Thousand Oaks Baptist Church
BELIEVE AND BE SAVED
A Short Study on What Accepting Christ as Your Lord and Savior Is All About
By David A. Tucker
During the past few years, some confusion has arisen about what it really means to be saved in the Biblical sense. Presidents and prisoners, saints and sinners, Christians and cultists have often claimed at one time or another to have been born-again. Pastors preach about receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. Sunday School teachers encourage their students to let Jesus come into your heart. Evangelists exhort us to believe on or believe in the Lord. The Bible tells us in more than one passage to call on the name of the Lord to be saved from Hell and unto Heaven. On the other hand, humanists, agnostics, atheists, and certain other groups of people insist on keeping these things out of government, education, and public life altogether, as if they were some sort of social or psychological poison.
Some of the people who claim to have believed and to have received Jesus Christ and thus claim to be born-again or saved demonstrate the reality of their profession by changed, happy, holy, productive lives. Others demonstrate no outward change and little - if any - substantial evidence that anything of eternal consequence has happened in their lives. Why is this?
Obviously some folks who claim to be saved really do have salvation and some don't. What they think and say and do is sufficient evidence for most of us. But that's them. What about me? I need to know what being saved is really all about. And I need to know how to be saved. I need to know what all this terminology and all these words really mean and how they apply to me. Since you're reading this, I assume you have a similar interest. And since we're both intelligent, educated, and perceptive individuals, I assume you will have many of the same questions and concerns that I have. Perhaps we can think together for a few minutes as you read what follows.
Let's examine some typical passages from the Bible that define what we mean when we talk about receiving or believing in or on Jesus Christ and being saved and justified. We'll begin with the Bible's (thus, God's) assessment our desperate need to be saved and justified.
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God..." (Romans 3:23) This verse says that all of us have a common problem, and that problem is sin. Everybody sins. Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the disposition of all of us is to sin. It's a part of human nature since the Fall. Furthermore, we cannot do what is right. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah expressed it like this: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags..." (Isaiah 64:6) Even the things we do that we think are good and righteous are like filty rags in God's sight. We don't even come close to knowing all of the evil that lurks in the hearts of men - or in our own hearts, for that matter! Listen to the prophet Jeremiah: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)
Okay, so all of us sin. So what? Just this: Every time we sin, either by doing what is wrong, or by not doing what is right (and the verses cited above show that includes everything we do...!), we earn wages from God. What are the wages? How much are we earning? "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23) Sin earns death. Everybody dies, right? Have you ever wondered why? It's because of sin. Sin eventually separates all of us from this life.
But there's another, second death lurking beyond physical death. It's called spiritual death. The prophet Ezekiel warned: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die ... the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." (Ezekiel 18:20) The New Testament apostle of love, John, warned of the second death: "But [all sinners] shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Revelation 21:8) The Lake of Fire isn't a pretty place, and the devil doesn't rule over it, and you won't care if all your friends are there. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone ... and shall be tormented day and night forever. ... And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:10, 14, 15) You see, sin not only separates us from physical life, it also separates us from God and from eternal life in Heaven. Now you can see that we have a serious problem on our hands.
Fortunately, God has provided us with the answer to our problem. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) That's right. Now we're talking about the Gospel (it simply means, good news). What is the content or message of the Gospel? Paul the Apostle told us very plainly and clearly what it is: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures..." (1 Cor. 15:3-4) That's the facts of the Gospel in a nutshell. Fact #1: Jesus Christ died in my place, for the punishment of my sins. Fact #2: After Jesus died for my sins, He was buried to take my sins into the grave and leave them there, never to be seen again. Fact #3: Jesus rose from the dead to give you and me eternal life in Heaven and complete forgiveness from sin, so that you and I won't have to end up in the Lake of Fire.
Now what am I supposed to do with these facts? "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16-18) Here's what I'm supposed to do: Believe in and believe on the Son of God.
Who is the Son of God? It's Jesus Christ. He claimed to be the unique, one-of-a-kind Son of God. And I can believe what He said on the basis of at least four proofs. Proof #1: He fulfilled every Old Testament prophecy concerning His family, His mother, His conception, His birth, His place of birth, and the time of His birth. Proof #2: He lived a sinless life. He never lied. Even His enemies could find no fault in Him, and they had to manufacture lies about Him, hold a kangaroo court with biased judges, and resort to political pressure in order to get Him crucified. Proof #3: Things happened when He was crucified and died that have never happened before or since when a person died. The sky became pitch black in the middle of the day for three hours, until He died. The strong, thick curtain in the Jewish temple that separated the Holy Place from the Holiest of All was torn from top to bottom. A great earthquake took place, and the graves of many of the Old Testament saints were opened, and the bodies of those saints arose and came out of their graves and walked into Jerusalem in the presence of many witnesses.
When Jesus actually died, He gave up His own life, long before the Cross and the nails and the loss of blood and the rest of the results of that method of capital punishment could kill Him. The Roman centurion supervising the crucifixion (and whose job it was to be sure Jesus really died) saw all of these things and declared that Jesus must have been the Son of God. Proof #4: Jesus Christ rose from the dead and from the grave three days after His crucifixion and burial. During the following forty days that He remained on earth, He was positively seen and recognized and identified as being alive by more than five hundred eye-witnesses. Even the skeptic Thomas was convinced that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. The soldiers of the Jewish temple guard, whose job it had been to be sure Jesus' disciples didn't steal His body and fake a resurrection, were on-the-spot eye-witnesses of His resurrection, and they were bribed to lie and to deny the resurrection! Think about it: Someone Who promised and prophesied that He would rise from the dead after three days, and then actually did it has to be more than a man. He has to be the Son of God and God the Son.
John 1:12 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name..."
John 3:36 "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
John 5:24 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
John 6:29 "Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."
John 6:35 "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
John 6:37 "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
John 6:40 "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:47 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."
John 20:31 "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."
Acts 16:30-31 "...Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved..."
Acts 8:35-37 "Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
Rev. 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
Rev. 22:17 "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
What does the word believe mean in the Bible? Biblical belief in Jesus Christ is a whole soul committal to Jesus Christ for salvation, trusting nothing or no one else to save and keep you. Belief requires at least a minimum of knowledge and understanding about the object of belief. I have to know who or what I am to believe in and know enough about the person or other object of my belief to feel secure in placing my complete reliance upon that person or thing.
And when I actually come to the point of faith and actually mentally and emotionally and spiritually step over into fully trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to save me, by definition I have turned completely from everything else in order to trust completely on the Savior. And to turn completely from something and then turn completely to something or someone else is the very essence of the meaning of repentance. Because the New Testament word for repentance means to think differently about my sin, to reconsider its propriety, and to feel so wrong about sin that I actually turn from my sin to the Savior. It's the Holy Spirit's responsibility to work in the sinner's heart to bring about conviction of sin and to lay the basis for repentance.
From an exhaustive study of the New Testament words for faith, believing in, trusting upon, calling on the Lord, receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, coming to Jesus, and all such similar words and phrases, long ago I came to the conclusion that all of these words and phrases are speaking of essentially the same thing. And if you would do a similar study, using your computer, it will quickly confirm that conclusion.
Faith, believing and trusting are three words that mean the same thing in any language. Faith is completely depending on what you have learned to be true. The Bible thus speaks of saving faith in Christ, and also of the faith, which is the entire body of divinely-revealed truth that we learn about once we are saved, and accept as true, and base our lives and hopes upon.
Believing implies a knowledge of the truth and at least a mental and volitional (if not also and emotional) commitment to it. Thus the Bible speaks of people and demons believing that things are true (James 2:19), implying a knowledge of the truth, but without a heart-mind-soul commitment to it. Many more times, the Bible speaks of believing in or believing on something or someone, especially in or on God or in or on the Lord Jesus Christ. Genuine belief that saves the soul demands that a life-changing decision be made and followed through upon concerning Jesus Christ. In your heart of hearts, you not only know that the Gospel is true and that Jesus saves, but (the best you know how at the moment) you also take down the mental and emotional and spiritual bars and wholly turn to Jesus and accept Him and what He has done for you as your own. Some people do this in the privacy of their own hearts, with little or no overt indication at the moment. Others may vocalize their decision, as in praying the so-called "sinner's prayer." Others may have a tremendous emotional release, and they may laugh or cry or want to celebrate.
But the same Holy Spirit Who convicted my heart of sin also used the Word of God to plant and grow faith in my heart, and I came to believe that the Gospel was true, so that I could one day exercise that faith and believe in and on Jesus Christ. And the moment I did that, God saved me. It is not the method or mode of believing that saved me; it was God Who saved me and justified me and changed me, the instant I turned from my sins and turned to to Jesus in faith. I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, which means that I rested my soul upon Him, not on anything or anyone else. I also believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, which means that my soul and spirit actually entered into salvation in Christ, with all of its benefits.
Trusting means the same thing as believing, again with the flavor of emotional commitment added in. John 1:12 shows that believing and receiving are virtually the same thing. And further study shows that receiving adds the idea of gladly welcoming the Savior into the heart and mind and emotions and life with open heart and open mind and open arms.
The idea of calling on or upon the Lord is used many times in the New Testament in many different ways. It can mean to call out to him aloud or address Him by name. It can mean to entreat or summon Him for aid or for testifying in your behalf. It can mean to appeal to Him. It can mean to ask Him to make a decision for you. And most of the time it means to ask Him for salvation, with the idea that you expect Him to save you when you call upon Him. And the manner in which the New Testament writers use this concept of calling on the name of the Lord for salvation shows that they considered it to be synonymous with (or the same as) believing on or in, receiving, and trusting the Lord for salvation. And the calling can be done with either the heart or the mind or the mouth, just as long as genuine faith and sincerity of the heart are involved.
My friend, have you personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him, receiving Him as your Lord and Savior?