Let’s Begin At The Beginning
It’s time to set the record straight once and for all. What does it take to be saved? I think the best answer to that question is the one the Lord gave in John 6:28-29:
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
Here was a perfect opportunity to list all the things we have to do to meet God’s requirements. Jesus could have rattled off the 10 commandments.
He could have repeated the Sermon on the Mount. He could have listed any number of admonitions and restrictions necessary to achieve and maintain God’s expectations of us.
But what did He say?
“Believe in the one He has sent.” Period.
It was a repeat of John 3:16, confirming that belief in the Son is the one and only requirement for salvation.
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.
A few chapters later, in John 6:38-40, He said that this wasn’t just His idea, as if that wouldn’t be enough, but that His Father was in complete agreement.
And not only would our belief suffice to provide us with eternal life, but that it was God’s will that Jesus would lose none of those who believe.
You and I have been known to disobey God’s will, but has Jesus ever done so?
And isn’t He the one who’s been charged with the responsibility for keeping us?
Let’s read it: For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:38-40)
Just in case we missed this promise, Jesus made it again even more clearly in John 10:28-30:
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.
The Father and the Son have both accepted responsibility for our security.
Once we’re in Their hands, no one can get us away.
I have purposely only used words straight from the Lord’s own mouth to make this case because I can already hear the choruses of “Yes Buts” mounting as those who refuse to take them at face value get ready to trot out their favorite verses denying Eternal
Security, misinterpreted though they are.
The one characteristic of God’s that gives us the most comfort is knowing that He can’t lie or change His mind or contradict Himself.
He can’t say something in one place and then say something entirely different in another. He’s consistent.
If He says that we’re saved solely because of our belief in Him, and that He’s accepted responsibility for keeping us so, then we can count on that.
As we’ll see, anything in the Bible that seems to contradict these simple, straightforward statements has to be talking about something else.
But first, since He puts so much emphasis on belief, let’s take a closer look at that word.
What does He mean when He says “believe”? It must be more than just a casual thing because reliable statistics show, for example, that 85% of those who come forward to “receive the Lord” at a crusade or other evangelistic outreach never form any connection with a church or Bible Study or in any other way demonstrate a relationship with the Lord afterward.
And Jesus spoke of the seed that fell on rocky places.
He said:
This is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. (Matt. 13:20-21)
If these people were saved and then fell away, all His promises above have been broken. There must be more to this.
So what does it mean to believe?
The Greek word for believe is “pistis.” According the Strong’s Concordance, it’s a “conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervor born of faith and joined with it.”
In connection with the Lord Jesus, it means “a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God.”
The Apostle Paul gave us valuable insight into the nature of this belief.
He wrote:
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)
This isn’t just some intellectual thing that carries us away on the words of a captivating speaker, only to leave us flat a short time later.
It’s a conviction that’s formed deep in our heart, the realization that Jesus is not just a man.
He’s the Lord Himself, and He took upon Himself the penalty due us for our sins, which is death.
And to prove that God counted His death as sufficient, He raised Jesus from the dead to be seated beside Him in the Heavenly realms. (Ephes. 1:20)
Since God can’t dwell in the presence of sin, and since the wages of sin is death, every one of our sins has to have been paid for. If even one remained unpaid, Jesus would still be in the grave.
We have to believe that Jesus rose from the grave in order to believe that we will.
It’s that kind of belief that gets you saved and keeps you that way, because it sets in motion a chain of events that’s irreversible. There are four links in this chain.
You supply two and the Lord supplies two.
You hear and believe, and the Lord marks and guarantees:
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the
redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.(Ephesians 1:13-14)
The word translated “deposit” is a legal term. Today we would say Earnest Money.
It’s a down payment that constitutes a legal obligation to follow through with the purchase. If you’ve ever bought any Real Estate, you’re familiar with the term.
If not, here’s another example. It’s like we’ve been put on “lay away.”
The price has been paid and we’ve been taken off the display shelf until the one who has purchased us returns to claim us.
In the mean time we cannot be bought by anyone else, because we legally belong to the one who has paid the deposit. “You are not your own,” we’re told. “You were bought with a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
All of this happened at our first moment of belief, before we could do anything to either earn or lose our position.
The man on the cross beside Jesus is the prototype for this transaction.
Having done something bad enough to get himself executed, he was promised a place in Paradise solely because he believed in his heart that Jesus was the Lord of a coming Kingdom.
Paul made it even clearer when he repeated this incredible promise in 2 Cor. 1:21-22:
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
This time He removed all doubt as to just Who it is that keeps us saved. Now it is God
who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. What could be clearer?
