A recent article about what it means to believe in Jesus made this provocative statement:
Salvation does not depend on hitting an unstated bullseye or on getting a magic formula just right.
According to this sentence, there is no bullseye. There is nothing specific that we need to believe. God is not picky. He doesn’t require that we believe correct doctrine.
So, what does God require? Since there is no bullseye, there is no target. The author didn’t give a bullseye because then he’d be contradicting himself. He couldn’t say what we must believe or do to have everlasting life.
Maybe he meant that there is a big target, and if you believe anything on the target, then you will be saved. But if so, the bullseye would be the whole target. There would still be something you had to believe or do.
This type of statement is becoming increasingly popular today. Many people suggest that what God requires for everlasting life is persevering in good works until death. Believing some specific facts is not an issue. Works are the issue.
However, the author did not suggest that the condition is perseverance in good works. Instead, he suggested that all we need is “faith in Christ,” but nothing specific about Christ. Just believe in Him, and you have everlasting life. Sadly, while that approach aspires to free people from worrying about whether they believed the right saving content, it backfires because now there is no right content. You can’t possibly be sure you are born again if the condition is “faith in Christ,” because you can’t know what that is.
But if God requires some specific belief in Jesus, then there is a bullseye.
The Lord is clear that there is a bullseye. He told the woman at the well that she needed to believe two things: the gift of God and the Giver of the gift (John 4:10). The gift of God is everlasting life that can never be lost (John 4:14-15). The Giver of the gift is the Messiah, Jesus Christ (John 4:25-26). The bullseye is believing in Jesus Christ for the gift of everlasting life (cf. John 11:25-27).
Keep grace in focus, and you’ll remain certain you have everlasting life.
