“Whoever believes... will be saved"

I often thought of a certain contradiction in the Gospel, at least the way I saw it. On one hand, our actions are important for our salvation. But we’re not saved by our actions, as they do not make us worthy enough of this God’s gift, so whoever believes (that Christ is Son of God) is saved even if he’s short of good deeds and the sins are forgiven and blotted out. And this makes our actions not important for our salvation... confusing?

Well, today I read the new thoughts from father Stephen Freeman which clarified this for me:

"To believe the truth is not the same thing as having a correct opinion – indeed the two have almost nothing to do with one another. And this is a great difficulty – for most of the things that we think of ourselves as believing – we in fact only hold as opinions. What a man believes, in the way the word is used in the New Testament, is not seen or heard in the syllogisms he is willing to confess, but rather in how he lives his life.

In the Orthodox service of Holy Baptism, the candidate (or sponsor) is asked: “Do you unite yourself to Christ?” It is a peculiar phrase. It is more than asking, “Do you give consent to the following propositions?” It is asking someone if they are willing to live as a branch to which Christ is the vine.

St. Paul uses the image of a body and its head. Are we willing to live as a body lives in relation to its head?..."

Here’s how I phrase it for myself:

“believing” = “being in the corresponding way”

Now the words “if you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15) mean a lot more to me! It doesn’t mean “please, keep My commandments” or “keep My commandments if you want to prove or show that you love Me”. It means: if you love Me, you will naturally, automatically keep My commandments, without even thinking about them.

Christian is not someone who simply agrees that Christ is Son of God. Christian is the person who is completely changed by that discovery: all his actions, words and thoughts, every tiny detail of his life becomes based on or related to this truth. Not because the person wants to do things that way, but because the person is that way. “Not what we Do, but what we Are.”

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)

Lord, help us all become Christians some day. For a man it is impossible, but not for You.