FEAR NOT, ONLY BELIEVE!
Belief only cannot go out the window because there is too much repetition of salvation offered just for believing.
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.
Believe is the ONLY thing listed. The word ONLY doesn't have to be present to observe that believe is the only thing required.
This "only" is an obvious pettifog. So you make a contract with a man to buy 100 bricks for $100, and he signs it. The contract says,
"I, SeaTurtle, agree to deliver to SeaBass 100 bricks if and when he pays me $100."
So then you give SeaTurtle $100, and he says,
"I won't give you the bricks now unless you repent of insulting my son last Friday. And I don't have to give you the bricks until you fulfill a grocery list of other requirements: You must confess that I am a great brickmaker and do other good works."
Then you say, "But the contract says I only have to pay you $100."
SeaTurtle says back, "Show me where they contract says ONLY."
SeaTurtle would be laughed out of court. The word
only doesn't have to be there. If there is only one requirement, then there is only one requirement; the word "only" is not required, just the observation that only one requirement is listed.
And Acts 17 is not an isolated case in scripture.
Over & over it is,
FEAR NOT, ONLY BELIEVE.
Ephesians 1:13
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and
believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one should boast
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief:
16 howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering, for an ensample of them that should thereafter
believe on him unto eternal life.
1 Tim 1:15-17
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief: howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering, for an ensample of them that should thereafter
believe on him unto eternal life.
Eph 1:10ff
to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him,
I say in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;
12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:
13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,— in whom, having also
believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of
God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Luke 8:11-12
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
12 And those by the way side are they that have heard; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word from their heart, that they may not
believe and be saved.
Acts 16:31
And they said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved,
1 Cor 1:21
it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that
believe.
Rom 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by
faith.
2 Tim 3:15b
the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Titus 1:4
to Titus, my true child after a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.
Heb 10:39
But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them that have
faith unto the saving of the soul.
Heb 11:7
By faith Noah, being warned
of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to
faith.
1 Pet 1:3ff
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 who by the power of God are guarded through
faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials,
7 that the proof of your faith,
being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ:
8 whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9 receiving the end of your
faith,
even the salvation of
your souls.
FEAR NOT, ONLY BELIEVE!