What "Believe in Jesus" means
A friend asked me what he needed to be saved and I was extremely excited & he was genuinely curious. I told him how we are all sinners in need of a Savior and the work that Jesus on the cross and why it had to be done.
At the end of that convo he asked me “what does it mean to truly believe in the gospel and Jesus Christ and how will I know that I’m truly saved, and that it’s not just intellectual of a certain set of facts” and I realized I didn’t have an answer for him, being that I’m still new and learning and don’t quite have an answer yet myself. Can you guide me with clarity here?
A: What you are asking about are explaining "the essentials".
In a nutshell "believing in Jesus" has to do with believing who he is by who Scripture says he is and who he revealed himself to be (in Scripture [which is also history written by eyewitnesses]). It reveals Jesus is God in the flesh. 100% God, 100% man, the sinless perfect 2nd Adam. The one who obeyed and fulfilled all the Law required in order to be our unblemished perfect sacrificial lamb (whose blood was shed on the cross), that he took our sin upon himself and bore the eternal wrath of God on those sins on the cross, then died and rose again 3 days later.
God offers us salvation by believing & recieving Christ's complete work in our place. We believers basically switched places with Him, and if we trust Jesus paid our debt in full, and we repent and trust in Him [believe all those things] then God will convert us and give us a righteous new nature, close the case against us, and give us spiritual life & eternal life. All undeserved, but that's why it is called Grace. God's grace towards us.
1 John, tells about the signs of assurance of salvation. You can also tell him, his desires will change. He will no longer want to sin, but will desire to follow Jesus and His commands.
Matthew 16:24 (KJV) Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
A truly saved human is a changed heart....and bare a fruit...that's a truly saved believer. (Gal.5:22-23).
”If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.“
1 John 1:6-7 ESV
But note... there is a general belief, which doesnt lead to salvation. Scripture tells us God created the angels, but some among them joined with Satan to try to overthrow God from ruling over all of creation [ridiculous tbh] and so God threw those wicked 1/3 out of heaven. And today Lucifer is called Satan and the demons, the fallen angels go around causing problems on earth because they tempted humans to sin and humans chose to sin. The fallen angels have no hope of redemption as humans have recieved by God's Grace. They know God having always served Him until their fall, and know theyll be sent to eternal Hell, but they had not known of His other attributes that we as humans get to know about and these are among "the things heavenly Angels look into" as Scripture tells us. They got to know as outsiders about God's love, mercy, grace, patience, forgiveness, and the extreme lengths he was willing to and did go through to make redemption of mankind possible. And that He has a personal relationship with believers like a loving Father, that they had no understanding nor experience of, but they served Him. The Scriptures tell us that the fallen angels (the ones that followed Satan and rebelled) know the full truth now, but also that they believe in God because they saw him and served Him. They believe and tremble. They know they will be judged to final judgment on Judgment Day and are clearly aware of their fate, which Scripture tells us.
James 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
They obey Jesus as God in the NT and do what he says. He even is patient with them even though they have harmed humans, and allowed them to go into some pigs (and not send them to be chained in Hell until the end judgment). They have no choice and must obey whatever God tells them, as their Creator and judge.
For humans, just having a understanding of facts about what it means to believe in Jesus isnt enough. You have to put that belief into action. You have to do something with that info. The Gospel call according to Scripture and Jesus is "Repent and believe the Gospel" Mark 1:15.
Judas felt bad about what he did but didnt run to Jesus for salvation. He died in his sins. Peter had contrition about his sins and ran to Jesus.
So your friend needs to move from knowledge to belief with obedience. Putting your faith in the object of the one who has said he would do what he promised.
If you repent and trust in Jesus then you will also lay down your self and follow your Lord in righteousness. You follow after His example, to become more and more like Him. More like God in holiness and more like the perfect man God wants us to strive towards modeling our life after. Not to obtain human perfection here, but through sanctification process to grow and mature into the best Christ-like-one we can be. Then when we die and shed this sin stained body and the sin nature once and for all at death, God will give our spirit a perfect body for eternity where we are free from sin and will live only in our right and righteous nature. 🙂
<< return to prev page if you popped over here
Related Resources
The last link has a new believers discipleship foundations study and it is something your friend can look at now to understand the basics, as well as the essentials.
And has a study about the Holiness of God, on sanctification, the believer and sin (we battle it and conquer them one by one so we are no longer tempted by nor are doing sinful things in thoughts, word or deed), helps to help you grow and mature in faith as you live the Christian life.
There's several other studies and loads of helpful stuff on that site.
But the first step is understanding what believing in Jesus means, and acting on it by getting saved (also known as getting right with God). The point of getting saved is to flee from wrath and to God while desiring righteousness.
God bless.
