"Soulwinners" frequently use John 3:16, Acts 16:31 and what is referred to as "The Roman Road to Salvation", but their "converts" often last only a short time and struggle and struggle with trying to live a Christian life for as long as they continue the effort.  Great crusades by Billy Graham, Greg Laurie's "Harvest" crusades and others have the same results: converts struggling to endure to the end, to live Christian lives, seriously torn between wanting to follow the things of the world and following Jesus Christ. Many get caught up in various denominational churches where the emphasis is on following that particular church organization's traditions and rules.

But then there are those exciting, excited, vibrant Christians whose very presence makes those around them feel good.  What makes for the difference? Why are some "Christians" confident, joyful, peaceful, living triumphant, glorious, victorious lives while others struggle and endure?

Please examine carefully what I am about to say in the light of all scripture. I submit to you that many of these who "endure" rather than enjoy their salvation were taken from the womb prematurely and were expected to feed and clothe themselves before their time to be rightly born. What do I mean by that?

Until you BELIEVE that you are a lost sinner, you think that you are "good enough" just as you are. The Holy Spirit CANNOT bring you to conviction and a desire for God's forgiveness. "Forgiveness of what?" the unbeliever asks. "I'm a pretty good person. I don't cheat or steal or do this or that or something else. I go to First Church and put in some money in the offering plate every Sunday."  Or even if they do not attend any church anywhere, or are in some other religious system, Buddhist, Confucius, Moslem or voodoo, they still think they are good enough and have no need of God and His salvation. Many times, they may point to a person who does attend some church and claims to be a Christian but whose life is full of bad things and say, "I'm better than him!"  These people do not "believe" that they need to be saved. There is no way the Holy Spirit can bring conviction into their hearts until they do believe. So BELIEF is indeed an absolute necessity if you are ever to be saved.

Until you BELIEVE that Jesus Christ, the Son of God is also "..the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," (John 1:29,  35), you may just as well believe that Buddha or Confucius or Mohammed or the sacred cows of the Hindus can somehow save you. Belief in Jesus Christ is also a crucial fact to believe if the Holy Spirit is ever to bring you to conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment.

Because of the serious misunderstanding of the Gospel According to John chapter 3, I quote the following from my future Commentary on the Gospel According to John regarding Chapter 3. in it, I frequently switch from King James English to the 1990's way of speaking:

 There is much misunderstanding of this chapter, especially of two
passages, verse 5 and verses 15 through 17.  Many people receive a "sugar pill" instead of a real cure for their sins because of this misunderstanding. In actual fact, a simple, non-theological reading of the chapter makes the
real meaning quite clear. It is the "Biblical lawyers"  who cloud its meaning.

In verse 1, a "ruler of the Jews", Nicodemus by name, is also identified as a Pharisee, indicating that he did believe in the resurrection of the dead. Only two other scriptures refer to Nicodemus: John 7:50 indicates that Nicodemus did tell his fellow Pharisees and religious leaders not to judge Jesus without hearing His word and knowing what He did; and in John 19:40, he brings about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, used in Jewish burial rites, to the burial of Jesus. Thus, Nicodemus, though clearly not understand what Jesus is saying in John 3, is shown to be a fair minded man at least concerned with truth and honest judgment. This still does not alter the fact that in John 3, the last indicators we have of him is that he could not or did not believe or understand what Jesus said about being born again.

Verse 2 tells us he came surreptitiously to Jesus by night in the hope that his peers will not discover that he has visited Jesus for a private discussion. He opens the conversation with obvious flattery. "Jesus, we know you are a teacher from God because we can see the miracles you do."

Jesus cuts him off in verse 3 with a shocking statement. Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Clearly not understanding what Jesus is talking about, Nicodemus' response in verse 4 is anything but faith and believing. "How on earth can an old man be born again? Can he go back into his mother's womb and be born?"

In verse 3, Jesus has told Nicodemus that he must be born again.  In verse 4, Nicodemus has replied in an unbelieving or even disbelieving mode.

Verse 5 is one that should not ever be misunderstood, but such is not the case.  In normal conversation, you understand that if something is said after something else is said in response to an earlier statement, the new statement is based upon an understanding of the earlier statement. The same is true of John 3:5. In this verse, Jesus is explaining His earlier statement, "You gotta be born again, man." "Except a man be born [again] of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Common sense tells you that  "again" belongs in verse 5 in the context of what Jesus has already said. He is ALREADY talking about the new or spiritual birth, not the natural birth. Thus, the often heard remark that the water represents natural birth and Spirit to the spiritual birth is not a valid argument. Jesus is indeed clearly speaking of the new or second birth from the watery grave of baptism, or from the womb of His church. (See Romans 6:3,4. Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:12.)

Verses 6 and 7 go together. "What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. So don't be surprised that I said you have to be born again of the spirit." As the Apostle Paul later explained in 1 Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: For they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Verse 8 speaks about the parallel between the wind and the spiritual man who goes, like the wind, wherever God directs him and the natural man cannot understand why or how. Nicodemus responds in verse 9 in a way that no one could call belief or faith and most certainly not "saving faith".

Jesus clearly understood Nicodemus unbelief when He said, verse 10 [21st Century version], "Hey, man! Are you supposed to be a reputable teacher in Israel and you can't understand these things?"  It is based in this setting and context that Jesus goes on in the next ten verses to explain in some detail the Love, Mercy and Grace of God.

First of all, in verse 11, Jesus affirms that He knows what He is talking about and again plainly states that He knows Nicodemus "receive[d] not our witness." [Please understand. Jesus uses "our" here just as you or I might in a similar conversation. He is NOT speaking of any 'trinity".] That He is still speaking to Nicodemus is clear in Verse 12 when He says, [again 21st Century version], "Hey, man! If I tell you earthly things and you can't understand that, how on earth do you expect to understand heavenly things?"

Verse 13 is really quite clear in declaring that Jesus, the "Son of Man" is both from heaven and even as He spoke, also in heaven. This may seem hard to understand unless you realize that the Almighty Spirit of God, the one true Holy Spirit, the same Spirit of the Lord that spoke in Genesis 1 to create the world and which also comforts and fills us today, took upon Himself the form of a man, was born as a baby of the virgin, Mary, and limited that physical body most of the time He was on earth to being like a normal man that He could be "...in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," (Hebrews 4:15).

Verse 14 tells how He knows that He will die, lifted up on a cross like the serpent in the wilderness. The serpent in thewinderness was an object upon which people could look and be healed of the bite of the fiery serpents. We, today, may look upon the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on Calvary and be healed of the fiery sickness, the wages of sin, death.

So in verses 15, 16, 17, Jesus is explaining the Love, the Mercy, the Grace of God to a man who is clearly still in unbelief. "15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

This is NOT the "Plan of Salvation" in-so-far as what man does to reach out and receive God's free gift that He bought at such an awful price. It is rather an explanation of how  great  God's love is for His creation, mankind. What mercy! What Grace! What tenderness.
 I will here end the quote from the Commentary. I hope and pray that it may help and enlighten
 some and spare them the years of powerless or near powerless spiritual life of
those who have made a start toward the new birth thinking they have it all.

Well, what about Acts 16:31? Doesn't that prove that all we have to do is believe?  Not at all! Let's look at the context, the situation that paved the way to this statement and the end results of everything that happened.

Paul and Silas have commanded a demonic spirit of fortune-telling out of a young woman 

Here a bit of ancient Roman law is needed to understand the Jailer's actions, for Greeks and Romans were not into the Japanese Hari-kari thing. If one prisoner escaped from the custody of a Roman jailer, not only he, but his entire family, possibly to include servants and even pets were executed. But if the jailer committed suicide, his family was spared. The responsibility for the escape was his alone. This is why he came trembling and was ready to commit suicide. But Paul and Silas assured him, "Sir, don't hurt yourself. We're all here."

Out of this, we have the jailer asking, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"  (Verse 30) Pretty straightforward question.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." End of conversation, end of event? Not at all, in spite of what most churches teach. Verse 31 continues, "And thy house." (meaning of course the people in his household. Verse 32 is a continuation of verse 31: "And they spake unto him the word of the Lord." What of the Lord? Scoffers at the real Bible Plan of Salvation say, "it must not have been important, or the Bible would say what word it was." Ah, but better than that, Luke, our historian of these events, records that in response to the word of the Lord that was spoken, in verse 33, it says, "And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." This is a clear demonstration in action of what instruction had been given in verse 32. First, the jailer showed both REPENTANCE and, a necessary ingredient in real repentance, an effort at restitution. As jailer, either he or one of his servants had been responsible to inflict those stripes with the Roman lash as directed by the city magistrates. Now he washes them and

Based upon this and much other Biblical teaching concerning belief, including, "...the devils believe also and tremble," (James 2:19) and the progression we see from Matthew 28:19 through Mark 16:15,16 and Luke 24:47 into Acts 2:38, it is correct and safe to teach that belief is the means, the vehicle, the necessary ingredient to enable the Holy Spirit to bring "heart prick" conviction of sin, of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8-11).

Without real belief, you could be baptized however dear old Auntie Suzy said and still be lost. You could cry crocodile tears and say you are sorry, feigning repentance, but if you do not really believe that you have done any wrong, all your tears are meaningless.

So a right BELIEF is totally necessary to salvation, but so is REPENTANCE on the part of the "believer" and water BAPTISM as the burial symbol of our old sinful nature which we slay in repentance. We should then arise to walk in newness of life as new creatures in Christ Jesus, with old things -- our sinful desires and nature -- passed away and behold all things become new. (Read Romans 6:1-4, Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:12 and 2 Corinthians 5:17.)  The new-born baby in Christ has indeed been born, but like a natural baby, must be nurtured, fed, burped, diapered and taught in the ways he should go. Just as a new baby cannot make its own way, find its own food, shelter or clothing, neither should we expect the new convert to immediately be on his own. And just as a natural baby requires time and tender loving care, so the new babe in Christ needs the time, the love and care of the pastor and other church members. The results, just as in properly caring for a natural infant, can be exciting for all.

Real salvation, real Christianity, real new birth results in a changed New Life in Christ Jesus with the power, guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit. It is a truly exciting and enjoyable and sometimes adventuresome life. I strongly recommend it to everyone.

"But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8).

In future Message of the Month sermons, I will deal with the all-important matter of the Grace of God to our salvation and peace, of Repentance, of Water Baptism, of the Healing and Health of Apostolic Believers and many more subjects. If you would like to see an in-depth study on any subject please email me at Sam@followersofjesuschrist.org and I will be glad to prepare a Message of the Month on that subject.

Please also see an earlier Message of the Month:  Questions Trinitarians Cannot Answer.