What does it mean to “believe”? Several are mistaken on what it means to truly believe in something. Here we are talking about the biblical definition of “believe” or believing and trusting in a true Messiah and Savior of the world. Where God sent His one and only Son Jesus to pay the price for us, we were given eternal salvation which includes eternal life with Him in heaven as long as we (A) Accept Him, (B) Believe Him and the gospel (good news), and (C) Confess Him and the gospel to others. These actions are an act of obedience to the Almighty God and Creator that paid the price and bought us through His Son. This act of love, trust, fellowship, and obedience towards Him seems so simple but why do so many of us struggle with this? Many professing Christians confess that they are saved because they believe in the true living God and believe that He sent His only Son Jesus to die once for our sins. However, several are mistaken on what the true definition of “believe” actually means. Since many of these confess that they believe but keep on living a sinful life as the lost people in the world, demonstrates that one cannot tell the difference between these that profess to be saved compared with the unbelievers. According to the scriptures, and in this case, these are more than likely NOT saved – Mark 4:14-19. This is due to many people misinterpreting the true meaning of “believe” that is in the bible, which comes from the Greek word “pisteuo”. This Greek word “pisteuo” means to “commit unto, be committed unto, commit to one’s trust, be put in trust with,” etc. Now, the English definition of “believe” means something entirely different to where many of us confuse the true biblical meaning of “believe” with the English meaning. The English definition of “believe”, differing from the Greek meaning, that we have come to understand is “to accept something as true, feel sure of the truth, hold something as an opinion, think or suppose,” etc. This explains why many professing Christians may believe they are saved or that their eternal salvation in Jesus is totally secure by simply believing based on the English definition. However, this is sadly mistaken with a false sense of hope due to not committing to Jesus and totally trusting in Him as Lord. Simply just believing in the one true God and His Son Jesus as an opinion of truth is NOT enough. The apostle James tells us that only believing is NOT enough since even the demons believe but they will spend eternity in the lake of fire (Hell) as explained in James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (Matthew 25:41). Merely believing in (English meaning) and believing that Christ is the Son of God is no different than the same beliefs of Satan and his evil army of demons.
Every time Jesus was approached by a demon-possessed man, the demon(s) would always know and confess that Jesus was the Son of God and would tremble with great fear of their soon upcoming destruction by Him before Jesus had the opportunity to cast them out. When Jesus was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum He was approached by a demon-possessed man as we read in Luke 4:33-35, “Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be quiet, and come out of him!’ And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.” Another example of this is when Jesus and His disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee to the land of the Gadarenes. Before they reached land, Jesus had fallen asleep on the boat. Suddenly, the winds and waves roared against the boat to where the disciples feared the boat would capsize and sink with them perishing. The disciples awakened Jesus from His nap and He calmed the wind and waves – Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25. Shortly after, when they reached the land of the Gadarenes, a demon-possessed, naked man came from the tombs and met Jesus. This demon-possessed man had been possessed for a long time with many demons or with a legion (~thousands) of demons. This man had superhuman strength for he had been bound with chains and shackles but broke free as stated in Luke 8:26-33, “Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, ‘What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!’ For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him, saying, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Legion,’ because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So, they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.” Even a legion of demons knew and feared Jesus as the true Son of God. As Jesus cast out the legion of demons, they entered approximately 2,000 pigs where they viciously ran down the hill and drowned into the Sea of Galilee.
Our faith in Jesus, by itself, is nothing without the dedicated trust and obedience to God as we read in James 2:14-24, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead… and I will show you my faith by my works… But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” By applying our genuine faith and belief in Jesus into actions of complete trust and obedience is where we know we are saved and have a dear relationship with Jesus by being fully committed to Him as our Lord. With this true belief and application of His word and commandments in our life ends up bearing fruit and becoming fruitful for God’s kingdom as Jesus revealed in the parable of the seed sower – Mark 4:8, Mark 4:20. We must dedicate our lives to Jesus by denying ourselves before Him, placing Him first, as He explained in Matthew 16:24-27, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.’ ” Jesus tells us that we cannot deny Him nor be ashamed of Him and His gospel before others or we will suffer the consequences as stated in Luke 9: 26, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” Therefore, when we become truly saved, we give up our worldly lives to serve Christ. We are to live our lives for Him by obeying His commandments who bought us with His death and resurrection. We cannot merely be hearers of the word but must be doers of the word according to His will for us as Jesus revealed in Matthew 7:21-27, “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 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! Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Carrying out the will of God through Christ Jesus and His word is where our salvation in Him becomes justified in us and through Him which saves our souls as we read in James 1:21-25, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
Jesus stated it this way, that His sheep who love Him and hear Him will do His will and keep His commandments – John 10:27. According to Jesus, this act of complete commitment and trust is essential to having a relationship with Him and God the Father as stated in John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” When we are saved, we now live for and serve our Lord and Savior, King Jesus. As we are His bride, and He is the groom, we should love Him like a bride truly loves her groom. This love for our Savior and Groom is permitted because He first loved us. This same love for our Savior establishes genuine faith, trust and commitment through full obedience to Him, NOT just by faith and mere words. Jesus mentions the hypocrites as the ones that honored Him with their lips BUT their actions and heart was FAR from Him – Matthew 15:8. Therefore, we need this loving faith that is recognized by God’s love and the shedding of the blood of Jesus for us where we can implement this loving faith by performing fruitful actions for Him and for His kingdom that He commands by His words and His Holy Spirit (fruits of the Spirit). If we have this kind of love towards our Savior and King, we will want to do His will and fellowship with Him as revealed in Psalms 143:10, “Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.” The apostle John teaches us how we will know God through Jesus if we keep His commandments. And if we do NOT keep His commandments, then we are considered as liars where the truth is far from us especially when we claim to be professing Christians while NOT performing His will for us as we read in 1 John 2:3-6, “Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” It’s essential that we perform God’s will for us by being doers of His word as explained in Romans 2:13, “…for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” Jesus came to fulfill the new covenant by putting His laws in our hearts and minds – Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36,27, Psalms 40:8, Romans 8:3-4, Hebrews 10:16-17. As we are saved by genuine faith through Jesus, we are baptized with His Holy Spirit. Our lives are transformed where we are a new creation in Jesus. Our old sinful self has died with Christ and this new life in the Spirit has resurrected with Christ – 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, Ephesians 4:22-24. If we have already died in the flesh with the baptism through water (born naturally or symbolic) and been resurrected in the Spirit with the baptism of His Holy Spirit, we are no longer slaves to sin as Paul stated in Romans 6:4-11, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Therefore, we must crucify our old sinful self and fleshly lusts daily by walking in the Spirit that resides within us rather than walking in the flesh and being conformed to this world (Galatians 5:22-26) as we read in Galatians 5:16-17, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” We must NOT let sin and the desires of the flesh and the lusts of the world rule over us, thereby, causing us to be slaves to sin. Jesus paid the price to free us from this bondage in order that we may live by and walk in His Spirit as discussed in Romans 6:12-14, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Because we are a new creation in Christ Jesus, we are to walk holy for Him by this act of total obedience to our Lord as Paul explains in Ephesians 4:22-24, “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” Paul continues this similar discussion of being obedient to God by remaining holy and rejecting the lusts of the flesh and the desires of this world as stated in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” We must strive to maintain fruitful works for God and for the expansion of His kingdom as we read in Titus 3:8, “This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.”
The greatest commandment given by Jesus was to seek God and His kingdom first through Christ Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength where God will bless you, keep you, protect you, and never forsake you – Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 6:33, Mark 12:30. Remember our true citizenship in is heaven and not of this world – Philippians 3:20. We must remain sober and watchful for our blessed hope and soon return of our Lord Jesus – 1 Thessalonians 5:6, Titus 2:13.
Watch this inspiring video by Servants for Jesus Christ – What Does Believe Truly Mean? Watch another inspiring video by Servants for Jesus Christ – Be Filled With The Holy Spirit. Watch another inspiring video by Servants for Jesus Christ – We Are In The Last Days! Watch another inspiring video by Servants for Jesus Christ – When Will Jesus Rapture The Saints To Heaven? Watch another inspiring video by Servants for Jesus Christ – God Has Always Been.
Do you know where you will spend eternity after you die on earth? Will Jesus be your Lord and Savior or your eternal judge – John 3:15-21, Romans 2:16, 2 Timothy 4:1? Jesus says He is the narrow gate to heaven where it is difficult to find and only a few will enter by it where many will enter the easy, wide and broad gate that leads to Hell and destruction – Matthew 7:13-14. Will you experience the second eternal death (spiritual death) – Revelation 2:11, Revelation 20:6, Revelation 21:8? Do you know for sure that you are written in the eternal Lamb’s Book of Life – Revelation 3:5, Revelation 20:12-15? The place called Hell is NOT a myth and is very real and an extremely scary place – Watch this Video!
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