9.20.2011

Believing IN JESUS!

Is believing in Jesus enough to get you into Heaven? Or a better question is, Are you believing the right way? After all one could concur with all the points of the Christian doctrine and agree too about Jesus being God. Is this enough to count yourself among the saved?

James 2:19 say's, 
You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!

There are passages also where the demons would recognize Jesus as an authoritative figure and plead to Him, but Jesus would command them to be silent, then cast them out.  In other words, the demons both recognize and fear Jesus as Lord. The demons BELIEVE and yet they are damned!  

Is it therefore possible for a person to believe and be damned? I'd like to answer this question in this blog. 

For starters let's look no farther than John 3:16 where it say's, 
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

This verse seems to say it all, but let's look deeper into it. In particular,  let's zero it in on a phrase... 
"believes in Him"

 This is how a person knows they are "Born Again." - because they believe IN HIM!
This is completely different from believing facts about Him, for to believe in someone you have a relationship with that person. The mistake we often make when we are leading someone to Christ is we ask them the wrong questions. 

I've heard well-meaning Christians tell lost people that all they have to do is believe. The person will then agree with all of the facts stated about Jesus and repeat a sinner's prayer. They then walk away with a head knowledge, or "intellectual faith" about Jesus, but not a "saving faith!" 

This is particularly true with children wanting to be saved, but many adults fall into this trap too. Why do I call it a trap? Because walking around thinking you are saved when you are not is dangerous beyond words! 

Matthew 7:22-23 say's, 
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

In other words there will even be people working in ministry who will be damned - now that's scary!  How can we avoid this? We can avoid this by having a relationship NOW with Jesus! The people mentioned above evidently thought they knew Him, but the critical point was HE DIDN'T KNOW THEM!


How do we avoid this being us?

There are things we must have in place. First, we must have knowledge about Him, but unlike the people above, we must not stop there.
  • You must believe that Jesus is God. 
  • You must believe that you are a sinner. 
  • You must believe that Jesus died for your sins. 
  • You must believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. 
  • And you must believe that because He rose from the dead after dying for your sin you are Born Again.

Now that the knowledge about Jesus in there it is time to go beyond this. The next thing you must have is conviction. This means you are not only convicted (or fully convinced) that you are a sinner, but it means you are convicted (fully convinced) in your belief in Him. To believe in Him is different than believing things about Him. This means you trust in Him. 

By trusting in Him you are believing for Him to take care of not only your eternal destiny, but you trust Him with your family, your health, your finances, and everything. In other words, you have made Him Lord of your life and not merely relying on His saving power (which is important too). 

To call Him your Savior and not make Him your Lord is an insult considering what He has given for you at Calvary's cross. It is like saying, "Thanks for being tortured and nailed to the cross for my sins... I'll take the salvation part of it, but I'll still be my own lord." Of course you'd never say this to Jesus consciously I'd hope, but maybe our actions can sometimes look like we are?

 I know personally speaking, that my actions have not always reflected that Jesus is my Lord in the past. 

When we have a confident conviction that Jesus is who the Bible says He is, and we place our trust in Him by making Him Lord & Savior of our life, then this is when we move into a personal relationship with Him. I don't have to look at my Marriage License to have assurance that Ann Tedford is my wife. I know Her and she knows me (sometimes better than myself). The same is true with Jesus. 


We can KNOW HIM and KNOW we are HIS! Best of all, He can know us and we won't be those people who will one day hear those dreadful words, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Instead, we can hear, "Well done My good and faithful servant... enter into the joy of the LORD!