Belief In Christ: What It Means
Once a man is fully convinced of the necessity of belief in Christ, and understands clearly that the Bible requires such belief, he faces then the question of the degree to which he must believe. Just what does it mean to "believe" in Christ? How much must one believe? I remember that Peter preached at the conclusion of his sermon on Pentecost, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly..." That simply means to believe beyond a doubt; to "know assuredly" means to be so fully assured or convinced of a thing that there is no room for doubt at all concerning it. These people were urged to "know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Christ." They had to be assured beyond all doubt that Jesus was both Lord and Christ.
The same kind of faith is required of the eunuch to whom Philip "preached Jesus." Beginning from Isaiah, fifty-third chapter, Philip "opened his mouth and preached . . . Jesus" to this Ethiopian official. When they came to the certain water, the eunuch had heard enough preaching that he desired to obey the gospel. He asked, "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest." (Acts 8:36,37) Not only is salvation "conditional," but so also is baptism "conditional." And the condition here expressed is that one must "believe with all" the heart. Any kind of belief short of that, or less than that, is not the kind of faith that will make baptism valid. And any one who is incapable of exercising that kind of faith, is certainly not a subject for New Testament baptism.
Here, then, is the fundamental principle of divine truth upon which Christianity rests. When a man is willing to say, as did the eunuch, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," and mean it "with all his heart," then it is evident that he has the kind of faith that will exercise him, motivate him, and bring him into full and complete obedience to the will of God. That is the kind of faith, that is the degree of faith that will justify and save. Anything less than that is a vain and useless faith.
The making of such a confession as the eunuch made, by an honest soul removes all difficulty or question about that one's willingness to do anything and everything Jesus commanded. It doesn't matter what such a person has to give up, nor what theories or ideas previously held he must abandon, if he believes with all his heart, he will allow the word of the Lord to resolve every issue and to settle every doubt. Belief in the deity of Christ, faith that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God, is the thing that is required.
But not only must one believe in the divinity of Christ, he must also believe in the power of Christ to save. One must believe in the power of the provision made by Christ for salvation. John the Baptist put it like this, "Behold the lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." If one would be saved by Christ, therefore, he must not only acknowledge the deity of that Christ, but must be fully persuaded that by the shedding of His own blood Christ made atonement for the sins of men. Do you believe that through His death and by the power of the blood He shed the Son of God is able to save? Do you believe that He can cleanse and purify your soul and redeem you from all iniquity, and make you to stand accepted in the presence of God as one of His own?
Suppose a man should say, "I believe that Jesus is the Christ all right, and I believe that He died for my sins; but I am not willing that He should pay the debt for my wrong-doing. I am determined that there is a penalty of my own transgressions, and I will not let Jesus make settlement for my sins. I'll find some way to settle the score myself." Could such a man be saved? Surely not. He would be trying to be his own Savior, trying to substitute some plan or scheme of his own in the place of the provision God has made. For a man to be saved, he must be willing for the sacrifice that Jesus made to make full atonement for sins, and to settle all the debt.
The writer of the Hebrew letter says that "he is able to save unto the uttermost them that draw nigh unto God through him." That states the whole case briefly. Though one's sins be as scarlet, and red like crimson, Christ is able to save and make pure all those who receive him.
There is still another thing to be added to this. Not only must one believe in the deity of Christ, not only in the full power of His blood to cleanse from sin, but one must also believe in the final authority of Christ. He is not only Lord and Christ, not only redeemer, Savior, Son of God, but He is absolute ruler. Paul speaks of Him as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords." (1 Tim. 6) And John says of Him that He is "the ruler over all the kings of the earth." Paul told the Ephesians that Christ was "far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." (Eph. 1:21)
Jesus is ruler as well as redeemer. One must accept His authority and His decrees as absolute and final. One must recognize His divine decrees, accept His word in every step of life; be governed and guided by Him in all matters of worship, service, obedience in any respect. This is the faith that saves; this is the degree of belief. Anything short of this is futile.