…whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life….people loved the darkness rather than the light….

John 3:16, 19 ESV

What does it mean to believe in Jesus? I think so much of our trouble in Christianity today comes from people defining things in different ways. When I was subbing in the Sunday School, I asked the kids how they knew they were Christians, and they said they believed Jesus died on the cross. I pointed out there were people watching Him die who saw and believed He died, but didn’t become followers.

It inspired me to start work on a discipleship course, and it made me think of a powerful sermon, which is based on our Judges text today. You can easily find it on YouTube. It’s called Ten Shekels and a Shirt. It talks about how this “salvation” by just intellectual assent crept into the church. It also talks of doing ministry in your own power, which we were recently discussing.

What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

We believe that God in flesh took on our sins to receive in His own body their just, necessary punishment that we might choose to love the light and ask to receive forgiveness, and in our clean state receive and live by the life of the resurrected Christ in us by the Holy Spirit, being united with God for eternity.