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What does it mean to believe in jesus? What does it mean to believe anything? Can you decide what you believe and what you do not believe?
Thank you, friend, for joining us today. This is Grace in Focus from the Grace Evangelical Society. We’re located in North Texas, and we’d love for you to get to know more about us by going to our website, faithalone.org.
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Find all these things and more at faithalone.org. Now, with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Ken yates and Kathryn Wright.
We are looking at some of the questions that some of our listeners have sent in, and we really do appreciate them. And we have one from Ben, and he’s talking about the phrase, to believe in jesus. And he asks, what does it mean exactly to believe in jesus?
What does that belief consist of? I’ll just start off, then I’ll turn it over to you. One of the things, Ben, and as we discuss this topic, a lot of times when you hear people talk about believe, they have a very weird definition of what the word believe means.
Not believing in jesus, but just simply believe. And many theologians have written books on this, that to believe in the New testament is different than when we believe in something else. When we believe in something else, we’re simply convinced that it is true.
I believe something because I, for whatever reason, I’m convinced it’s true. Now, I may be wrong. Like, there’s people who are convinced that Elvis is still alive.
They’re convinced of it, but it’s not true. But that’s what believe means. And so when we’re talking about believing in jesus, we’re being convinced that something about him is true, or something that he said is true.
Whenever I’m talking about this, I always like to bring up Ripley’s Believe It or Not. We’re in South Carolina and down at Myrtle Beach, there’s the Ripley’s Museum. And you go through there, and there’s some things that are just objectively not true.
They’re just a prop, or they claim to have a mermaid, and you’re seeing the mermaid, and it’s just ridiculous. And you’re not convinced, right? It’s like, no, that’s some sort of stuffed half monkey, half fish, I don’t know what they did, that they put together.
Right. But then there’s other things where it’s like, yeah, it was a man who was really tall. He had one of those genetic conditions that he’s like, eight feet tall, I don’t know.
Like a pituitary issue. Right.
And so, yeah, he’s the tallest man that had been recorded at that time.
And you see a picture of it.
And you see a picture of it.
Next to a shorter person.
Right. Or an average man, usually. It’s where it’s like maybe a six-foot man next to this very tall man.
So can you believe there was a man who was eight feet tall?
Right.
I’m convinced that’s true, even though I never met him. You believe it or not.
And so to your, you know, the definition is to be persuaded that something is true. It’s that simple. You either are convinced or you’re not convinced.
Unfortunately, what has happened in the theological world is that that binary concept has been removed from the definition of belief. And we want to make it into more of a spectrum or an emotional appeal. We add in some sort of decision or will.
Yeah, intellect, emotion and will. yes. I can decide to believe it.
You know, it’s kind of weird. I guess they would say even if you’re not convinced is true, you can decide, but you can’t.
Yeah, like I can’t decide to believe that that half monkey fish prop thing is a real mermaid.
And I can’t decide to believe that Elvis is alive.
Right. And somebody who is unconvinced that jesus is the Christ, well, they can’t decide to believe that either.
And so, like for example, go back to Elvis. Elvis would like have to walk in here. Right.
I don’t know how old he would be right now. I guess he’d be almost a hundred years old or something. But I guess I could be convinced if he were to walk in or something like that.
So to believe in jesus is to be convinced that something is true. Now, what would you tell Ben that means exactly? Because that’s his question.
What does it mean exactly to believe in jesus? And by the way, before you do that, you mentioned the theological world. It’s so stupid what people have done.
I know.
They say, well, it’s different when you believe in jesus, because when you believe in jesus, that’s not like Elvis or that mermaid or something.
Or when you read that word in the Bible, it doesn’t mean what we all know it to mean.
Right.
In any other context.
Right. And that’s why you hear people say, did I really believe?
Or did you genuinely believe?
See, we don’t, we don’t talk that way about everything else. You know, if I say, I don’t believe Elvis is alive, no one would ever say, but do you genuinely believe that? Like, that would be weird.
But we do that when it comes to the Bible.
Well, on that too, even just going back to the simplicity of childlike faith, children are not thinking, oh, well, did I have a component of my will decision? Or they just are convinced. And I think that’s why they are the example, because then once we get a bunch of theological folks in here slicing it apart, it just becomes something that it was never meant to be, that it is just the simplicity of, are you convinced or not?
Yeah, are you convinced that something is true? So how would you answer Ben’s question about what exactly does it mean to believe in jesus then?
In the saving sense, right? Because there’s a lot of things about Christ that we learn about in the Gospels. But as we look at the Gospel of John, it’s that he’s the one that can give you eternal life as a gift.
And are you persuaded that by faith, you have it through him?
What are some verses that you might point to in John?
So the Gospel of John, according to chapter 20, 30 through 31, we’re told John is written so that his readers may believe in that by believing they may have life in his name. So are they convinced that again, they have life? And in the case of the Gospel of John, we know that he’s speaking of eternal life.
It’s the book of life. So for his readers, that’s the goal is that they are persuaded that Christ can give them that life. But we also see it in chapter 11, when he’s speaking to Martha.
And what another great example, he says, I am the resurrection in the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.
Notice, believe in me, believing jesus, because that’s Ben’s question. What does it mean to believe in jesus?
Though he may die, he shall live, meaning if you die physically, you shall resurrect because he just said, I’m the resurrection. And he who lives and believes in me shall never die. And then the question there that he poses to Martha, I think really is significant too, because he turns to her and he says, do you believe that?
Are you convinced that’s true?
Right. Are you believing this content? And what is it that, well, I’m the resurrection in the life.
He who believes in me shall never die. But we also see it in the woman at the well. We see it in John chapter 5, verse 24, John chapter 6, verses 40 and 47.
He who believes has everlasting life as a present possession. Obviously, John chapter 3, John 3.16.
Notice there again in John 3.16, whoever believes in him. There it is. Ben’s question, what does it mean to believe in jesus?
Well, him there is jesus, has eternal life and will not perish.
Right.
And it’s really that simple. At the moment of faith, we’re convinced that what jesus said is true.
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And it’s really that simple. At the moment of faith, we’re convinced that what jesus said is true. We could say, I believe in him.
I believe in what he said. I believe in his word. And it really is an amazing statement that anyone who believes in him for it, as the Christ, the one who gives it, has everlasting life.
Now, related to this, I recently had a conversation with a gentleman. His name is Frank.
So this was another question.
This was another question.
I had not emailed in like Ben’s.
No, it was a phone call I had. And he was asking about ephesians chapter two. When it talks about, for it is by grace, you’ve been saved through faith.
You understood the Calvinist perspective on that. So, you know, Calvinism will teach that faith itself is the gift.
Right.
That the unbeliever is incapable of faith.
He’s incapable of being convinced that it is true.
That’s right.
jesus gives eternal life because he’s spiritually dead.
According to Calvinism. And that was his question that, you know, he was facing some Calvinist preachers. And so that idea that, well, as an unbeliever, you’re spiritually dead, even going back into ephesians 2, 1 and 2, you know, you’re dead in your trespasses and sins.
You are incapable of faith. Therefore, the gift of God, according to the Calvinist, is faith itself.
Yeah. By the way, this is related to Ben’s question.
It is.
Because any of you say, well, did I really believe? Well, if the Calvinist is right and God gives you that faith, that’s the faith that believers have, although the Calvinist says you get eternal life first, which is also a crazy concept. But then you start wondering, well, do I have that kind of faith?
And how do I know I have that kind of faith?
Yeah, God gives it. And so, because when you start talking about faith being different kinds, like did you really believe or genuinely believe, once you get away from this, that faith is being convinced something is true, then that’s what you run into. That’s why people in our churches struggle with this.
And that’s why you hear people say all the time, I hear conferences all the time where people say that, I don’t know if I really believed. And it’s crazy. So what is going on there in ephesians 2?
Well, we’ve addressed this a few times on faithalone.org, so I would really encourage our listeners to go check that out. But part of the issue is the feminine use of the terminology here in Greek.
Right.
That faith is feminine and gift is neuter.
And that not of yourself. So the word that and gift are neuter and faith is feminine.
And so if the faith were the gift, it would have to be neuter in the Greek.
Or the word that there would have to be feminine.
Exactly.
And that’s where the Calvinists see. They see. And that is the gift as being faith, but it’s not what it’s talking about.
There is the salvation, which is by grace through faith, that concept. That’s why the word and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, is neuter because it’s talking about the concept.
So in other words, the Greek doesn’t support the Calvinist interpretation.
Right. That God has to give us this faith that we’re not able to be convinced. So to summarize it for both Ben and Frank, what does it mean to believe in jesus?
It’s not that God gives us the faith after we’re saved. It’s we hear the message of Christ, that He promises eternal life to everyone who believes in Him for it. And when you believe in Him, you know you have it at that moment of faith, because that’s what you’re convinced is true, because that’s what He says.
That’s what it means to believe in Him. Now let me just end on this. That doesn’t mean you can have doubts later.
You can lose your assurance, but at the moment of faith, you have it. Well, Frank and Ben, we just appreciate those questions. We hope this was helpful for you guys, plus for all of our listeners, and for all of our listeners.
Remember, keep grace in focus.
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On our next episode, is faith a choice or not a choice? Please join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.
The preceding has been a listener-supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.
