PLEASE READ What Does It Mean To Believe In Jesus? The Bible tells us that: “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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” [Romans 10:9-10]. Unfortunately there are two aspects to the word “believe” and are often confused in the context of salvation… (It would be well to note at this point that the word universally translated belief in most Bible versions is often translated believing in Young’s Literal Translation… In other words it is not a one time event but a continual state of believing). 1) The first meaning of believe is that we think something is true. However this is not how the Bible uses the word. Anyone can believe that Jesus, or Attila the Hun, lived and died by the testimony of historians. However, just as believing that Adolph Hitler once drew breath does not make you a Nazi, simply believing that Jesus did, doesn’t make you a Christian. Demons, and the devil himself, believe in Jesus, but they certainly are not saved… “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19). So apparently there is a little more to it than just believing certain things. 2) the second use of the word believe as defined by Strongs Greek Lexicon is… “Pisteuō; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing,) . . . To entrust (especially one’s spiritual well being): -believe (-r), commit (to trust), to put in trust with.” In other words “believe” in the Bible means to actively trust that something or someone is able to do for you what they claim. And what is it that we trust Jesus to do for us? Sadly the almost universal belief in the church today is that we trust (or believe) that He died on Calvary for us, which does not make a huge amount of sense. Why does it take faith to believe in an event already passed? But read on.. The Warning Too many of us ‘believing Christians’ refuse to accept the terms of true discipleship, the willingness to turn our backs on everything worldly for Jesus’ sake… In many cases we have ‘believed’ ourselves into a blind alley. Our Lord’s very disturbing words in Matthew 7:21-23 limits salvation to those who do the will of his heavenly Father … “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; Depart From Me, you who practice lawlessness.” [Matthew 7:21-23] Scripture warns over and over again that salvation is not a done deal. “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” (Hebrews 10: 36) “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach– if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.” (Colossians 1:22-23) “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) Yet, a huge percentage of teachers of the Gospel, picking and choosing verses to fit into what they already believe about the Gospel, insist that at the moment a person makes a decision for Jesus, and professes faith in Him, he is saved and receives eternal life, which can not be lost (otherwise it would not be eternal.. as the argument goes). The confession of faith used in many churches is not only inadequate, but isn’t found anywhere in Scripture. The Biblical way to salvation is to see Jesus Christ as not only saviour but also as Lord. To pledge to obey Him as best you can the rest of your life. “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Colossians 2:6-7) If one accepts the popular view that salvation has been determined once and for all at the time of confession of faith, how one lives out the Christian life becomes relatively unimportant. Personal holiness, righteousness, and obedience cannot be of critical importance if one is already saved. Yet Jesus said… “… I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”. (Matthew 5:20) So the crucial question that has to be answered here is… at what point a person is saved, or should we say finally saved…
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 00:49:15 +0000
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