John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
I’ve pondered on these scriptures a bit, and the key word that always sticks out to me is “believe”. I know that we believe Christ, Jesus we shall be saved. It says so in the Bible. But does it just mean to “believe” Jesus existed and that He was the only begotten Son? I think this word “believe” has more meaning to it than what think. Yes, we should believe Jesus existed, yes we should believe He was the only begotten Son of God, yes we should believe that He is a doer of all good things. But we should also believe that He can do good things for each of us.
For example, say you have a child. This child wants to run in a race at school. You, as a parent, a grandparent, aunt, uncle, guardian helps that child train for this race. It’s this child’s dream and you want to be there for him or her, because you believe in that child. You believe it can and it will accomplish his or her dreams. So should we be the same when it comes to believing in Jesus. Believe in Him. When ask for something you stand in need of, believe that He can provide. When you are down and out, feeling like you can’t even get up in the morning, believe that He can heal. When we believe we put our faith in Him. And you don’t have to have this enormous amount of faith. The Bible tells us it only needs to be as big as a grain of mustard seed. That’s not very big. But we should believe, have faith in Him no matter how bleak things may seem. Believe that He will see you through. Because one of these days, if you keep walking on that straight and narrow path with Him, rest assured He lead you to your greatest reward. Amen.
What does James mean when he says the “...even the devils believe tremble and shutter”? (sorry for the loose quote)
But here’s the fuller context for that verse copied from the book of James.
James 2:14What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? 17So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action,f is dead.
18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19You believe that God is one.g Good for you! >>>>Even the demons believe that—and shudder<<<.
20O foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is worthless?h 21Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did. 23And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”i and he was called a friend of God.j 24As you can see, a man is justified by his deeds and not by faith alone.
We are still called to put our faith in Him. Whether we are able to do the good works or not. There are many that are unable to do the good works because they are either ill or bedfast. And yes, Satan and his devils believe that He existed, but they don’t put their faith in Him.
You may have missed the point in my last post concerning my citation from the passage in James.
The “works” of God are the “fruits of the Spirit”.
See Galatians 5:22-23, Paul lists nine specific behaviors – love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – these things result from the inner workings of the Holy Spirit in a persons life—ie one who has truly been born again.
Jesus said: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit." (Matthew 12:33) In saying this, Jesus teaches that we will be known by the fruit we bear.
Please don’t misunderstand. We are not saved by our good works, rather we are saved FOR them or to do them.
We are saved completely by the mercy and grace of God only.
See Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this NOT from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 NOT by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are GODS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus TO DO good works, which God prepared in advance (for us to do) as our way of life.”
Thus we are saved FOR good works. We are not saved BY our good works
I write all this because too many people fail to produce the “proofs” (fruits) of being truly born again.
Sadly, some of this false teaching is spread by the “ultra-free grace” movement. They teach all one need “do” to be saved is simply “believe” but nothing need change on the inside as a result of salvation‼️
Thus, the term “believe” MUST be understood in its original meaning of—and in its original context of—and in its original usage of—and only as it was originally intended to be understood by the Holy Spirit.
I’m sorry, I forgot to mention to that in my last comment. But yes, it’s true that faith without works is meaningless, but that’s on where your faith is. I can have faith that the I will have a one day. But if that’s the only place my faith is then it’s nothing. All my faith should be in Jesus. Would I have to work for it? Sure, but I can depend on the Lord to give me strength. But we also need to keep in mind that our works are as filthy rags. It’s a good thing to do work, but those works alone won’t get us to Heaven. I believe those good works that James speaks of are mainly about obeying whatever the Lord commands of us, reading and sharing His Holy Word, praying one for another. I believe those are the good works.
