Belief Essential, But Not Enough

This might come as a surprise to most of you but simply confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is not enough to get you to heaven. Now when I say confessing, I am talking about simply saying that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, not the true confession required of us in the Bible. This might sound confusing but I will explain the difference. You see, nowadays people think that by simply saying the words “I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior” they are saved and that they are therefore going to make it to heaven. I am sorry to be the one to burst your bubbles everyone but this is simply not true. What the Bible means when it says, or rather commands us, to confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised him from the dead and we shall be saved (Ro. 10:9) is to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is indeed our Lord and Savior, not just to say it. To acknowledge something and to simply say it are two different things.

I can say that I love someone but if I do not treat them with love then my words are meaningless. However, if I treat someone with the respect and care befitting a loved one then I have acknowledged the fact that I am in love with them and therefore my saying I love them is meaningful. But what does it mean to acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior? Well, let’s look at the two words, Lord and Savior, separately. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the word Lord means ‘one having power and authority over others: a ruler by hereditary right or preeminence to whom service and obedience are due’. Therefore to acknowledge the Jesus Christ is your Lord is to accept the fact that Jesus Christ has power and authority over you, and that he is your ruler and therefore deserves your service and obedience. Simply saying with your mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord but then refusing to serve him and obey him is meaningless because you have not acknowledged the fact that he is indeed your Lord.

Now let’s look at the word Savior. The dictionary definition of Savior is ‘one that saves from danger or destruction: one who brings salvation’. So, in the same line, to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is your Savior is to understand the fact that he died on the cross and rose on the third day so that he could save us from sin and we would no longer be held captive by the powers of sin. If you continue to live in bondage of sin then you have not acknowledged the fact that Jesus Christ is your Savior. After all, had you acknowledged that fact, you would understand that you have the power to overcome any sin through Jesus Christ. Many of us “confess” that Jesus Christ is our Savior but then continue to be held back by the same sins that beset us before we knew Christ. How then have we acknowledged that he is our Savior if we have not even let him save us from our sins?

So now we know that to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, as commanded in the Bible (Mt. 10:32, Lu. 12:8, Ro. 10:9, Ph. 2:11, I Jn. 2:23, I Jn. 4:15), is to obey Jesus, let him free you from sin, and to continue to follow him towards salvation. That being said, what does Jesus command us to do to be saved? A man named Nicodemus once asked Jesus that very question. In John 3:3 Jesus told Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus, being confused, asked Jesus how a man can enter back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time. Jesus then explained to Nicodemus what being born again means by saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” So this is what Jesus, our Lord, commands us to do to enter the kingdom of God? He commands us to be born of the water and of the Spirit? But what does being born of the water and of the Spirit mean?

Well, being born of the water means being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Mark 16:16 says, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved”. To be baptized symbolizes the death of our old man and the resurrection of our new selves in Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” We cannot enter the kingdom of God with our old, sinful ways: we must put to death our old man, bury him in water in the precious name of Jesus, and put on a new man after Christ. That is why Jesus said unless you are born of the water you will not enter the kingdom of God. When you are baptized in Jesus’ name you come out of the water a new person, you are born again.

So what about being born of the Spirit? The Spirit we know is the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. Therefore we understand that being born of the Spirit is being filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts 2: 38 says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Notice that it says you SHALL, not you might, or you could, or possibly will… it says you SHALL. Receiving the Holy Ghost is more than just a command from the Lord, it is a PROMISE! Notice what verse 39 says, “This promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all at that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” In John 3:6, Jesus goes on to explain to Nicodemus that, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Meaning if you were to enter again into your mother’s womb and be born a second time you would still be born of flesh and therefore would not be able to enter the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God will not be inherited by flesh. However, when you burry the old man, who was led by your flesh, under the water and are filled with the spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, you are a new man now being led of the spirit. Therefore you are not born of flesh, but are born of the spirit.

So to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior does not mean to simply say the words, it means to acknowledge that Jesus is your ruler and therefore you must obey his commandments and let him free you from sin as your Savior. You cannot simply say Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and ignore his commandment to be born of the water and of the spirit because you will not see the kingdom of God. You think simply believing in Jesus Christ is enough to save you? James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe and tremble”. Does that mean that the devils will be saved as well and will therefore enter the kingdom of God? I don’t think so!

In Mathew 8:28-34 Jesus is met with two men who are possessed with demons; and notice what the demons say in verse 29 when they see Jesus, “What have we to with you, Jesus, you son of God?”. These demons “confessed” with their mouths that Jesus was the son of God. In Mark 3:11 unclean spirits fall before Jesus and say “You are the Son of God”. In Luke 4:41 more demons cry out, “You are Christ the Son of God”. So does that mean that these demons got saved simply because they confessed Jesus with their mouths; or simply because they believed in Jesus? No! Believing in Jesus is essential to salvation, but it is not enough. Unless you are born of the water and the Spirit you will not see the kingdom of heaven.

Follow the example of the early church in the book of Acts. Every person who believed the Gospel the apostles preached was immediately baptized and received the Holy Ghost. In Acts chapter 8 Philip preaches the gospel to the church in Samaria and “when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women” (vs.12). As soon as the other apostles heard that the church in Samaria had received the gospel the sent Peter and John to pray for them to receive the Holy Ghost and they did (vs.15-17). In Acts chapter 10 Peter is sent to preach the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile, and what happened? “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word” (vs.44). And notice what Peter said as soon as he saw these Gentiles speaking in tongues being filled with the Holy Ghost, “Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord” (vs.47-48). So what say you? Why not hearken to the words of your Lord and get baptized today in Jesus’ name for the remission of sins and receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost?