Does believing Christ died make you saved?

Upvote:1

This may sound shocking to you, but even Satan's demons/minions believe Jesus died on a Roman gibbet two thousand years ago. Does that mean they are saved? Hardly. See James 2:19, where James does not speak of Christ's death, but he does indicate the demons are sentient beings who know what the score is regarding the Christian faith, and the "author and finisher" of our faith.

". . . fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2 NAS).

As "timf" observed, above, an intellectual belief is one thing; a belief founded on unwavering trust is quite another. If I'm not mistaken, in the four Gospels there was a distinction made between those who

believed Christ

and those who

believed in Christ

Trusting Jesus to be one's Savior from sin, by virtue of his death, burial, and resurrection is the beginning of saving faith. What keeps us growing and maturing in faith is a regular dependence on the grace of God to keep on forgiving us when we mess up, but always on the basis of Jesus' blood and righteousness (see 1 John 1:8-10). A the hymn writer put it,

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

Upvote:4

Does believing Christ died make you saved?

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

"believe" = pisteuoΜ„ = trust

Faith is more than an intellectual acknowledgment of a fact. It is a trust in and reliance upon something.

If you were a slave in first century Roman times, you might be sent on an errand to pick something up or carry out some task. If while doing this someone wanted to mess with you, you could say something like, "I belong to Cassius", and the other person would realize that they might be in trouble because they could not mess with someone else's property.

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

If we trust in Jesus so much that we call on his name, we are saved.

Trusting in and calling on are actions that are emblematic of a close relationship. It is this relationship (new life in Jesus) that is the basis of salvation.

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