What Does it Mean to Believe

Introduction

I was listening to a video last night, and in this video, someone asked a very popular person if they believed in God. The person that was asked responded with another question, “what do you mean by believe?” The person who asked the first question then responded that when you believe in something you “think it to be true.”

This question and the persons answer really got me thinking. What does it truly mean to believe in Christ?

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

As Christians, we make this claim that we believe in Christ, but how do we know what it means to believe in Christ?

Tonight, we are going to briefly talk about this question.

Before we begin, I would like to get your thoughts on what you think it means to believe in Jesus Christ.

Is believing based on thinking something to be true?

The fellow that I watched answered that he believed that believing in something meant that you thought it to be true.

For example, If I say that “I believe that there is a chair beside me.” What I mean is that I think it is true that there is a chair beside me.

Furthermore, when I say that I believe in Jesus Christ, I am saying that “I think it is true that he is God and that he died for the sins of the world.”

If we take this definition of belief, then we are saying that we have to truly think that whatever we are believing in is true.

Something can only be true or false, it cannot be both. It is one or the other. Therefore, Christ either died for our sins or he didn’t. Those are the only two options.

If someone says that Jesus died for our sins, then they believe it to be true that he actually did. Likewise, if someone says that Jesus did not die for our sins, then they are saying that they believe it to be true that he did not die for our sins.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

By this passage it is clear that when we say that we believe in Christ, it does involve an element of thinking that what we are believing in to be true.

But is this all there is to believing? Is there more to it?

Is there any action involved in believing?

The last question was about whether we have to think something to be true in order to say we believe in it. Now we are asking that when we say we believe in Christ is there any action involved or is it all in our minds?

Suppose I told you all that I believe it is going to sunny today and you see me walk out the door with an umbrella. Would you think that I truly believe that it is not going to rain outside?

More than likely you wouldn’t think that I truly believe it is not going to rain outside because my actions are not lining up with my belief.

Likewise, if I told you all that I believe in Jesus, and then two hours later you see me cussing out a stranger in the Walmart parking lot because he stole my parking spot. Would you think that I truly believe in Jesus?

We know that anyone who truly believes in Jesus shouldn’t cuss strangers out in a parking lot, so that may cause you to doubt that I truly believe.

By now you should get my point. When we say that we believe in something, it is clear that there is a certain level of action that is required of us to do as a result of our belief.

In the end, our actions should line up with our beliefs.

What this means for us as Christians is that if we say we believe in Christ, then we must let our actions line up with our belief by being obedient to Christs’ teachings.

John 14:15 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Here Jesus was addressing those that believed in him and he implied that because they loved him (believed in him) they must obey him.

Merely thinking Jesus is true is not enough we have to be willing to put our belief in him to action.

James 2:26 ESV

26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Is believing in something based on someone’s willingness to trust in it?

The last question we mentioned that believing in something means more than thinking it to be true, but that it also included aligning our actions up to our beliefs.

Now we are asking, is there an element of trust in our beliefs.

What I mean by trust is whether or not we are willing to bank on our beliefs pulling through for us.

Trusting is basically combining thinking something to be true and acting on it.

Suppose I was in an airplane, and suddenly it begins to go down. As we are falling through the sky, the pilot gets on the radio and says “we are going to crash, but there are parachutes under your chairs. Anyone who grabs a parachute and jumps will live. Those who do not will surely die.”

If I said that I believed the parachute would save me, but I didn’t grab it and use it, would you question my faith?

You probably would. But if I did grab it and I jumped out of the plane, you would assume that I believed it would save me because by using it, I was trusting when I grabbed it, it would do what it was designed to do.

Believing in Jesus is the same way guys.

Jesus Christ is the parachute of our life.

We are all on a plane and we are the pilots of our life. We are bad pilots because all of us have messed up and sinned against God. But he is the parachute for our soul. He says that if we will believe in him and turn from our sins, he will save us.

So to grab onto Jesus as the parachute of our life, we have to believe what he is saying is true, and be willing to take action and grab onto him with faith and trust that he will do what he said he will do.

That is Christian faith.

There is a type of belief that only involves thinking something to be true, and the Bible talks about it being a demonic kind of faith.

James 2:19 ESV

19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Discussion Questions

How has this lesson changed your view on faith?

How has this lesson improved your understanding of God?

How will you put what you learned in this lesson to practice?