What is it That Saves a Person?
There is a variety of elements the Bible speaks of as being part of the salvation process. These include:
A. Faith, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Ephesians 2:8.
B. Belief, “And they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house.’” Acts 16:31.
C. Confession, “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10.
D. Baptism, “The like figure unto which even baptism does also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” 1Peter 3:2.
E. Hope, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Romans 8:24-25.
F. Grace, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Ephesians 2:8
G. The gospel, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and in which you stand; By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.” 1Corinthians 15:1-2.
H. And even fear, “and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Jude23.
It is not intended that anyone should choose one of these elements and disregard the others. One cannot for instance, choose to only believe without any regard for confessing Jesus as Lord and Christ and declare himself saved. One cannot simply choose to be baptized and disregard faith and declare himself saved. Jesus said, “man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4. Faith, belief, confession, baptism, hope, grace and fear all have their divinely appointed function within the framework of one's salvation. To disregard or marginalize the importance of any one these elements represents a disregard for what God tells us in scripture. Any of these alone will save no one. The exercise of all of them will save anyone. God has ordained all of these things to work together so man can “...be reconciled to God. For he has made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2Corinthians 5:21-22. We must remember that God offers salvation to man on HIS terms, not ours. If we choose to deviate from the terms and conditions which God has provided, we cannot hope to receive the benefits that are connected to them.