What It Means To Really Believe: Faith (Trust) Alone In Christ Alone
It wasn't until later on in my walk as a Christian that I came to a deeper understanding of the Gospel, finally understanding that to believe (as properly translated from the Greek) is not some difficult, nebulous, mysterious, hard-to-understand concept such as “believing from your heart” or “giving your heart to Jesus”, etc. To believe, as far as the Bible teaches regarding salvation, means very simply “to trust and rely upon” Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the resulting eternal life that we gain. Yes, that's it. It's really that simple. (Of course this assumes that trust is placed in the real Jesus of the Bible, the sinless Son of God who died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead according to the Scriptures, the Christ who paid the full price for our sins once and for all. This also assumes that the person realizes that they are a sinner in desperate need of salvation, just like every other human being. Otherwise they could scarcely believe. For who could place their trust in a Savior if they didn't really believe they even needed a Savior?)
But due to a lot of bad teachings floating around, it seems that most professing Christians today are trusting in and relying upon anything and everything but Jesus. They claim to have faith (belief) yet their trust is often misplaced and their reliance is almost always rooted in self in one form or anther: rooted in their personal performance, in their repentance of various sins (and their perceived successes in overcoming various related struggles). Their faith is often in their church attendance, in their pastor, in their volunteerism, in their tithing, etc. For many their trust is in both self and their pastor / church, but oddly and strangely, often not at all in Christ Himself. Of course these "believers" typically gloss over all this nonsense by using the name of Jesus in vain, which to the unwary can make their "faith" appear quite religious and holy where they may even seem to be very close to God. But in fact they are very far away, actually off course by miles and so they miss the mark entirely.
A Christian always starts out in simple child-like faith, believing (trusting and relying upon) Jesus Christ for their salvation, meaning for the forgiveness of their sins and for eternal life. Otherwise they could scarcely become a Christian. But often through attending problematic churches and listening to erroneous teachings, they lose that trust and end up redirecting their faith towards themselves (meaning they start trusting in their personal performance) and/or in their pastor or church. This does NOT mean that they suddenly lose (or ever lose) their salvation in the process. For salvation once gained can never be lost. What they do typically lose (unless they repent of their shift in faith) is effectiveness and fruit. They become shipwrecked in the faith and therefore immobilized in their walk, which is exactly where the enemy wants them. If the enemy cannot stop someone from becoming a Christian, he will do everything he can to prevent that person from making more Christians.
Don't fall for this clever trick. Don't be the next casualty. If you haven't yet placed your faith in Jesus Christ, trust Him today and don't let anyone tempt you to shift your faith away from Him towards trusting anything or anyone else regarding your salvation, including yourself. If you are a Christian and have shifted your trust away from Jesus, redirect your faith back to Him today,
ChristiansFree.com
It wasn't until later on in my walk as a Christian that I came to a deeper understanding of the Gospel, finally understanding that to believe (as properly translated from the Greek) is not some difficult, nebulous, mysterious, hard-to-understand concept such as “believing from your heart” or “giving your heart to Jesus”, etc. To believe, as far as the Bible teaches regarding salvation, means very simply “to trust and rely upon” Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the resulting eternal life that we gain. Yes, that's it. It's really that simple. (Of course this assumes that trust is placed in the real Jesus of the Bible, the sinless Son of God who died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead according to the Scriptures, the Christ who paid the full price for our sins once and for all. This also assumes that the person realizes that they are a sinner in desperate need of salvation, just like every other human being. Otherwise they could scarcely believe. For who could place their trust in a Savior if they didn't really believe they even needed a Savior?)
But due to a lot of bad teachings floating around, it seems that most professing Christians today are trusting in and relying upon anything and everything but Jesus. They claim to have faith (belief) yet their trust is often misplaced and their reliance is almost always rooted in self in one form or anther: rooted in their personal performance, in their repentance of various sins (and their perceived successes in overcoming various related struggles). Their faith is often in their church attendance, in their pastor, in their volunteerism, in their tithing, etc. For many their trust is in both self and their pastor / church, but oddly and strangely, often not at all in Christ Himself. Of course these "believers" typically gloss over all this nonsense by using the name of Jesus in vain, which to the unwary can make their "faith" appear quite religious and holy where they may even seem to be very close to God. But in fact they are very far away, actually off course by miles and so they miss the mark entirely.
A Christian always starts out in simple child-like faith, believing (trusting and relying upon) Jesus Christ for their salvation, meaning for the forgiveness of their sins and for eternal life. Otherwise they could scarcely become a Christian. But often through attending problematic churches and listening to erroneous teachings, they lose that trust and end up redirecting their faith towards themselves (meaning they start trusting in their personal performance) and/or in their pastor or church. This does NOT mean that they suddenly lose (or ever lose) their salvation in the process. For salvation once gained can never be lost. What they do typically lose (unless they repent of their shift in faith) is effectiveness and fruit. They become shipwrecked in the faith and therefore immobilized in their walk, which is exactly where the enemy wants them. If the enemy cannot stop someone from becoming a Christian, he will do everything he can to prevent that person from making more Christians.
Don't fall for this clever trick. Don't be the next casualty. If you haven't yet placed your faith in Jesus Christ, trust Him today and don't let anyone tempt you to shift your faith away from Him towards trusting anything or anyone else regarding your salvation, including yourself. If you are a Christian and have shifted your trust away from Jesus, redirect your faith back to Him today,
ChristiansFree.com