What is Christian ‘Belief’?
Anne Atkins was responding to a blistering attack on ‘clappy happy’ worship when she wrote in the Daily Telegraph,
“We Christians must constantly reinvent the way we tell our message, from the glottal stops of a bushman’s tribal language to the three-cord chorus of modern youth. Any cultural snobbery about Christianity is wholly inappropriate. But we must never confuse reinventing the form of the message with rewriting its content.”
The message of Jesus and his apostles is, in summary,
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts16 v. 31)
This can never change.
A minister was giving a sermon, based on Acts 13, where the interest in Christianity of Sergius Paulus, the Proconsul of Cyprus, is described.
“The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabus and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.” verse 7
“When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.” Verse 12
Then the preacher said something strange,
“Sergius Paulus only became half a Christian, because he had not received the Spirit or been baptised.”
The Bible does not tell us much detail about Sergius Paulus except that he was a proconsul, a very senior Roman, and that he employed a disreputable sorcerer called Elymas who tried to turn the proconsol from his interest in Christian things. The Bible does say three other great things about him.
He wanted to hear the word of God.
He believed
He was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.
This emphasis on the ‘word of God’ or the ‘word of the Lord’ is very strong in this section of Acts. Thus when Paul and Barnabus moved on to teach the gospel in Pisidian Antioch, Luke records the response there in similar terms,
“When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.” Acts 13 v. 48-49
It is clear that the apostles equated belief in the word of the Lord with belief in the Lord Jesus and what he and his apostles taught. Belief was the sign that they had been “appointed for eternal life”.
By looking at many in today’s society it is understandable why the minister made this mistake. Many still say they ‘believe in Jesus’. They may have been baptised, confirmed or even still attend church but in all other respects many appear little different from others in their social class. The Lord Jesus does not appear to mean that much to them. They would never dream of suggesting that others need to find the Saviour they have experienced and whom they live for. This type of belief causes problems for the next generation who seem to think that such a faith doesn’t count for much and have voted extensively with their feet. Yes, something else is needed to revitalise or vitalise this sleeping army. The recent cry has been that the ‘baptism of the Spirit is needed as a second stage in their Christian development. Perhaps such thoughts were behind the preachers comment that Sergius Paulus needed the Spirit to complete the second half of his conversion.
What is the answer to this confusion? Surely it is to understand and teach the nature of true Christian conversion. It is the radical change in the direction in life that results when we recognise who Jesus is and accept him as our only Lord and Saviour. When the bible talks of someone believing it is taken for granted that this all embracing change will be the result. ‘Belief’, ‘conversion’, ‘baptism’ and ‘receiving the Spirit of God’ are almost synonymous. It was the norm that when someone believed they made a public confession that the Lord Jesus was their Lord, that he had washed away their sin, that their old life had died and that they had arisen from the waters of baptism to start a new life with the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
The same apostle who led Sergius Paulus to Christ also wrote the epistle to the Romans. In chapter 8, that wonderful chapter on Christian assurance, Paul wrote,
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” v. 1
“What the law was powerless to do . . . God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.” v. 3
The way we can know that we have this new life is because we have God’s Spirit in us.
“If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ”. v. 9
This chapter gives three tests by which we can know that we have the Spirit of Jesus.
We have a determination to live in a way that pleases Jesus.
“Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” v. 5
“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” v. 14
2. We experience a closeness to our heavenly father.
“You received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” v. 15-16
3. We stand up for Jesus Christ.
Very few suffer for being kind, but others will and do object to an uncompromising stand that Jesus alone is the Lord of the Universe and that his atoning death on the cross is the only way we can be made right with God.
“We are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” v. 17
Christian conversion is not just an acceptance of an orthodox creed, or even being a member of a Christian club called a church, it is an utter change in life’s priorities that results from a new understanding.
The writer to the Hebrews puts this clearly in chapter 11 when discussing what faith means. He talks about ‘men of faith’ in the Old Testament such as Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham.
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11 v. 13 – 16
These Christians had a new perspective. They were ‘camping’ on this earth, their hope, their longing was to live in a new country, heaven, where there was a permanent home in a real city that God has prepared for each of them. Do note the wording at the beginning of this section, they were still living when they died!
This is Christian belief and nothing less will do. Jesus summed it up in that famous verse,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3 v. 16
In the Greek the tense is the present continuous, so it could be translated “whoever goes on believing in him shall not perish”. If we believe in the way the Bible talks about, then we have eternal life, we have been given The Spirit of God (all of him, as he cannot be divided into parts!), and this will show itself with a new priority, a wanting to live according to the Word of God.
Anne Diamond, the television personality once said what many seem to hold,
“It doesn’t matter what you believe, just as long as you are sincere about it.”
The Bible does not agree. The truth matters to God and Jesus claims to be God’s truth. Jesus is our only hope and not to believe in him, in the way he wants, is utterly foolish.
BVP
