Featured How do I do that?

Belief is about certainty. They must either be at a point in their life where they have no hope other than in Christ -- usually a crisis of one sort or another -- or they must have learned through Scripture of the reality of God's love, grace and forgiveness in Christ. That is the implementation of the Greek word behind the English term "believe." We use "believe" to indicate anything from that biblical certainty, to denoting guesswork: "I believe it is going to rain tomorrow."

The test of biblical belief is the triggering of a corresponding action. If I "believe" a chair will hold me, I will sit in it. If I "believe" I can help a person, I will make the effort. If someone "believes" Christ will take away their sin, they will respond with love and thanksgiving. Such love and thanksgiving is expressed in a desire to learn more about the One who has done this amazing work. It is an inward heart knowledge, and it cannot be duplicated, counterfeited or feigned. If a person believes, the response will be a changed life.

In other words, it is not something that can be "worked for" but can only be experienced as a complete overhaul of mind, heart and spirit. It is a "changing of the mind" regarding who God is.

 

I tell a story that illustrates what it means to "believe in" someone.

I was raised in a very negative household, one where nobody could do anything good enough. After floundering about through my teens, trying to find a job I could like, I began playing pool. And I got real good.

I went to my mom's house one day, and told her I had found what I wanted to do for a career. I wanted to be a professional pool player. My mom threw her arms in the air and said. "OH, LIKE YOU'D EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH"

I got really upset, and said, "you know, that's the problem I've had with you for my entire life. You've never believed in me."

Then I ask the person - what did I mean by "believe in me" ? It means to be confident in me, to believe I can do what I set out to do.

Then I use Santa Claus as an example, how kids are hoping in him to bring presents. They are believing in him, to come through with something he's supposedly promised.

Then I point them to Romans 4:21-24, where it says that Abraham was fully assured that what God had promised, He was also able to deliver. Therefore, it was credited to him as righteousness.


This last week in Sunday School, we played "trash can hoops" after our lesson (8-12 year old boys). All the kids missed their shot, but I made mine. Then I asked...if we were all on a team, and were offered one shot at that trash can for $20,000, who would you want to take the shot?

They all said I would take the shot. I explained that they would be confident in me, that that would be believing in me.

 

To make Him Lord means you put Him in charge of your life, instead of doing what you want you do what He wants of us.

 

So...do you believe salvation from hell is for those who have put Him in charge? It's for those who are living this life for Him?

Or to put it another way, is it for those who are performing good works?

 

First you need to explain what he needs to be saved from.

 

I would tell him that believing in the Lord Jesus means believing in who he is, the son of God, and what he has done on the cross for sin...believing that Jesus sacrifice was totally sufficient to pay for his sins, and he needs to add nothing to it. It means, as rom 3 says, recieving Gods righteousness by faith.

 

Find an empty room.
Enter, go to the center and sit, preferably in the lotus position.
Clear your mind of absolutely everything.
Now just allow the grace of God to come and regenerate you.

Remember, don't do any work such as "believe" for salvation is ALL of God.

 

That is the work of the Holy spirit in their lives, so would direct that person to what the Bible states to believe means to rely totally/fully upon what Jesus did at the Cross to be the atonement for all their sins...

 

I think a certain amount of knowledge is to be gained before anyone can believe on the Lord for salvation. I think a person must know who God is, what God demands. What Christ did in his work of redemption and where a sinners standing is in all of this. The scripture say's How can they believe on him in whom they have not heard, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

 

Russian general now a soldier in God's army Go ahead. Tell me how great a background in the Bible, God's demands, etc., Borisov had when he became a Christian.

 

Or the thief on the cross. Or the Philippian jailer. And his family. Funny how Calvinists limit God's sovereignty.

 

I agree that it is a work of the Holy Spirit. What do you tell them? How do they "do" that?

Believing in someone is not a "do". It's to the one who worketh not, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly....

There isn't a single thing one can "do" to believe in Christ. Either you are fully convinced and fully assured, or you don't believe in Him. Some plant the seed, some water, but God makes it grow.

That's why I don't subscribe to any notion of a "response" doctrine. They all ultimately point a man to his own efforts. They will respond when the Holy Spirit is convincing them, and they aren't resisting.

 

Faith is not "doing" anything. It is not a work.
One accepts the free gift of salvation "by faith" that the promises of Christ are true. There is no work involved. There is no work in receiving a gift. It is received by faith, as any gift is.

 

I agree with DHK. Believing is not doing. It is being fully convinced of the promise of God.

Scripture says "they will be taught by God"

Similar to a student learning truth from a teacher. The teacher does the work of reasoning and showing evidence, in order to enlighten a mind. The student has a responsibility to be "teachable", which relates to whether he is stubborn or not.

We get upset when we're trying to convince someone of truth, if he is unwilling to consider. He isn't doing anything to learn, he has to stop digging his heels in, stop rejecting, stop refusing.

Coming to faith in Christ is the same. The Holy Spirit is the teacher, and doing all the work to convert an unbeliever. But many unbelievers are working hard to refuse to believe. They need to stop working, and then they can become convinced

 

I would simply say Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Then tell them to listen and then read John 3 to them.
MB