Thought of the Day !!

Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him.

                                                           Colossians 2:6 (NLT)

 

When we believe in Christ and accept Him as our Lord and Savior we are saved, born again, created anew or however else you want to say it.  We begin a new life with Christ.  So what does it mean to believe in Christ?  Does it mean that we believe in an intellectual way with our minds, deducing that there must be a God and therefore must be a Christ?  Or does it mean more?  What does it mean to say we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior?  Today I want to talk about what it means to believe in Jesus.  Tomorrow we will look at the terms Lord and Savior. 

 

John 3:16 is possibly the most well-known verse in the bible.  And people throughout the ages have taken this verse to be the means of their salvation.  God gave His Son so that if we would believe in him we would not perish but have everlasting life.  So if we believe in Jesus we will be saved.  A truer statement will never be made.  But what does it mean exactly to believe?  Well, throughout the Gospel of John when the word believe is used, it is used to mean more than an intellectual belief.  It's more of an action verb.  And the action is to place our lives, our fates if you will, into Jesus' hands, trusting in Him for their outcome. 

 

I've always believed, and taught, that to believe is more than believing with our heads.  It's also believing with our hearts, which will lead to believing through our actions.  In other words, when we believe with our heads, we acknowledge the Truth.  When we believe with our hearts, we place our love in the Truth.  And when we do these two, our actions will follow suit.  And the Truth that we believe in is Christ Jesus.

 

All this means is that if you say that you believe in Christ and are saved because of it, make sure you aren't just talking about agreeing with the fact that Jesus lived or even the things he taught.  Come to know Christ in an intimate way, trusting in Him and placing your whole life in His hands. 

 

Tomorrow we will talk about what it means to say that "Jesus is my Lord and Savior."

 

In the love of Christ,
greg