What It Means to Believe in Jesus – Dr. Charles Stanley

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male announcer: "In Touch," the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on "In Touch," "What It Means to Believe in Jesus."

Dr. Charles Stanley: What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? All through the Bible, you and I find these verses that talk about believing in Him, but what does that mean? It's very evident in the scripture that in order for a person to have their sins forgiven, in order to be saved, as we would say, in order to go to heaven, a person must place their faith in, must believe, must place their trust in, Jesus Christ.

But what does it mean to believe in Jesus? Well, that's what I want to talk about in this message because there are so many people who think they believe in Jesus Christ, but who do not really and truly understand what that means. So I want you to turn, if you will, to John chapter 3 and that verse of scripture in John that's the most familiar of all, John 3:16. You say, "Well, I know that one by heart." Well, I'm sure that most of you probably do, but I want you to turn there if you will for a moment. I want us to read this verse.

Jesus was talking to a very knowledgeable man, Nicodemus, about his relationship with God, and He said to him, "Except a man be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God." And so in the course of that discussion, Jesus comes down to say in verse 15, "That whosoever believes may--whosoever believes may in Him have eternal life." And then He says in verse 16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life," or everlasting life.

But what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? Well, that is the purpose of this message and what I want to do is to explain from a biblical point of view, what does it mean to place your trust in Him. How do you know that you've done that? And so it's interesting in scripture how very clear God has made it. For example, He says in John chapter 1, if you'll turn there for a moment. In John chapter 1, in the 12th verse, He says, "But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power or the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name."

Now, to believe in His name, for example, the name represents everything a person is. So when a person believes in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the same as believing in Him. You recall, for example, in Acts chapter 16, verse 31, when the Philippian jailer and Paul were talking, he said, "What must I do to be saved?" And Paul said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." You recall in Romans chapter 1, Paul said, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe." That is the gospel of Christ who all believe in Him.

For example, he said in Romans chapter 5, verse 1, "Therefore being justified by faith," which means to be declared no longer guilty, but now righteous, saved in the eyes of God. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God." He said in Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace you're saved through faith, that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest that a man should boast." You and I could go all the way through the New Testament, verse after verse after verse, every single time it is placing our trust, believing in, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the question is, it's very clear that's what you have to do, but what does it mean? Well, I think there are a lot of people out there who are very deceived. Who really and truly believe that somewhere along the way they have believed in Jesus Christ and therefore they are safe, they are comfortable, they are saved. So what I would like to do is to think for just a moment with you about what these people are thinking and how they think when they say, "Yes, I do believe."

Well, I think there are some people who genuinely would say to you, "Yes, I believe the Bible. I believe in God, I believe in Jesus Christ," and therefore they think that they're saved. What they're saying is, "I believe the facts, that is this is the Bible, this is God's Word. I believe the Bible does teach about God and the Bible does teach about Jesus, I believe all those things." They're talking about believing facts.

Then someone comes along and says, "Well, I do believe--oh sure, I believe in Jesus. My mother believed in Jesus, my grandmother believed in Jesus, my whole family's believed in Jesus. Sure, I believe in Jesus." What they're saying is, "I do believe in the fact that there was such a man as Jesus Christ." Now, the truth is their degree and the quality of their belief is the same as if you said to them, "You went to school?" Yes. "You studied history?" Yes. "Do you believe there was a man named George Washington?" Yes, I do. "Do you believe there was a man named Abraham Lincoln?" Yes, I do. "You believe there was a person named Jesus?" Yes, I do. Same category, same level and quality of belief, they're believing facts about a person. That is not New Testament belief.

So you come along and somebody-- so you say, "Well, do you believe--do you believe in God?" "Yes, I do believe in God. I've always believed in God, grandmother believed in God, I believe in God, I've always believed in God. Don't think I'm an atheist, I believe. Just 'cause I don't live like you want me to live, doesn't mean I don't believe in God, so I feel very comfortable when I die I'm going to heaven, I believe in God." You ask somebody else, they say, "Well--" And what they're saying is, "I believe in the God that you talk about in the Bible." And so you ask somebody else, "Do you believe?" "Well, here's what I believe. I believe there's a God. Let there be no doubt about it. I don't believe in this whole idea of evolution. I believe there's a God and therefore I believe that if I believe in God, then I'm okay and I'm safe and I'm going to heaven because I believe in God."

There is a difference in intellectually affirming the truthfulness of a fact or intellectually affirming of the truth of what you say and placing your trust, your faith, in Jesus Christ as your Savior. All the difference in the world.

Now the question comes, that is, what's the cause of this kind of deception that people live in? Well, I think some people genuinely do not understand. They misunderstand the scripture when it says believe. They just put that on the level of daily belief. Yes, I believe that piano is sitting there. Yes, I believe I'll be able to get up and go to work tomorrow morning. Yes, I believe my car will start when I put the key in the ignition. And so they just put all that kind of belief in the same category. My friend, that's not what we're talking about. And so they genuinely misunderstand.

A second reason is this. I believe that people purposely, deliberately, limit--listen, limit what their faith encompasses, and so here's what they decide. "Here's what I believe. I believe there's a God, I believe He's a good God, I believe one of these days when I die, I'm going to heaven just as like anybody else because I think I'm just as good as anybody else is and therefore I believe in God." And so what do they do? They don't want to get into the scriptures, they don't wanna get into this thing about Jesus Christ and being born again. They deliberately limit the quality and the degree and-- listen, they limit the stretch of their faith. They only gonna limit it to what? To their lifestyle. "If I am expected to believe something that interrupts my lifestyle, if I'm expected to believe something that limits the way I want to live, then my faith is limited to believing in God and in Jesus, the kind of person I think He was and the kind of person I think God is," and therefore they misunderstand. It is a deliberate misunderstanding, and my friend, listen, you'll never get to heaven if that's your idea of belief in Jesus Christ.

Then there are those people, of course, who've been misled. They go to church and I think this is so very important. This is why I'm spending this time today in this message because, for example, oftentimes children go to Sunday school, to Bible school, to Vacation Bible School, oftentimes in revivals and things get all hopped up and heaped up and the pressure zone, "Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me," and somebody's calling 'em to come on to Jesus, come on to Jesus, believe in Jesus, and oftentimes the invitation is so nebulous, the invitation is so far removed from a scriptural invitation that people walk down the aisle, they're not sure what they're supposed to believe, just believe in Jesus. Well, you know, if I was sitting out there and somebody said, "If you'll just believe in Jesus and come on down here and tell us you believe in Jesus, you'll go to heaven when you die," man, I'd run down here if I was lost, if that's all it took. Because you see, most of the time the idea is you believe in Him as a fact, that is, believing the fact that He was and He is and so forth. That will not do it. Oftentimes people are being misled.

Now I'm not saying that somebody would deliberately mislead 'em; I'm simply saying this: we have to be very careful. When a child, for example, says, "I want to be saved," that we help that child understand what is meant by being saved and what it means to believe in Jesus Christ, because any child is gonna grow up in--with parents who love the Lord and bring their children to church, say, "Well, do you believe in Jesus?" "Sure, I believe in Jesus. My mother believes in Jesus, my father believes in Jesus, my pastor believes in Jesus, I believe in Jesus." What does it mean to believe in Him according to the scripture? So oftentimes a person is misled. And so they don't really and truly understand what they believe.

Now, so we have to ask ourselves the question then what does it mean to place your trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin and have the Holy Spirit come to live inside of you and live in your life. What does it mean to know in your heart that you are right related to Him in such a way that when you die, you can die, singing, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see," with absolute total perfect assurance.

Somebody says, "Well, can a person ever really and truly be that assured?" Turn to 1 John. Revelation, Jude, 3, 2, 1 John. Listen to what John says. He says, "This is the reason that I'm writing this Epistle to you," to those who were to be his readers. He says, for example, verse 13 of 1 John chapter 5. He says, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life." Very important we understand what believe means because our eternal life depends upon it. Listen to what he said now. Verse 13: "These things," all that he's written in his first 5 chapters. "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know--" He says, "That you may know that you have eternal life." God wants us to place our trust in Him for His salvation. God wants us to know, He wants us to have absolutely unwavering, unquestionable assurance that we have a relationship with Him that absolutely cannot be tampered with by the devil or anyone else. Absolute assurance, that is the will of God for us.

Now, that being the case, then we go back to what he said in John chapter 3, verse 16. He says, "Whosoever--" listen. "Whosoever believes in Him," what? "Would not perish, but have everlasting life."

Now, I want you to jot three things down. I wanna give you three words and you can jot them down on something, but you need to keep these somewhere. Put them in the back of your Bible somewhere. This is not the ultimate definition I want to give you, but it's a very important part. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? Well, first of all, if I'm going to believe in something, I've got to have some knowledge. First word is knowledge. If I'm gonna believe in something, believe in what? What is this? Why is this? Where did it come from? What's the origin of it? What am I to believe? First of all, if I'm gonna place my faith in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I've got to believe something. What is it that I am to believe? So first of all, there's got to be knowledge. There are some very basic things that are absolutely essential for me to believe if I am going to be saved, if I'm going to trust Christ as my Savior, if I'm going to heaven when I die. Number one is this. I must believe that Jesus Christ is deity, that He's God. If you do not believe that, here's what happens. Now watch this. If Jesus Christ is not God, He is not--listen, He is not sitting upon the throne with the heavenly Father, you know what He was? He was no more than a man who is here on the same level with all the rest of us men who have our naturalness and who have our sinfulness and who walk at times in the flesh. That is, if He is not deity, then what could He do for me if He were just a man? So I must believe that Jesus Christ is God.

Somebody says, "Well, I don't think it's necessary to believe that Jesus Christ is God in order to go to heaven." Well, let me ask you a question then: Who is He? If He is not God, who is He? Is He a prophet? Then He was a sinner because all--everybody else has sinned. Was He just a great preacher and a teacher and a healer? Was He a false prophet? You see, if Jesus Christ was not absolutely who He says He is and who He says He was, then He was a liar. If He was not who He--He said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. I and the Father are one." And one of the things that caused so much turmoil around Him was the fact that He claimed to be not only the Son of God, but He claimed to be God deity. And His resurrection was absolute--listen, absolutely the proof of that.

Now, so therefore I must believe something. First thing I must believe that He's deity, that He's God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Second thing I must believe is this, that I am a sinner and my sinfulness has separated me from God and my only hope of salvation must come through God. That is, I must believe and recognize that I am a sinner. I must believe that Jesus Christ is deity, that he's God. I must believe that my sinfulness has separated me from God. The Bible says our sins have separated us from God. I must believe that. The third thing I must believe is this: I must believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sin and that when He died, He paid for my sin in His death. Now you say, "But how much of this am I--was I supposed to know when I was saved?" I'm coming to that, just what-- just hold that. First of all, I must believe. I must believe without a shadow of a doubt Jesus Christ is God. Secondly, I must believe that my sinfulness has separated me from Him and that I need to be saved by something He's going to do for me, I can't do for myself. Number three, I must believe that Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for my sin. The fourth thing I must believe is that Jesus Christ not only died for my sin, but He was resurrected from the grave. Because, you see, if Jesus only died, He can't do anything for me today. Listen, He died for my sins and He is resurrected and His resurrection validates every single thing He claimed to be and everything He did.

Now turn if you will to Romans chapter 10 for a moment and you may want to fold this down because we'll come back to it in a few moments. Romans chapter 10, and I want you to notice this verse: Romans chapter 10, verse 9. Somebody says, "Well, you know, wait, now wait a minute, I believe in the Resurrection. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and I believe in the Resurrection. The Bible says if you believe in the Resurrection you're saved." This verse I'm gonna give you is a typical verse that people will take out of the context of in which it was written and say, "Well, the Bible says you believe in the Resurrection, you're saved." Now let's see if that's what this verse says. Look if you will in verse 9 now, Romans chapter 10. He says, "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness or salvation, with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for 'Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.'" And then he says, "How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?" Which says you've got to have knowledge, you've got to know something. What must I know? That Jesus is God. What must I know? That my sins have separated me from God. What must I know? That Jesus Christ-- listen. That Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins and that Jesus Christ has resurrected from the grave. Just saying, "I believe in the-- I believe that Jesus Christ rose from the grave gets me saved." No, look at the first part of that verse. "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord." Here's what that means. I believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is, that He-- listen, that I am accepting Him and acknowledging Him and committing myself to His Lordship in my life and believing that certainly He was resurrected from the grave. You can't take one phrase out of some passage and say, "Oh, I believe that; therefore I'm saved." No, you're not.

Therefore, when we talk about what we believe, we must first of all have knowledge. So what is the first word? The first word is what? Knowledge. Now I want you to say it loud enough for me to hear it. First word is what? Knowledge. I must believe something: that He is deity, my sins have separated me from Him, He died on the cross for me, and that He rose from the grave. Listen, He can't be the Lord of my life if He's a dead man. "Thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord," and how did He become Lord? He died on the cross for my sins, resurrected, seated at the Father's right hand, to do what? To be the Lord and Master of our life. So the first word, first thing that's necessary for true New Testament belief is knowledge.

Second word is conviction. That means to simply be truly-- listen, fully convinced of something. So, therefore, when we talk about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, what I believe, I am--listen, I am fully convinced and persuaded that what the Bible says about Him is true. I am fully convinced and persuaded that He is who He says He is. I am convinced and fully persuaded that He will do what He says, convicted. That is, if there's no conviction, for example, fully persuaded what He says about my sin that I'm separated from God, fully convinced and persuaded what He says about the consequences of my sin that I'll die without Christ and be eternally separated from Him, because you see, without any conviction, I'm not gonna move, I'm not gonna budge. It's not enough to have knowledge, factual knowledge, about Jesus Christ, who He was and who He is and what He says He'll do. It's not even enough to be fully persuaded, fully convinced, that these things are true, though it is very important. Because when you think in terms of conviction, you recall that Jesus said in John when He's talking about the Holy Spirit coming, He says the Holy Spirit will come and He will come to do what? To convict the world of sin, of our sinfulness, to convict the world of the righteousness of Christ, which means that He was so right, so holy, and so pure that He was able to die for our sins, and to convict the world of the judgment to come. What does that mean? It means that when the Holy Spirit comes to your life and my life and begins to work in us, what's He gonna do? One of the first things He's going to do is convict us, convince us, fully persuade us, that we are sinful, we need God. He's going to fully persuade us that the death of Jesus Christ was adequate to pay for our sin. Fully persuade us that there is a judgment to come and the only thing that will get me ready for that judgment is to have a right relationship with God. Therefore, first of all, there must be knowledge. What's the second word? Conviction. So give me the first two words. First word is what? Knowledge. Second word is what? Conviction.

What's the third word? Third word is trust. Third word is trust. Now, when I trust, here's what I do. I move from the facts and conviction. I move from being an interested observer to becoming involved in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And so, what have I done? I have moved from just knowing the facts, knowing that I ought to do something, knowing that God is trying to do something in my life, now I have moved into a personal relationship. I have moved into a personal involvement with the person Jesus Christ. You see, it's always believe in Him, believe in His name, not--listen. Not just believe the gospel only, but believe in the person of the gospel. You see, in all these verses, verse after verse after verse, what do we find? We find Him talking about placing our trust in Him. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him," not just believed in what He said. Believes in Him as a person. And so therefore it's not enough for me just to believe in what He said is being true, but I must place my trust in Him now. So you must have three things. What's the first word? Knowledge. The second word? Conviction, and the third word is what? Trust.

Now, I wanna give you a simple definition. I want you to write it down. Now, whether you write it or your husband writes it, your wife writes it, your children write it, get it down. I'm gonna say it and then I'm gonna come back and say it very short--in short phrases so that you understand. I asked the Lord, "Help me to-- enable me to to say it in a brief way," so that you can say to someone, "Here's what it means to believe in Jesus Christ." All right, so get your pencil out. You ready? Because I want you to jot--I wanna encourage you to put it-- I wanna encourage you to put it in the back of your Bible. If you put it on a piece of paper, on a bulletin, you'll go home, lay it down somewhere, and nobody will be able to find it. I wanna encourage you to say, "Well now, should you write in the Bible?" Absolutely. Mark words, color them up, whatever you want to. Listen, that's what makes it precious. I lost my favorite Bible. I didn't lose it. Somebody stole my favorite Bible. Had it in a briefcase and the only thing I had in it was my Bible and a Greek New Testament and a pen, somebody stole it. I offered $500. That's a lot of money back then, $500 for any college kid who'd go through all the dumpsters or somewhere and find my Bible. Nobody did. Well, what difference did it make? I'll tell you, because it was so written up and all kinds of dates and things now that I'd put in there because it was especially precious to me because it said something about what God was doing and had been doing in my life. Write in your Bible, don't worry about that.

All right, you ready? We're talking about now what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. To believe in Jesus Christ is to have a confident conviction that He is who the Bible says He is. He will do what He promises, and upon placing my trust in Him, I enter into a personal, eternal relationship with the Son of God. To believe in Jesus is to have a confident conviction. That is, a compelling conviction within me, I must believe this, that He is who the Bible says He is, He will keep His promises that He will do exactly what He says He'll do, and upon placing my trust in Him, committing myself to Him. I'm entering into a personal, eternal relationship with the Son of God. Now I could say a lot about forgiveness of sin, going to heaven. That--that's--all of that is the result of placing my trust in Him. All of that is the result of believing in Him. To say I place my trust in Him, that means I'm betting on Him. I am affirming that what He says is true and I'm willing to risk my whole eternal future on that.

All right, there are three things that are absolutely necessary for me to believe. What's the first word? Knowledge. Second word, conviction, and the third word is what? Trust. Now, how many of you can look back in your life and say, I know that when I joined the church, I had enough knowledge, that I do believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and that I understood what it meant to place my trust in Him and to accept Him, receive Him as my Savior. But as many as received Him, not facts. As many as received Him to them gave He the right to become the sons of God. Are you certain that you've ever placed your trust in Him?

Now, as I said, I'm not being critical, I'm just simply saying this. You may believe a lot of things as facts. But have you ever moved from being an observer, a distant kind of believer, to entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by placing your trust in Him as your personal Savior? Have you ever said, "Lord Jesus," or "Jesus, I do believe that You're the Son of God. I know that my sins have separated me from You. I am asking You to save me and I am placing--I'm asking You to save me based on the fact that You did die at Calvary and I do believe that You died for my sins and I do believe that when You died for my sins, it makes it possible for me to be fully forgiven and when I die to go to heaven." However, you may have put it in your words. Have you ever told Him that? Have you ever done that? Or have you been one of those persons who said, "I believe. As long as you believe something, that's all that matters." No, that's not all that matters. Here's what matters. It matters this, that when you die, you will stand in the presence of a holy God and give an account for your life. No excuse will be acceptable because, you see, God so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son, sent Him into this world, to live among men in the flesh without sin, to go to a cross and be crucified, and upon Him placed all the sin-debt of yourself and the entire world. He loves you that much. Then to reject His Son, to say no to His Son, to ignore His Son, when according to the Bible, the whole--listen, God's whole redemptive plan is wrapped up in the cross. It's all there. That's why the apostle Paul said, "It's the only thing in life I boast of is the cross," why? That's where Jesus made it possible for you and me to be forgiven of our sin and to have absolute assurance that when we die, we're going to spend eternity in heaven with all the glorious things that God has provided for us.

Have you ever said to Him, "Yes, I do believe the testimony of scripture. I do believe that You're the Son of God. I do believe my sins have separated me from You. I do believe You died on the cross. I do believe that You rose from the dead. I do believe that You're seated the Father's right hand even now. I'm asking You to forgive me of my sins and I'm placing my trust in You that You'll do what You said. You'll forgive me, and You'll make me one of Your own." The moment you do it, that quickly, you become living child of God, saved forever and ever and ever. Remember the definition: entering into a personal, eternal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Father, how grateful we are that You can take a verse like John 3:16 and cram and jam so much truth that in a lifetime, we will never be able to exhaust the meaning of that verse if we took it word by word, never be able to exhaust it. There is so much of Yourself, Your love for the world, Your provision of salvation, Your gift of eternal life. And thank You that You said that You so love the world, which was Your way of saying, "I do, I do, I do," which was Your way of describing the incomparable love, inestimable love, immeasurable love that You have for each one of us. So that all of us are the objects of Your love. And You said that You would pay the full price in the death of Your Son, so that there is no price for us to pay, no work for us to do to be saved, but simply to place our trust in You, to believe that You're the God You say You are. You will do exactly what You say You will do. And that that faith alone will bring about our acceptance, our salvation, our eternal life. We bless You, in Jesus's name, amen. ♪♪♪