Beyond Belief
And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16:30-31 NKJV
That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? What must I do to be saved? Just believe. Just believe - that’s pretty easy, isn’t it? It seem to me that depends on what you mean by belief.
Sure, it’s not hard to say “I believe you” to someone, but how easy is it to really do it? Belief, as it’s use in this passage, doesn’t just mean a mental assent to a series of propositions. It’s not like following an argument in a debate or a proof in math class. You may accept each step of logic, you may even accept the conclusion, but if it doesn’t mean something to you personally, there isn’t much to your belief.
You may well believe your kid’s promise to be home by midnight, but at 11:35, when Devin signs off, how easy is it to head off to bed and go right to sleep? As the Petra song says, “There’s a higher place to go, beyond belief.” That higher place is trust.
One of the greatest things about our Christian faith (remember that word, “Faith”) is that it’s not simply a philosophy of life. It’s not a competitor with stoicism, existentialism, logical positivism, or any of those other philosophical -isms. Our faith is a trust in a Person; it’s a relationship with Jesus Christ. Believing that tighter oil supplies will make the price of gasoline go higher is easy. It’s also fairly empty. Believing that Jesus Christ was born, lived, died, and rose again because He loves us is an entirely different thing.
Once you believe that, you have to believe Him; not just believe in Him, but believe and trust Him personally, and in what He has already done for us. That’s what our faith is all about, because that’s Who our faith is all about.
Prayer: Father, we thank You that we don’t have to trust in what we can do, but rather we can trust in what Your son, Jesus Christ, has already done for us, and in what the Holy Spirit continues to do in us. Amen.
Thought for the day:
But we never can prove
the delights of his love
until all at the altar we lay;
for the favor he shows,
for the joy he bestows,
are for them who will trust and obey.
Charlie van Becelaere
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