“The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20)

If you’re saved, you’re intimately connected to Christ, just as a branch is connected to a vine. Christ told us, “he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). When you were born of the Holy Spirit, saving faith was the first fruit of that union, the instrument of your new awareness of Christ as your Lord and Savior. It was saving faith that perceived you were made one spirit with God, the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17-19).

While saving faith is the instrument of salvation, it doesn’t diminish the fact that “according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Scripture says, if you’re saved, you were “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Saving faith is the means of enjoying all the privileges of being IN Christ, and is essential for doing His will and work. Saving faith hugs Christ with a firm and determined grasp. She knows His excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to place her trust in anything or anyone else.

Jesus Christ is delighted with saving faith, and never ceases to strengthen it. Saving faith is the union which produces streams of love, confidence, sympathy, contentment, and joy, from which both the bride and Bridegroom love to drink.

If this hasn’t been your experience, it’s possible what you possess is only common faith. You can tell the difference by the fruit produced. A consistent theme throughout the Bible is saving faith always produces a lifestyle of repentance and good works. “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God” (1 John 3:10).