Posts Tagged ‘ Believe ’
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:8, ESV
God became a man to do what we never could: be perfectly obedient and offer the perfect sacrifice to atone for our sin and rebellion.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
JOHN 3:16, NASB
God is so much about relationship with us that He did what no other deity has offered: He became human, and then He died for our rebellion.
It sounds foolish to the world, that God He did this and rose from the dead, but believing this is what saves.
I did not do the silly high five at the end of this video! Am I a horrible person? (Theologically speaking, technically yes … apart from Christ …)
But it is addressing that tantalizing question: What is faith?
Many people do not really understand faith.
In a recent book, “A Manual for Creating Atheists”, philosopher Peter Boghossian defined faith as belief without evidence, pretending to know things you don’t really know.
But is this right?
In a word: no.
How does the Bible explain faith?
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1, ESV
Another way of explaining faith is putting your beliefs into action. If you believe something to be true, prove it! Prove you are faithful to those beliefs by acting on them.
The most used example of what faith is is a chair. You can say you believe a chair will hold you up, but faith is proving it by sitting on the chair. Typically, you are acting on evidence. (In this case, you have been told chairs are for sitting on, and you may have seen other people sit in chairs.)
As Christians, we do not have a blind faith. The Bible is our evidence for God and Jesus.
The Bible has several prophecies about the coming Messiah who would take away our sins, and Jesus claimed He was the fulfillment of those prophecies. He made many claims to His deity, as well, and He said that He would prove it all by dying and rising again.
The Apostles and early disciples did not just write about things they heard. They claimed to have heard these things and seen the crucified and risen Jesus with their own eyes.
And the Bible is the most reliable ancient set of documents we have from antiquity, by far. Few experts contest this. (Maybe the actual events, but not that at least the New Testament is reliably from people from the First Century.)
Everyone.
It is not only Christians and the overtly religious. My evidence for this?
How about evolutionary theory: How is it claimed life began? Several chemicals somehow combined in the right amounts at the right time to create the building blocks for RNA and DNA, creating the first living cells.
How do we know it happened this way?
We don’t. No one was there to see it, and no one as recreated it in the lab to test this hypothesis. People simply believe it is true.
This is more like blind faith than Christianity!
As said before, everyone lives by some form of faith in someone or something throughout their days and lives. Faith is putting beliefs into action.
What do you think? Am I way too far off the mark? (I think most others are.)
How about we talk about, either in the comments (on this blog post or on the YouTube channel) or through the e-mail: Together@asimplemanofgod.com, or even at the Facebook page: a simple man of God.
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
EZEKIEL 36:26, NASB
When we are born again as Christians, God renews our hearts and fills us with His Holy Spirit. And we will know this is true by our newfound devotion for God and His Word, love for the Church, and urgent compassion for the lost.
‘Give us this day our daily bread.’
MATTHEW 6:11, NASB
All we have and receive comes from God.
Ask Him.
Trust Him.
He is our Provider.
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him
Colossians 2:6, NASB
We receive Christ by hearing and believing the gospel. Likewise, we should be sharing the gospel and doing good works to help others come to the same saving faith.
‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Acts 2:21, NASB
There is only one way to eternity with God: believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and make Him Lord of your life.
Any other path leads to eternal destruction.
