FAITH SALVATION Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama) June 3, 2016 Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. When we got saved we not only put our faith in Christ himself, but faith that he even exists and faith that He actually died for us in 33 AD. We who are saved have put our trust and faith in someone we have never seen or heard to save us from hell and wrath. We have staked our soul salvation on the death of a man 2000 years ago that some people even say was an imposter or a criminal. No one today has ever seen Christ in person and no one today was a witness of his crucifixion and yet we have staked our salvation in this man we have never seen and in an event we did not witness. That’s faith. One reason it is hard for lost people to get saved is because for them to believe on Christ they must believe on someone they have never seen, heard or touched. We do not even have a true picture to show them or a recording of his voice to play for them. He is totally invisible and silent and for them to be saved they must take our word for what we say about Christ. We have no physical evidence to convince them to believe on Christ to be saved. That is why it’s hard for a lost person who knows nothing about the Bible or Christ to believe on someone they can’t see or hear or touch. When we tell lost people that Christ died for their sins, we are asking them to believe an event that took place 2000 years ago that we did not witness. All we have to document his death on Calvary in 33 AD is the account given to us by the apostles that many people say is bogus and made up. Paul said Christ died for our sins, but that was 2000 years ago and the only proof we have is the words the apostles wrote down in the New Testament. The only true record we have of Jesus Christ are the writings of the apostles and prophets in the Old and New Testament. They are the only ones who said he was God manifest in the flesh and that He died for our sins and was raised again from the dead. Josephus the historian never said these things about Christ, just the apostles and prophets. This is why salvation is by total faith; To be saved we must believe in a man we have never seen or heard and we must believe that man died and was resurrected 2000 years ago and by faith we must believe that He and this event even took place.