Why Believe?

I’m sure you have heard someone say, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Nearly everyone has heard the verse: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). 

But what does it mean to believe? Does God just tell us to believe in Jesus like we used to believe in Santa Claus? Well, believing that He exists is a part of it, for “He who comes to God must believe that He is” (Hebrews 11:6). However, believing in Jesus is more than just convincing yourself that He is real. 

Belief means to ‘have faith in.’ The Greek language, in which the New Testament was written, has one word that is translated as both belief and faith. John 3:16 might be very well translated: “...whoever has faith in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” So then, what does it mean to have faith in something? Faith is NOT some fuzzy, unclear belief about something. We hear that all too often. “Just have faith that everything will turn out alright.” That is baseless hope and blind faith. 

The Bible defines faith as confidence. Let’s drop that definition into our statements above. “Have confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” “...whoever has confidence in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” “He who comes to God must be confident that He is.” We could also use the words “trust” or “dependence.” 

What about Jesus, then, inspires our absolute confidence, trust, and dependence? In short, Jesus, the Son of God, was born into this world as a man. He who had been forever face-to-face with the Father now walked on the earth. The Bible tells us that He ate, drank, slept, prayed, and talked just like any other man. Jesus also went about the mission given Him by His Father to teach and preach to the people, performing miracles as proof that His teaching was true. Some people loved Him and accepted His message. Others hated Him and killed Him. They nailed Him to a cross and crucified Him. He died and was buried. 

This was all part of God’s plan. God used the murderous intention of these people for good. While Jesus was on the cross, God laid our sins upon Him and punished Him for our sins instead of us. God says that every sin must be punished by death. Since all of us have lied, hated, lusted, etc., all of us are guilty. We deserve nothing but eternal death, but Jesus died so that we would have life.

God proved this by raising Jesus from the dead on the third day. In the resurrection, God showed us that Jesus’ death purchased our freedom from eternal death, so that He can give eternal life to all of His people. Who are His people, who are freed from eternal death and given eternal life and blessing? They are those who believe in Jesus. 

That brings us full circle. What does it mean to believe? It means to have faith in Jesus. It means to be confident in what Jesus accomplished on the cross. It means that you should be confident in God’s testimony about Jesus in raising Him from the dead. 

Doesn’t all of this sound like blind faith? Let me tell you why it is not. You can be confident in Jesus, because there were a lot of witnesses. Crowds of people heard His teaching. A large crowd of people watched Him die. Professional Roman soldiers declared Him dead. Many people knew exactly where He was buried. Professional Roman soldiers were guarding Him. More than 500 people saw Jesus alive after His resurrection. His disciples saw Him ascend into Heaven forty days later, promising to return.

There was a group of men trained by Jesus and ordered by Him to go out to teach about the forgiveness of sins through Him. These men were called apostles. It’s just a Greek word that means “one sent with authority.” These apostles preached about Jesus. They, with a unified voice, taught about Jesus’ life, message, death, resurrection, ascension, and future return. They told about what they saw and heard, and they wrote their teachings down in the New Testament of the Bible. 

The apostles were all eyewitnesses. Matching eyewitness testimony is still used as evidence in our courts. These apostles and their followers were so confident in what they were teaching about Jesus that they were willing to suffer terribly for it. They also died brutal deaths for it. They would not deny their teaching, so they were put to death for it. If they had simply made their teaching up, they would not have died for it. They would not have suffered for it; but they did, and their eyewitness testimony proves that we can have confidence in the death and resurrection of Jesus to provide us eternal life and blessing. 

There is one more thing that lends credibility to it all: the Old Testament of the Bible. Briefly, the Old Testament contains hundreds of prophecies concerning Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, and future return. Those concerning His life, death, resurrection, and ascension were all fulfilled perfectly. Think about that! Some of the prophecies were written hundreds and others were written thousands of years before Jesus lived. The odds of one man fulfilling all of these prophecies are astronomical. He fulfilled them perfectly. 

Finally, you may be saying that the apostles could have just made it all up and even braved death for it. However, if what they taught and wrote was untrue, the people who opposed and killed Jesus would have come forward. His enemies may have denied His resurrection, because they did not see it; but they never denied His miracles, His death, His teaching, or His lineage. Nor could they deny the empty tomb.

All in all, the case is too airtight: Jesus died and rose again to take away the sins of all who believe in Him. Now it is up to you. Will you put your faith, your confidence, in Jesus?

I encourage you to find a local church where these things are taught. Learn more about them! Follow Jesus with great confidence in what He accomplished for His people. Wait with eagerness for His return. He is coming soon, and He will judge all those who do not believe in Him and throw them into the Lake of Fire. This is the eternal death. May all the earth take this warning to heart! May you, dear friend, take this warning to heart! Believe in Jesus and be saved from the wrath to come!