What kind of faith does God count as salvation?
God counts as salvation a concerted faith and trust in His own act of paying the penalty for all sin through Christ, a wholehearted belief that He is alive and His Word is true. This faith is not works; as with Abraham, God accounts such belief as righteousness.
Les teaches that the Bible speaks of a concerted faith and trust in that very act of God—that God Himself paid the penalty for all our sin. He illustrates that if you or I were the only person living, Christ would still have gone to the cross to purchase our redemption. When a person has that kind of faith, believes with all their heart, knows He is alive, and knows His Word is true, God sees that faith as salvation. Les points to Romans 4, where Abraham was not saved by works but by faith. Abraham believed God, and God accounted it to him as righteousness; he was a believer. By contrast, those who hear the gospel, are convicted by the Holy Spirit, and reject it are immediately blinded and embrace the man Antichrist.