (Rom. 10:13)

Here the simple act which brings with it the experience of salvation is that of calling upon the name of the Lord; that is, asking God out loud for salvation in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.