The Lord Jesus said, “…he who believes in Me has everlasting life” (John 6:47). What does it mean to believe in Him?
Most people in Christianity today say that to believe in Jesus entails a special kind of belief. It is different from ordinary belief. We can believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem simply because we are convinced it is true. But saving faith is different. Most say saving faith is a special kind of faith that involves more than mere persuasion.
Let’s consider two questions: (1) Why do people misunderstand what saving faith is? (2) How do people misunderstand what saving faith is?
Question 1: Why do most pastors, theologians, and laypeople misunderstand what saving faith is?
They say that saving faith is more than persuasion because their tradition does not believe in salvation by faith alone. They don’t believe what John 6:47 says unless they can define belief as something different from being persuaded. In their view, those who hold that “believing in Jesus” simply means “being convinced that Jesus’ promise is true” are teaching “easy believism” or “cheap grace.”
Most people in Christianity are not persuaded that whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life. So they define believing in Jesus to mean whatever they think is necessary to have everlasting life.
Question 2: How do they misunderstand saving faith?
John MacArthur put it this way: “Hebrews 11:1 faith [saving faith] is not like the everyday faith that we speak of…Saving faith, then, is the whole of my being embracing all of Christ. Faith cannot be divorced from commitment” (Faith Works, pp. 42, 45).
In his book, Salvation by Allegiance Alone, Matthew Bates wrote:
With regard to eternal salvation, rather than speaking of belief, trust, or faith in Jesus, we should speak instead of fidelity to Jesus as cosmic Lord or allegiance to Jesus the king…Allegiance is the best macro-term available to us that can describe what God requires from us for eternal salvation…But we do not need to avoid the words “faith” and “belief” entirely. For example, they do carry the proper meaning in English for pistis with regard to confidence in Jesus’s [sic] healing power and control over nature; moreover, these terms are suitable when pistis is directed primarily toward facts that we are called mentally to affirm. Our Christian discourse need not shift in these contexts but only with regard to eternal salvation (Salvation by Allegiance Alone, p. 5, emphasis added).
Most pastors and theologians say that saving faith includes turning from sins, surrender, commitment to Christ, and following Christ for the rest of your life.
Let’s add a third question.
Question #3: How do we know that saving faith is simply being convinced that what Jesus promises is true?
Answer: We know this by praying and by studying Jesus’ promise of everlasting life to the believer. That promise occurs scores of times in John’s Gospel, a book whose purpose is evangelistic (John 20:31).
John 11:25-27 is one passage that clearly portrays saving faith as “being convinced” that Jesus’ promise is true. The Lord uses the word believe three times and Martha uses it once. They both clearly mean that faith is being convinced that what Jesus says is true.
In John 11:25, Jesus promises that the one who believes in Him, though he may die physically, will live physically. That is, Jesus promises to glorify the believer before he enters Jesus’ kingdom. This is the promise of eternal security.
In John 11:26a, Jesus promises that the one who lives and believes in Him will never die. The Greek is quite emphatic. The believers will never die forever. This is also a statement of eternal security.
Let’s add a final, applicational question.
Question #4: What difference does it make?
It makes a huge difference because if you’ve never believed the promise of life, you’ve not yet been born again. The only way to have ongoing assurance of everlasting life is to keep believing the promise of life. If you think saving faith is repentance, commitment, surrender, and following Christ, you cannot be sure you have everlasting life because those things are subjective; they are not faith in Christ.
Keep grace in focus, and you will know that saving belief is being convinced that Jesus’ promise of everlasting life to the believer is true.
