How long before you actually followed Christ did you say that you “believed” in God?
I can speak for myself here. It was for all my life. I’ve always “believed” in God.
But I didn’t trust in Him. I didn’t love Him. I didn’t worship Him.
There have been numerous people with whom I’ve talked and have told me that they believe in God. Of course, this used to satisfy my inquiry. But not now.
Now, however, when someone tells me they believe in God, I ask them, “Oh yea? That’s great!” And then follow with, “What do you mean by that?”
So why does it take more than just believing?
Whoever follows Jesus knows his voice. They discern from the voice of the enemy, and the voice of their Savior. To put it plainly in the words of Jesus, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).
But what does it mean to follow Jesus? I suppose we could write a book about this, but this article does not afford the time and space. So I will break it down into two things for now that are most protuberant: Loving God and Loving Others.
This comes from Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:36-40:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Love God, and love others. Sounds simple enough, eh? I’m not sure that this sounds simple, but what it does sound like is trusting, worshipping, and doing.
James gives us a good picture of what having faith in Jesus is largely about. He points out in the second chapter of James that believing must be tied with doing. In other words, loving your neighbor:
“But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” (James 2:18-20)
Basically, if a professes to be in full support of something, yet does nothing to show his or her support, then this person has no ground to profess such a thing.
To illustrate: If I claim that I love my wife, yet ignore everything she is about and seek out other women for my relational needs, I’m a liar and deceiver and do not love my wife no matter what I say. Rest assured, though, because I do love my wife.
In this way profession is supported by application.
What about salvation by faith alone? Sola fide!?
The Jehovah’s Witnesses try to use this verse in James to mean that your works alone justify salvation, but this is untrue. Works alone truncate the Gospel message.
It is not by works alone, but by faith alone one is saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). But this faith is supposed to produce works in us (Eph. 2:10). And that’s why James extends this onto saying that faith without deeds is useless, because that is one of the very things faith is supposed to produce!
Faith produces works, works do not produce faith. Works is a byproduct of faith, not the other way around.
And in this way, being a Christian means more than believing. To an extent it means doing. But remember, the doing is a result of the believing (Eph. 2:8-10). And this “doing” never leaves believing—it is a doing that requires faith (John 6:27-29).
The desire to “do” is given at the moment of regeneration.
This is key. I used to believe that if one was doing “good” works, it proved his faith in Christ. Which, to some extent is true. But not entirely.
The works one does are grounded in the reasons he does them. In other words, are you working—doing—to gain merit with God, or are you doing because you love God and want people to praise your Father in heaven? (Matt. 5:16)
The evidence of a regenerated heart is a change of desire—the desire to please God… to trust Him… to worship Jesus.
And as a result, this works of a regenerate heart are reflective of worshipping Jesus.
Being a Christian is much deeper than believing. It’s trusting, loving, and worshipping Jesus.
What does loving Jesus look like in your life? How has your faith in Jesus produced a change of desire in you? What do you think it looks like to others? Leave your comments below.
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