salvation?

But the question arises, if being baptized the right way and living
the right kind of a life are not conditions of salvation, why do these
things? Not from fear of Hell; God desires no service from that
motive. Let the Saviour tell why. When He instituted the Lord's
supper, He said, "This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed
for many, for the remission of sins,"--Matt. 26:28; and then before
leaving the upper room He said to His disciples: "if ye love me, keep
my commandments."--John 14:15. Why love Him? Love Him because He shed
His blood for the remission of their sins. Let Paul tell us why serve
Him: "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge that
if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that they who
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died
for them, and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.

Now comes the all-important question, what do these parallel
expressions, "believe on Christ" or "believe in [into] Christ" mean?
Many, when they see how simple and plain is the teaching, say, "Why,
almost every one believes on Christ." No; they believe _about_ Christ,
but not _on_ Christ. A wealthy man deposits a large sum of money in
the bank and promises to pay the debts of all the poor people who will
trust him to pay their debts. They all may believe him, may believe
about him; but only those who believe on him, depend on him, rely on
him to pay their debts, will have their debts paid. So Christ died
for all our sins (1 Cor. 15:3); He gave Himself for us that He might
redeem us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); but only those who _believe
on_ Him, _depend on_ Him, _rely on_ Him to save them, will ever be
saved. The man who is depending on Christ and his baptism or Christ
and his church, or Christ and his good life to save him, will be lost;
for he is not believing on, depending on, relying on, Christ to save
him; but only partly on Christ and partly on something else; and
_there is no promise in God's word that those who partly believe on
Christ shall be saved_. The very fact that a man depends partly on
Christ and partly on something else to save him, shows that he has
never believed that the Saviour "gave himself for us that he might
redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14); the Saviour he is
depending on is not the Saviour God's word reveals; and hence he has
no Saviour at all.

Notice Paul's instruction to the Romans concerning believing