In Touch Ministries

Guest (Male): Many people believe that they believe according to the scripture in God, in Jesus, in order to have their sins forgiven or to go to heaven. And they genuinely believe that, but what they're doing is they're making a mistake and here is the mistake. The mistake is this, just because you assent, that is that you concur with something that yes, I do believe that's true and yes, I assent to the fact that yes, God said that and the Bible is true, that does not mean that you have New Testament faith.

Christians often tell unbelievers that all they need to do to be saved is to believe in Jesus. But sometimes they are less clear about what believe actually means. Today's edition of In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, helps clear up the confusion with the biblical definition for believe in part two of our series, Learning to Walk by Faith.

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. I want you to turn if you will to John chapter three 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 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, I think that 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 saved, they are comfortable, they are safe.

What I'd 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's 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.

Many people believe that they believe according to the scripture in God, in Jesus, in order to have their sins forgiven or to go to heaven. And they genuinely believe that, but what they're doing is they're making a mistake and here is the mistake. The mistake is this, just because you assent, that is that you concur with something that yes, I do believe that's true and yes, I can assent to the fact that yes, God said that and the Bible is true, that does not mean that you have New Testament faith.

There's a difference in believing according to the scripture and having intellectually being willing to affirm or concur with someone, yes, I do believe those facts are true. And so oftentimes what they're believing is they're believing facts. They're believing truth and they may say yes, I do believe that Jesus Christ, son of God, fact. I do believe that the Bible was inspired by God, fact. I do believe that God is a good God and he sent his only begotten son, fact.

But now believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of their soul is an entirely different thing. And so I say to you my friend, and I say it in a loving sort of way, you can believe all that and be just as sincere as you can possibly be and be lost and separated from God. You mean to tell me that if I believe that Jesus Christ was, he was a good man and that he was a preacher and a teacher and a prophet and came from God, you mean to tell me that I'm not saved? No, if that's all you've got, no you're not.

Because you see, believing in the fact of something is not New Testament belief. And I think there are a lot of people who are very deceived. You say, but listen, you mean to tell me that if I sincerely believe that I'm still lost? My friend, being sincere is fine, but being sincerely wrong will not get you to heaven. There is a difference in intellectually affirming the truthfulness of a fact or intellectually affirming the truth of what you say and placing your trust, your faith in Jesus Christ as your savior. All the difference in the world.

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 and 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 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 like anybody else because I think I'm just as good as anybody else is and therefore I believe in God.

They don't want to get into the scriptures, they don't want to get into this thing about Jesus Christ and being born again. They deliberately limit the quality and the degree and limit the stretch of their faith. They're only going to 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 have 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's on, just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and somebody's calling them 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'm sitting 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 believe in 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 him, 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's going to grow up and 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 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 and 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 am found, was blind but now I see with absolute, total, perfect assurance.

I want you to jot three things down. I want to give you three words. 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 going to 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 going to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my personal savior, I've got to believe something. What is it that I am to believe?

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 am 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 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. 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.

How much of this was I supposed to know when I was saved? I'm coming to that, just hold that. First of all I must believe, I must believe without a shadow of a doubt that 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. He died for my sins and he's resurrected and his resurrection validates every single thing he claimed to be and everything he did. 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 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. 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 Lord and master of our life. So the first thing that's necessary for true New Testament belief is knowledge. Second word is conviction.

The second word is conviction. I want you to notice something here now. That means to simply be truly, listen, fully convinced of something. To be convicted of something is to be fully convinced of its truthfulness. So therefore when we talk about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, what I believe, 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.

Therefore first of all there must be knowledge. What's the second word? Conviction. Give me the first two words. First word is knowledge. Second word is conviction. Well you say okay now I do have the knowledge and I'm convicted, so therefore I must be saved. No you're not. Having a knowledge about salvation, having knowledge about Jesus and knowledge about what the Bible says about the judgment, being convicted of it, does that make you saved? No it does not.

What's the third word? Third word is trust. Now here's what's happening. Now watch this. Now we have moved from factual knowledge to an inner conviction, a full persuasion that something needs to change. Something needs to happen in my life. Here's where trust comes in. When I trust, here's what I do. I move from the facts and conviction, I move from being an interested observer that will affirm that all these things are true, I move from being an interested observer to becoming involved in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I've 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 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 believe 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 as being true, but I must place my trust in him. I want to give you a simple definition. I want you to write it down. I want to 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'll be able to find it.

I want to encourage you, you say well now should you write in the Bible? Absolutely. Mark words, color 'em up, whatever you want to, listen, that's what makes it precious. 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. All right you ready?

To believe in Jesus is to have a confident conviction that he is who the Bible says he is, he will keep his promises, that is he will do what he says he'll do and upon placing my trust in him, I am entering into a personal eternal relationship with him. 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, all that is the result of believing in him. To say I place my trust in him, that means I'm 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 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 today gave he the right to become the sons of God. Are you certain that you've ever placed your trust in him? As I said about 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 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'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.

Guest (Male): If you trusted in Jesus Christ as your savior at the end of today's edition of In Touch, your eternal destiny has been changed. You're now a member of the family of God. You can know him personally and intimately as you look forward to your future home in heaven. You can learn more about what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ at our website, intouch.org. And to listen again, click on "Today on Radio" on our homepage.

If you'd like a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, "What It Means to Believe in Jesus," open our online store to place your order. It's also available as part of our "Learning to Walk by Faith" teaching set. Our web address again is intouch.org. To call or text, the number is 1-800-IN-TOUCH. You can also write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia, 30357.

We'll hear more thoughts on what it means to believe in Jesus just ahead in today's "Moment with Charles Stanley." Tired of faith feeling like a performance? Worn down by constant striving? Jesus never meant it to feel that way. His call was always to something more. To a life that's generous, vibrant, joyful, and sustainable, a real life with him. That's the heart of "Follow Me," our new book created to help you answer that call. Get your copy at intouch.org/followme.

There is an inexplicable joy that comes from understanding scripture and learning how to apply it in our own life. The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible includes 30 foundational truths that Dr. Stanley has learned from over 60 years of ministry. It's available in the New King James Version, New International Version, the King James Version, and New American Standard Bible version. To order, call 1-800-IN-TOUCH or go to intouch.org/store.

"From the Pastor's Heart" is an in-depth teaching letter inspired by the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley. To receive In Touch's "From the Pastor's Heart" letter, call 1-800-IN-TOUCH or visit intouch.org/pastorsheart. With a clear explanation of the gospel's clear message, here's a "Moment with Charles Stanley."

Dr. Charles Stanley: Have you ever said, Lord 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 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 as long as you believe something, that's all it matters? No, that's not all it 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'd 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.

Guest (Male): You can learn more about clearly explaining the gospel to those around you at intouch.org. And if today's program has motivated you to obey God in a new way, we'd love to hear from you. When In Touch continues next time, have you ever wanted to step out in faith, but practically the next moment you found yourself doubting that urge? We'll help with strengthening our wavering faith when we return for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.