What is salvation? God sent Jesus, His Son, into the world to bring salvation—to save people. Jesus spent just three years—only three years!—preaching before He died on a cross outside of Jerusalem. In that time, His sole focus was telling people to repent of sin. For the longest time, I thought that mainly meant I needed to stop doing bad things. And, that is true. If you are saved by Jesus, you do make every effort to stop doing bad things. But that’s not the big sin to repent of. The real sin to stop committing is rejecting Jesus. Jesus called people to stop rejecting Him as Lord and Savior and to believe in Him.
Think about what you do when you believe in someone. When you believe another person, you accept that what they say is true. You also trust that person. If you trust someone, you know they have your best interests in mind. They want the best for you. Believing in someone has an impact your life. For starters, since what this person says is true, your thoughts and actions begin to line up with what they say. Simple example. If you believe what your mom said to you as a child—you’ll get hurt if you play in the street—then you don’t play in the street. What you did reflected that you believed your mom told you the truth. In the same way, if you trust someone, you follow their advice. You listen to them. Believing in someone shows up in how you live. You have become committed to that person.
So, when Jesus called people to believe in Him, what He was telling them was that His words were true, that He was trustworthy, and they should commit themselves to Him. When Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), He was saying that He was God in the flesh. God walking among people in human form. Those who believed in Jesus, accepted His words as truth—that He was God in the flesh—and they followed Him. It effected their lives. Their belief in Jesus changed how they lived. Naturally, there were those who doubted. Some even said Jesus was demon-possessed and insane (John 10:20). Maybe they thought, “Nah, not possible. He’s just some guy. He’s out of his mind.” They rejected Jesus. This is the great sin.
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How do you know if you truly believe? Your life is changed. Your mind is changed. Your heart is changed. Believing in Jesus transforms you. You and I can say all day long that we believe in Jesus—that we believe that He walked on the earth, that He died, that He rose again. Anyone can say they believe all these things. But if your heart, your mind, and your life is unchanged, you don’t truly believe in Jesus. You’re simply saying all the right stuff. I have to tell you, the apostle, John, was blunt. He said if you say you believe but continue in your old ways, you lie (1 John 1:6). In fact, you’re continuing to reject Jesus. Jesus came to save—to pay for our sin and give new life to those who follow Him. So what is salvation? Believing in Jesus and being transformed through repentance of rejecting Him as Lord and Savior. If you’d like to know more, call me. If you would like prayer or want to start reading the Bible but don’t have one, let me know.
