PaulThomson said:
Show me a biblical text where my definition does not apply: where a saviour does not rescue people from harm that they could not deliver themselves on their own.
Judges 3:15 calls Ehud a saviour (Greek: sOtEr).
Ehud saved the Israelites, but they contributed something to their salvation from the Moabites.
Obviously, in some cases they could and did take part in their salvation/deliverance. Sometimes God said stand still. Sometimes His people were required to do something to be saved, like look at a bronze serpent. It's not an either/or option with God. Sometimes faith is evidenced with standing still. Sometimes it is evidenced with acting.. Obeying the command to stand still, is doing something.
No. Faith is a response to what God says. They looked at the serpent because they believed what God said. Looking wasn't salvation. Looking was evidence they believed what God said.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Word of God produces hearing.
Hearing produces faith.
Faith believes, and then responds.
Your response is baffling. Their looking, which they were told to do,
completed their faith. Anyone who had heard that they must look, and had understood that they must look, but had not looked when they could have looked - any
faith that they might have claimed to have would have been dead, abiding alone. They would not have been saved. Just as those who heard they should stand still, but had not completed their faith by standing still, and had instead run ahead into battle, would not have been saved.
Jesus does not equate "being found" with "having faith". He could have said "There is much rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who
believes, and then you would be basing your conclusion on what the text
says. But He said, "There is much joy in heaven over one sinner who
repents," which means I am basing my conclusion on what the text
says.
Grace and peace.