So you do agree that Rahab and Noah had it more difficult than us. Not only they needed to believe in God, they also need to show their faith thru a specific work, to be considered justified
For us, as Paul stated repeatedly,
BUT NOW the righteousness of God without the law is manifested" (Rom. 3:21);
"To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5)
"Being Justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24);
"In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7);
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us" (Tit. 3:5);
"Not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9)
When God now says this, what will faith do? Faith will say, "This is the most wonderful offer ever made by God to man. I cannot refuse it. I will trust Christ as my Savior and accept salvation as the free gift of God's grace."
Rahab and Noah would envy you, that was the point I was trying to establish. Their conditions for showing faith were not as simple as what we have to do, under the age of Grace.
Noah had to build an ark. (Hebrews 11:7)
Abel had to bring the correct sacrifice (Gen 4:4-5, Heb. 11:4)
Abraham had to believe, at his advanced years, that God would make him a father of many (Genesis 15:5-6)
Rahab had to hide the spies, at the risk of being caught and punished (Hebrews 11:31)
The point is that, by the time it reach us Gentiles, thanks to Jesus ushering the age of Grace, all we need to do, in order to display faith, is simply believing and speaking.
This is the most wonderful offer ever made by God to man. I cannot refuse it. I will trust Christ as my Savior and accept salvation as the free gift of God's grace."
We simply believe the message, that Jesus Christ has started and completed the work required for our salvation and we cease from our work and believe it. If we do that, we will receive the same righteousness as Abraham received (Gal 3:6-9). I especially like the NLT version.
6 In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. 8 What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”[c] 9 So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.