What Does It Mean To "believe In Jesus"?

Yes the Bible all over says believe in Jesus and you will be saved, but what is believing?

Is it believing he was the messiah, or son of God?

Is it believing in what he says?
 
The short answer would be "yes" to both questions.

I believe the core is to believe the Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the one true God. Once you believe that in your heart, you will be compelled to believe all he says as written in the scriptures, and you will long to please Him, and in turn, the Father.
 
Think about this:

There is a gap between man and God, and that is his sinful nature. Jesus died to wash our sins away, thus forming a bridge over that gap. You can say you believe in the bridge is there, but it's not until you walk it that your belief serves it's purpose.

Jesus will say "Depart from me, I never knew you!" to those who believed in the bridge, but never had the faith to walk it.

The whole purpose of Jesus dying was to bring us to God. How will we have eternal life if we do not walk the bridge Jesus created for us.

So for one to say they "Believe" in Jesus, but to not come to him, and walk with him, means they don't have faith. It's by grace through faith we are saved.

We could never build the bridge, but God did. So let us walk it! Not sit around as if the bridge served no purpose!
 
You could add to that, that you must believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, all of mankind's sins, defeated death and rose again, and is preparing a place for you in the kingdom.
 
John 3:36 uses "believe" as a loaded word -- it contrasts it with disobeying. Just like if I were to order a hot dog, it would mean I also want it cooked, in a bun, with a plate or napkin, possibly with condiments -- not handed over frozen without those other things. To believe means to believe and to obey.
 
Yes the Bible all over says believe in Jesus and you will be saved, but what is believing?

Is it believing he was the messiah, or son of God?

Is it believing in what he says?

Believing he is God is a start.
Believing what he said is a good next step.

Anyone can be loyal and do as they are told. That's good.
To then take what you are told and make it YOUR rule to live by because it profits you, well that's incredible.

My example is always two sons and a father.

Father says to clean your room.

The first son obeys because the father said so. He is justified.
The second does it because he sees the profit in having a clean room.

That second example is where every single Christian should be in their life.

You do, because it profits you greatly. You desire it as well as The King desires it.

Same mind, same heart. In sync.
 
John 3:36 uses "believe" as a loaded word -- it contrasts it with disobeying. Just like if I were to order a hot dog, it would mean I also want it cooked, in a bun, with a plate or napkin, possibly with condiments -- not handed over frozen without those other things. To believe means to believe and to obey.
And yet there at some that would still take a frozen hot dog from the King.

Better than the 1kg steak cooked from the enemy.
 
Yes the Bible all over says believe in Jesus and you will be saved, but what is believing?

Is it believing he was the messiah, or son of God?

Is it believing in what he says?
My answer would be:
It is believing he IS the messiah, or son of God.

It IS believing in what he says.

We get confused by being historic people, but you and I know that HE IS!!

If one does not believe that HE IS, they don't believe.
 
Please allow me to just speak from the heart. I can see from the beginning that the Lord God foresaw mans fall even before he created the heavens and the earth. He knew Adam would sin and cause all of the human race that would come after him to be contaminated with sin, thus needing someone to rescue him from the Devil and his own evil desires. I can see the Godhead planning mans salvation, and in what the Lord God would require of man to be saved. Someone speaks up and says, "I know, lets us only require man to just believe what we tell him to be saved" Now to us that sounds pretty simple and too easy to be true. But it is not as easy as we think it is.
For example, the Bible says....

Eph 2:4-7
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus
:
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

The carnal physical mind says this. Ain't no way I am sitting in Heavenly places in Christ. My own mind and physical senses are telling me I am still stuck here on this earth in this physical body of mine!! Now, we can either choose to believe what God says in his Word, or what our body and mind are telling us. How many people would believe the Word of God over their mind, and senses?
So, it is not as easy as we think it is. It requires faith on our part, which comes by the Word, before we can experience what the Word says who and where we are.

Believing Jesus is about what the Word of God says over and above what our own body and physical senses are telling us.
 
The first son obeys because the father said so. He is justified.
The second does it because he sees the profit in having a clean room.

That second example is where every single Christian should be in their life.

You do, because it profits you greatly. You desire it as well as The King desires it.

Same mind, same heart. In sync.
Third kid....never forgets the day the Father showed so much love to them (cross) and now has 100% trust and places their will in full submission to their Father's requests. Turning the left cheek does not profit 'me' greatly. It pleases God, that's the only reason I do it.
 
Yes the Bible all over says believe in Jesus and you will be saved, but what is believing?

Is it believing he was the messiah, or son of God?

Is it believing in what he says?

Believing what He says comes after believing who He is. Approving of what He says leads to finding out who He is.

We do James 4:8 and Psalm 51:17. God searches and examines our heart and mind Jer 17:9. If we are truthful it leads to a knowing that Jesus is Lord by the Holy Spirit 1 Cor 12:3. Similar to Peter's experience in Matt 16:16-17.
 
Believing what He says comes after believing who He is. Approving of what He says leads to finding out who He is.

It's funny you know. I first started believing He existed following what I might briefly describe as an encounter with the other side. It certainly prevented me ever thinking there are no forces above us again. Anyway, I've been through that side before but there was another side to me that I don't believe I've ever mentioned.

Probably through all my life that I can remember, there was this mysterious and all important thing called "the truth". It was just a principle but to me, nothing could make sense without it. Don't get me wrong, I've told lies and done and been through things that would probably make your hair curl and am by no means straight even now but still everything other than "the truth" is false, a shallowness and a lie. And when you go against your understanding (which can be wrong but it's what you believe at the time) of the truth, there is no real satisfaction.

Sometimes it does feel as if He is telling me that He (rather than say some moral principle) is exactly that truth I've (perhaps and even in my atheist times) always yearned for but I've never yet managed 100% acceptance of this.
 
Yes the Bible all over says believe in Jesus and you will be saved, but what is believing?

Is it believing he was the messiah, or son of God?

Is it believing in what he says?
James 2:19 (KJV)
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Then you have those that believe in Jesus like they believe in George Washington, a historical figure, a matter of intellect.

To believe the scriptural way, you must be persuaded in your heart that God came to the earth, lived a sinless life and died for YOU giving you His innocence and taking your sin, a matter of the heart. Once you come to grips that Jesus would have done this if YOU and YOU alone were the sole individual in history, He still would have died for YOU. If you accept this, hold onto it, in your heart, then you call on Him to save you and He will.

Romans 10:13 (KJV)
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

This word, call, is a very interesting word. It means to permit one's self to be surnamed. God is saying, "Take on My Name", as in adoption! You can't do ANYTHING at all to be saved. It's all 1000% Jesus and His gift. All you can do is call out to Him and believe, trust, have faith, that His word is true and accept Him into your heart! Call out to Him! He'll answer you! (y)
 
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