"Frank" wrote:

Before faith:
You are trusting partly in Christ and partly in other things
for your salvation.

Those who have true "faith" in Jesus Christ are expected to actually
DO the things that he taught:

Matthew 7:26
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which
built his house upon the sand:

Luke 6:46
46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things
which I say?

Luke 8:21
21 And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my
brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.

John 8:51
51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying,
he shall never see death.

John 12:48
48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath
one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same
shall judge him in the last day.

John 14:23-24
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he
will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will
come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the
word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent
me.

Merely "believing" in Jesus Christ is not enough. Even the devils
know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he was crucified:

Matthew 8:28-29
28 ... there met him two possessed with devils, ...
29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to
torment us before the time?

Mark 1:23-24
23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean
spirit; and he cried out,
24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou
Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee
who thou art, the Holy One of God.

Mark 3:11
11 And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before
him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.

Luke 4:41
41 And devils also came out of many, crying out, and
saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them
suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was
Christ.

Acts 19:15-16
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and
Paul I know; but who are ye?
16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them,
and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they
fled out of that house naked and wounded.

James 2:19
19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well:
the devils also believe, and tremble.

The difference between true Christians and the devils is that the true
Christians accept Jesus Christ as their LORD, but Satan and the devils
are in rebellion. True "faith" requires being willing to actually DO
what Jesus said to do. This includes, "keep the commandments":

Matthew 19:17
17 ... if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

The next two verses make it plain enough that Jesus was referring to
the Ten Commandments:

Matthew 19:18-19
18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no
murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not
steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself.

If you do not at least TRY to keep the commandments, you cannot claim
to have faith in Jesus Christ.

In one of his epistles, John makes it perfectly plain that those who
do not keep the commandments, but who claim to love God, are liars:

1 John 2:3-4,7
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his
commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
...
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old
commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old
commandment is the word which ye have heard from the
beginning.

Moreover, John was referring to keeping the original Ten Commandments,
not some new commandments, or anything of that sort, because he
clarified that he was referring to the "old commandment which ye had
from the beginning". The Gentile converts might not have understood
this, but the Jewish converts, those who had been drilled in the Ten
Commandments since their infancy, had no difficulty with it.

-----

"Frank" wrote:

This is faith:
Christ enables you to take all of your trust from off of all
the other things and place all of your trust on him for your
salvation.

Faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ will atone for sins committed:
(1) before our conversion, (2) in ignorance, or (3) due to weakness.

However, after our conversion, there is no atonement for DELIBERATE
sin:

Hebrews 10:26-27
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

The Bible is quite plain that we will be judged by our "deeds" or
"works":

Matthew 16:27
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father
with his angels; and then he shall reward every man
according to his works.

Matthew 25:31-33,41-43,46
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the
holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of
his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he
shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth
his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the
goats on the left.
...
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was
thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye
clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
...
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but
the righteous into life eternal.

2 Corinthians 5:10
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his
body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or
bad.

Revelation 2:23
23 ... and I will give unto every one of you according to
your works.

Revelation 20:12-13
12 ... and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books, according to their works.
13 ... and they were judged every man according to their
works.

Do not be deceived by those who wrest the scripture to make it appear
as if obedience to God is unnecessary for salvation.

- James