What kind of faith does God see as saving faith?
God sees as saving faith a concerted trust in God's act of Christ paying the penalty for sin—a wholehearted belief that He is alive and His Word is true. It is not works; as Romans 4 shows, Abraham believed God, and God accounted it to him as righteousness.
Les teaches that the Bible is talking about 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 had been the only person living, Christ would still have gone to the cross to purchase our redemption. When a person has that kind of faith and can honestly say, “I believe that with all my heart, and I know He is alive, I know that His Word is true,” then God sees that faith as salvation. Les points to Romans 4, where Abraham was not saved by works but by faith: he believed God, and God accounted it unto him as righteousness. He was a believer.