I love the illustration of standing on a chair to change a lightbulb. Even if I am 99% sure that the chair is too shaky and won't be able to support my entire weight, it is still nothing less than 100% faith if I stand upon the chair. Of course, in reality no one in their right mind would stand upon a shaky looking chair that they were convinced wouldn't support them. Albeit, it would still be 100% faith if I did choose to stand upon the chair unaided by a helper, rope or something to cling to in case I fall.

Please understand that optimism (a positive outlook) is NOT faith. I could stand there all day proclaiming how much I believe the chair will hold me up if I were to stand upon it. I can say loud and confidently, “I believe! Boy, brother, you've just got to believe! I believe that this chair can hold me up!” But that is NOT faith at all, not even in the least, because I am not standing upon the chair. So even in the presence of great optimism, I can have no faith at all. That's what Modernists and Roman Catholics have, that is, they really think they're going to Heaven, but they've never trusted Christ. Catholics instead trust their church and the seven sacraments to save them. Modernists trust their humanism, self-righteous works and new age spiritism.

In sharp contrast, the Biblical Christian rests completely in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ, standing upon the chair (which pictures Christ in our example). Saying you believe that Christ can save you is not faith, anymore than saying you think the chair can support your weight is trust in the chair. Even if you have 99% doubt in the Bible, God will save you if you'll believe the gospel. That is, if you'll personally receive Christ's death upon the cross, His burial and bodily resurrection from the dead as payment for your sins, you will be saved.

All mankind are sinners. As such we are all under the condemnation of God's law. There is a price for sin that we all owe to God. That price is spending eternity burning in the Lake of Fire! Consequently, we need to find someone who doesn't owe that price, someone who is not condemned, someone who can pay that price for us. Blessed be the name of the Lord, Jesus is the Christ Who paid the price for our sins with His own blood! Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin, lived a totally sinless life, and was accepted by God the Father as a well-pleasing sacrifice for the sins of the world. JESUS PAID THE PRICE!

Romans 4:5-6, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.” Notice that we just read a man's “faith is counted for righteousness.” That is so important to understand. It means that all the heretics requiring intent to reform as part of salvation are liars, wrong and false prophets! This includes Aiden Tozer, John MacArthur, Jack Chick, David Cloud, William Lane Craig, Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Benny Hinn, Eric Hovind, Paul Taylor and thousands more. Jesus is Lord, you don't make Him Lord! You simply trust Jesus to be saved.