Faith Unto Salvation

After declaring that all must “repent and be baptized,” the Lord stated, “Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and remember that they shall have faith in me or they can in nowise be saved” (Doctrine and Covenants 33:12).  I was impressed by this simple declaration that we cannot be saved without faith in the Savior, and thus seeking to strengthen our faith during this mortal life should be of paramount importance to us.  Several others scriptures confirm this same truth.  Mormon stated that “men also were saved by faith in his name,” and Jacob said, “And he commandeth all men that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God” (Moroni 7:26, 2 Nephi 9:23).  Without perfect faith in the Savior we cannot be saved.  Mormon said again, “For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name” (Moroni 7:38).  In the Articles and Covenants of the church we read, “And we know that all men must repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and worship the Father in his name, and endure in faith on his name to the end, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:29).  Again and again the scriptures confirm that we must continue in faith in Christ or we cannot be saved.  Surely we would do well to focus more diligently on strengthening our faith and the faith of others.

               So the question then becomes, how do we increase our faith in Jesus Christ?  The manual Preach My Gospel gives this answer to that question: “Your faith will increase through diligent study, prayer, dedicated service, and obedience to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and the commandments. Your faith in Jesus Christ grows as you become better acquainted with Him and His teachings. As you explore the scriptures and search them, you learn of His ways, His love for all people, and His commandments. Faith includes confidence in the mission and power of the Holy Ghost. Through faith you receive answers to your prayers and personal inspiration to guide you in the Lord’s work.” Clearly the foundation of our faith must come through diligent prayer and scripture study, for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).  We must be able to gain His Spirit through this kind of personal worship and learn to hear His voice. But clearly we must do more than these for true faith to come, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). 

                The statement from Preach My Gospel gives us I believe the key for what to focus on to increase our faith: learn to hear and then follow through with what the Spirit invites us to do.  Nothing will grow our faith in the Savior more than heeding a prompting from the Spirit by some action we take and seeing the good that came from it.  This is what Sariah’s story teaches us: she watched her husband follow direction from the Lord to send their sons back to Jerusalem to obtain the plates, and surely it took great faith on her part to even let them go knowing the dangers they faced.  Though she struggled with doubt while they were gone, ultimately her faith was strengthened when she saw indeed that they were able to accomplish their mission: “Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness; yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected my sons, and delivered them out of the hands of Laban” (1 Nephi 5:8).  Her faith was strengthened because, as a family, they had followed through with direction they received from the Lord, and surely that was a great strength to her in the subsequent trials in the wilderness.  So too each of us must strive to increase our faith not only through diligent efforts to study and pray and hear the voice of the Lord through our worship, but also in our actions as we seek to likewise “go and do” whatever it is the Lord would have us do.  That is the only way to gain the kind of faith needed for salvation.