We’ve all heard the most commonly quoted Bible verse of the Christian faith: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) The word “believe” has been lost to the poor souls that receive the watered down gospel in the western church. I plan to reverse that injustice today so that we are all very clear on what has been lost to a lazy version of salvation. The biblical meaning of believe truly means: to lean upon, trust in, rely on, and agree with. Read that a few time in place of the word in the verse above. Better yet, every time our Lord mentions belief refer to that definition and understand what we are all actually called to. We are called to devote all that we are to the fact God took on human flesh for our salvation and spoke His heart plainly on earth, then gave us His written Word to guide our sanctifying relationship with our Creator. We have to understand the 1 cubit drop from a belief in our head to the filling of our hearts with His truth and Spirit, and ultimately the one cubit drop from our knees to the ground in submission to His Lordship. He is out Lord and our Savior. Salvation is found in His Lordship so that order is no mistake: Lord then Savior. The shallow pulpit gospel says you can have a savior while cherishing the world and it’s sinfulness. The Lord of your genuine salvation calls you to repent of sin. Repent is the new view we have of our sin in light of our newly changed heart. We cannot be a friend to the world and a servant of Jesus at the same time. That is not to say we are perfect at conversion, but conversion results in a new heart that receives concivtion. That concivtion leads to new understanding and a turning away from sin called repentance. We rely an the trustworthy Word of God in the Bible and spoken through Jesus. When we rely on His truth, trust it with all of our hearts, and live according to His calling; then we can say we truly believe the way Jesus desires us to receive His eternal salvation.
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