Q: I always heard one
should "trust in Yeshua" to get saved. What about repentance, and
changing one's life?
A: As for salvation to eternal life, trusting in him is all that Jesus requires of us. Over and over he says that believing in him is the key to eternal life. (John 3:15-18, John 5:24, John 6:29, John 6:40, John 6:47, John 8:11, John 11:25, etc.). This does not mean that Jesus should be treated like a Fire Insurance policy, to be acquired and then forgotten until needed. That would be the lowest of callousness and ingratitude! Romans 6:1-14 deals with just this attitude. "Should we sin the more,: he says, "that grace may abound? By no means!" (Romans 6:1-2) Yet nowhere does he say that the reason we should not sin is that we risk losing our salvation. We are saved for good works, not by good works. (Eph. 2:8-10). Trusting does imply repentance in its most literal sense of a change of attitude. You cannot go the right way unless you stop going the wrong way!. The right way is Jesus. The wrong way is anything else (John 10:9, Acts 4:12). Anyone who truly loves Yeshua will obey him, (John 14:5, 1 John 1:6) Obedience to his commands is in not a condition for salvation, but the evidence that we really know him..(1 John 2:3) Anyone who claims to know the Lord but willfully defies him is a liar (1 John 2:4)
David Brown
AMF International
http://www.amfi.org