Believe it and Live

Believe it and Live

If you have been struggling with faith, you may feel like you are in a terrible state. You may have heard all sorts of conflicting things about salvation and how to be made acceptable to God, how to get eternal life.

Maybe you’ve heard that you must confess, or acknowledge, your sins or you won’t go to heaven. All acknowledging means is that you know that you have sinned, and you don’t deny it. Confessing is simply saying the same thing God says about your sins—that you sin and that you are helpless to stop so unless He forgives you, you’re doomed.

Maybe you feel like you desire sin. The flesh desires sin; that’s true. If we had to stop sinning or stop desiring sin to be saved, no one could be saved. It’s not about what we do or do not do.

Someone may have told you that you must fully obey God’s commands and instructions to have eternal life—or at least that such obedience is necessary to stay in His good graces after you got eternal life. This sort of obeying Him is not a condition of salvation.

Obedience is believing Him.
Obedience is trusting Him.

Some say that you must accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Jesus IS savior and Lord whether you accept it or not. The Bible never says that “accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior” is a condition of salvation. That idea is called “Lordship Salvation” and it is false teaching. The Bible says that you must believe.

But what is belief? It can be easy to focus on “how” faith is accomplished. This is a major stumbling block. By searching for how to believe correctly, to have enough faith, to say the right words, or to exhibit the proper conduct, we make something that is basic and simple very complex.

Here’s what it comes down to: Is God trustworthy or not?

If God is trustworthy, trust Him to have told the truth about having done everything necessary for you to have eternal life.

The fact is that in Christ Jesus, God has done everything necessary. Jesus did it at the cross. Just before He died, He said, “It is finished.” He said that because He had done everything necessary for you to have eternal life.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of God the Father. He sat down because everything necessary for you to have eternal life had been accomplished.

In Jesus, God was reconciling you to Himself and not counting your sins against you. That means that God is not counting your sins against you, whether you believe it or not. If you agree to be reconciled, you will have a relationship with Him. This relationship is possible and available because of what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection.

In Jesus, God has done everything that must be done for you to have eternal life whether you believe it or not.

There is no “how.”
There is nothing you must do.
Trust that it is so.

Believe it and live.