Lesson 4: What Is “Believing in the Lord Jesus”? Or False Faith?
Key scripture: “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17)
1) To believe in Jesus means to let Him become your King (Romans 5:17); to know and follow the will of the Father God (Matthew 7:21), just as death became the King of all humans through the sinning of Adam.
2) Believing in Jesus is a lifelong decision. We must understand God’s righteousness step by step and become righteous in His eyes. Believing in Jesus leads to ongoing repentance (Mark 1:15) until no further change is needed, laying down our will to follow God’s guidance (Hebrews 4:10-11). “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.'” (Romans 1:17) The Greek word for “faith,” pistis, means “a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God.”
3) To believe in Jesus means to bring into submission to the words of the Bible and obey Him, holding onto God’s promises with wholehearted trust and expecting to experience Him. (Paul described His) “apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name.” (Romans 1:5b NKJV) “Obedience” in the Greek, hupakoe, refers to “surrender, or following in submission.” Believers must surrender to God in everything.
4) Believing in Jesus requires offering ourselves (Romans 12:1-2), praying for a heart that loves the truth, making every thought obedient to God (2 Corinthians 10:5), and enduring suffering for Him (Matthew 24:13).
“… For those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10b-11)
Besides, beware of the following six distorted concepts of believing in Jesus:
1. Mistakenly believing that keeping the (Mosaic) law or commandments is the same as believing in Jesus (Galatians 5:4).
2. Mistakenly believing that one can believe in Jesus while continuing to sin (1 John 3:7-9), defiled by sins while claiming to be saved (2 Peter 2:20), including lying or ignoring the voice of conscience (1 Timothy 1:19, 4:2).
3. Mistakenly believing that verbally accepting Jesus is equivalent to believing in Him (John 19:15; Romans 10:9); or simply calling Jesus the “Lord” means one truly believes in Him (Matthew 7:21); or claiming Jesus is within oneself without any manifestation of His work (1 John 5:12).
4. Mistakenly believing that merely learning the truth leads to salvation (2 Timothy 3:6-7).
5. Mistakenly believing that having only an outward appearance of godliness leads to salvation (2 Timothy 3:5).
6. Pretending to believe in Jesus or hindering others from believing and yet thinking one can be saved (Matthew 23:13).
Discussion questions:
1. Do you welcome Jesus to reign as the only King in your whole life unceasingly and act according to His will? Why?
2. Only by becoming familiar with the Bible can one obey God’s truth. Is this correct? What is your Bible reading habit?
3. Are you willing to receive a heart that loves God’s truth, completely abandon falsehood, and obey the truth? If yes, what should you do from now on?
4. Can you identify those with false or fake Christian faith? Additionally, are there any other examples of false beliefs about Jesus besides the six above?