Essentials Of Biblical Christianity and Bullseye Beliefs For Salvation
- Identify the essential beliefs for salvation, such as God exists, Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is risen from the dead.
- Understand why the resurrection is foundational and why faith without it is empty and futile.
- Embrace salvation by grace through faith, marked by new birth in the Spirit and perseverance in belief.
What are the beliefs that are essential for salvation?
The first belief that is essential for salvation is, of course, believing that God exists—but not simply intellectually believing that God exists. Hebrews 11 talks about the importance of believing that God exists and earnestly seeking him. James also says that even the demons believe that God exists. It’s not enough just to believe that God exists. That belief must be accompanied by a life of faith. So the first essential element of belief is believing that God exists and earnestly seeking him with our lives. 
The second element of faith—I’m actually going to put the next two together—is believing that Jesus is Lord, that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and that he is risen from the dead. Romans 10 talks about the importance of confessing and believing that Jesus is Lord and that he rose from the dead. First Corinthians 15 makes this especially clear in terms of the resurrection. Paul says that a faith that doesn’t include the resurrection of Jesus is empty. It’s futile. Our faith is nothing without the resurrection of Jesus. So it’s absolutely essential that we believe in God, that we believe Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is the authority, and that he has risen from the dead.
“It’s absolutely essential that we believe in God, that we believe Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is the authority, and that he has risen from the dead.”
Fourthly, we believe that we are saved by grace through faith. It’s not through our works. This is the essence of the gospel. The essence of the gospel is that God has saved us. When we were powerless to save ourselves, God saved us by grace through faith. So we surrender ourselves to him, and we receive the grace that he has given to us through Jesus.
We have these essential elements of our faith, but then we also have a couple of essential markers of our faith. One essential marker is that we are born again of the Spirit. I’m drawing from John 3, Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus says that it’s not enough for us simply to be nice; it’s essential that we are born again, that we are made new.
C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, said, “God doesn’t want us just to be nice people. He wants us to be new”—to be born again of the Spirit. Paul goes on in a book like Ephesians to say that the Holy Spirit is the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. So it’s an essential marker of the Christian faith that we are born again of the Spirit, that we’re manifesting the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, that we’re exercising the gifts of the Spirit, and that we are born again.
“It’s an essential marker of the Christian faith that we are born again of the Spirit.”
Lastly, another essential marker of the Christian faith is that we persevere in these beliefs. Throughout our lifetime, we maintain these beliefs, we are passionately devoted to them, and we persevere in them. So these are the essential elements of our faith.
