Believe in the Lord Jesus

Introduction

Our last lesson focused on how the seed of faith is planted by hearing the word of God -

Hearing God’s word should lead to doing what God says -

This week, we want to continue to seek the answer to the question “what must I do to be saved?” -

When Paul and Silas were asked the question, they told the Philippian jailer that he must believe in the Lord Jesus!

Belief and faith play a prominent role in our salvation!

Defining Faith

The English words “faith” or “belief” come from the same family of Greek words, πιστς which is defined as:

BDAG, Kittel, Vine’s (belief), Vine’s (faith)

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. πίστις

state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted, trust, confidence, faith in the active sense=‘believing’

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume πιστεύω, πίστις, πιστός, πιστόω, ἄπιστος, ἀπιστέω, ἀπιστία, ὀλιγόπιστος, ὀλιγοπιστία

As in Greek, this word means “faithfulness” and more commonly (religious) “trust” or “faith,”

Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words Belief, Believe, Believers

to believe,” also “to be persuaded of,” and hence, “to place confidence in, to trust,” signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not mere credence.

Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words Faith

primarily, “firm persuasion,” a conviction based upon hearing (akin to peitho, “to persuade”), is used in the NT always of “faith in God or Christ, or things spiritual.”

In a basic sense, in the New Testament, faith means to place your trust and confidence in God and Jesus Christ.

Accepting and affirming certain facts about God and Jesus (that Jesus died for your sins and that He was crucified and raised on the third day)

It is also more than that, though. Faith/belief mean “faithfulness, reliability, fidelity, and commitment.”

We might use the English word “allegiance.”

To believe in God and Christ is to give them our hearts and our absolute loyalty.

Semper Fidelis, always faithful — soldiers would fight and be loyal to the cause they signed up for.

What Is Faith?

You hear friends and neighbors, or televangelists, or reading religious tracts and literature that say “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, accept Him into your heart, accept Him as your Lord and Savior, say the sinner’s prayer and you will be saved.”

People have limited the scope and the nature of faith.

Faith is not merely an emotional feeling of trust

Faith is not just accepting certain facts as being true

Faith is not a “non-doing trust” where we simply place confidence in God and Christ without doing anything as an expression of our faith/belief/trust.

I have seen and heard brethren accept some of the denominational definitions of faith. Brethren, that is dangerous because many of our denominational friends have mis-defined faith.

First, faith begins by acknowledging God as the eternal One who created the heavens and the earth by His word and power -

Sadly, many people deny the existence of God. To many people, believing in God is on par with being naive and gullible.

In relation to the plan of salvation and evangelism, in the past we have been able to focus on baptism a lot because we were generally speaking to people who already had some conviction that God existed and that Jesus Christ was their Savior who died for our sins and was raised on the third day.

When talking to people today, we probably cannot just assume that they believe that!

Today, we might be talking to people who do not even believe the Bible is inspired and from God. They might even deny the existence of God.

Instead of trying to start the discussion with baptism or the church, we must first teach them about God Himself and show the evidence that God exists.

Second, we must show that salvation is the gift of God that is received by believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God -

Jesus was born of a virgin woman -

Jesus revealed the way unto God -

Jesus died for our sins and was raised on the third day -

Jesus will return once again to judge the world -

Salvation By Grace Through Faith

The apostle Paul is very clear that salvation is by grace through faith -

Grace is receiving something that you did not deserve; it is unmerited and unearned.

We do not earn our salvation.

But the grace of God is accessed by faith!

Faith is a condition that we must keep if we are to receive God’s salvation.

Biblical examples of faith:

Abraham - ,

He obeyed - v 8

He went where God told him to go - vv 8-10

He offered his son on the altar - vv 17-19

Abraham trusted in God’s promises and His word.

Abraham trusted that God could raise Isaac from the dead

We are to walk in the steps of faithful Abraham; Abraham’s faith was an obedient, active faith -

Children of Israel -

God promised them the land of Israel by grace; it was unearned - , ;

The walls of Jericho fell by faith; the children of Israel had to march around the walls

In these examples you see how God graciously promises something and how our trust in God leads us to faithful actions.

We are saved by faith -

Faith is absolutely essential for our salvation! We must give God and Christ our allegiance and faithfulness. We must trust Him. We must have faith.

In the New Testament, faith is a very comprehensive term. Faith is obedience; obedience is faith. They are two sides of the same coin.

We are told that we must believe the gospel -

The gospel contains fact to believe, commands to obey, and promises to receive.

Belief and baptism go hand in hand because belief anticipates obedience -

Unbelief

Those who are condemned are condemned for their unbelief; unbelief is disobedience -

The gospel is God’s power to save and we must belief the gospel of Jesus Christ -

Conclusion

Without faith we cannot please God -

Salvation is by grace through faith -

When the question was asked about what must be done to be saved, the answer was clear: believe in Jesus Christ - ,

Do you believe in God?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

If you do, come to Him and have your sins washed away in baptism today.