This is faith, and faith is all that is needed to connect us to the salvation offered us in Christ. But because we are so prone to fool ourselves, it is important to know that if our faith is genuine, it will show itself in important and discernible ways. The Bible says of Christians that God has poured out His love into our hearts, and it would be very strange if that outpouring of divine love made no difference in the way we feel and act. If we genuinely believe in Jesus, then we will find, for example, that we have growing pleasure in knowing God through Him. We will enjoy reading the Bible. We will enjoy praying to God in Christ’s name. We will enjoy worshiping God and being with the people of God.
Our enjoyment in these things may vary in intensity depending on what else is happening in our lives, but we will have enough pleasure in our relationship with God to convince us that we are His and He is ours.
Similarly, if our faith is genuine, we will have a growing desire to see Christ glorified in our lives, in the lives of other people, and throughout the world. Our reasoning will be something like this:
“The God who has saved me is a great and wonderful God, and His Christ is a great and wonderful Savior. I want the world to know that I believe in Jesus, and I want other people to see Jesus in me and come to faith in Him because of me. I also want people everywhere to know about Christ and believe in Him, and I will do everything in my power to spread His fame throughout the world.”
Again, our passion for God’s glory may burn more brightly at some times than at others; but if we are real Christians, it will not burn out.
One more evidence of faith needs to be mentioned: A true Christian will always have a desire for personal holiness. We will want to obey God’s Law to the best of our abilities. We will find that we are still unable to comply fully with God’s Law, but we will have a heartfelt desire to do so. We will do everything in our power to remove all known sin from our lives, and when we are unable to overcome a sinful habit, we will find ourselves pleading with God to take it away from us.
This means that we will hate sin and love righteousness. Our prayers, once focused on asking God for various physical blessings, such as health, protection, or success, will now center on our holy Lord and our striving to become like Him.
Now let me again make this matter personal: Are you in fact a Christian? Do you believe in Christ, and is the genuine nature of your faith proved by its fruits? Does my description of Christian faith cause you to rejoice and say, “Yes, that’s me!” or does it cause uneasiness or even anger in your heart?
Be honest with yourself. There is no sense in ducking the issue or pretending to be what you are not.