John MacArthur on the nature of saving faith
Essentially trust that grasps Christ
"[Justification is] the act of God... in which He declares righteous those who, by His irresistible grace, repent of their sins, turn to Christ in faith, and confess Him as sovereign Lord."
THE POSITION
Faith as trust that turns to Christ and confesses him as sovereign Lord — the signature move of his "lordship salvation" position, where faith isn't framed as bare intellectual assent but as inseparable from submission to Christ's lordship.
9 that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.
9 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Pastor of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, from 1969 until his death in July 2025. Expositional preaching, hard cessationism, dispensational premillennialism. Researched from the church's own Doctrinal Statement, covering all 15 loci in one document.
Cite this page
"John MacArthur on the nature of saving faith", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/macarthur/saving-faith (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/macarthur/saving-faith).