Volume 1    No. 7                                                                                                      April 17, 2000

Rightly Understanding The Role of Belief
in God's Plan of Salvation

By Samuel M. Smith

I  FREQUENTLY ENCOUNTER presumably sincere Christians who are out to win souls for the Lord and I greatly applaud their efforts. However, a great many seriously misunderstand God's Plan of Salvation. Please, as always, take what I say only as it fits and agrees with the Bible as each scripture is read and studied in context. It does not matter what degrees I do or do not hold. All that matters is whether what I say lines up with God's Word. This article/sermon is written primarily to people who consider themselves to be Christian soulwinners, not to the outright lost. However, what is said here can help someone who has never surrendered his or her life to our Lord Jesus Christ to come to Him and be saved as well.

"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?

The great majority of people trying to be soulwinners come from churches that teach that "the instant you truly believe you are instantly and gloriously saved." They use verses like John 3:16, Acts 16:31 and others, particularly from Romans that speak of being saved by the grace of God and of believing. If you challenge the belief that "Belief = Salvation," most of these good folks will immediately say, "Well, I'd rather believe all the verses that say belief is all you need for salvation." And herein lies the problem.  Upon examination, NOT ONE of these verses says, "the instant you truly believe you are instantly and gloriously saved." What they DO say is that if you truly believe, there is no reason for you not to be saved. It is totally true that unless you believe, you cannot be saved. This is something that people in the Apostolic Pentecostal ranks, who usually start the plan of salvation they teach from Acts 2:38 and starts with "Repent...", overlook. Unless a person believes that he or she is a sinner, believes that they are lost, believes that they are living for self and therefore in sin, they feel that they have nothing to repent of! Jesus said, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick," (Matthew 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31). Other than for required health check-ups for employment and those who believe in having regular medical check-ups, few people go to the doctor unless they are sick or injured. They believe they are fine and in good health. They do not realize that they are very sick of the disease of sin. Here is where believing comes in.

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.

Verse by verse:

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". "How can these things be?" Hard, cold unbelief or outright disbelief.

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.

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 and her owners (in those days, humans could be "owned" like cattle) had Paul and Silas thrown into jail. Before they were jailed, they were beaten, and in the their hands and feet were locked in "stocks" which clamped around wrists and ankles, by which the prisoner's weight was supported -- a most uncomfortable position, if you can imagine being clamped for hours with your hands and feet locked in front of you and your backside unsupported.
But instead of bemoaning their fate, "Paul, why are we here? we didn't do anything wrong? In fact what we did was right and here we are. Where is God when we need Him?" you might imagine Silas as moaning through his pain. But no! They are singing songs of praise to the lord at midnight and the Holy Spirit stages a spectacular sign -- a localized earthquake that breaks the locks off their stocks and sets them and presumably other prisoners also, free.

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 tries to make them comfortable. Then, Second, he and his whole household are BAPTIZED , straightway -- meaning right away, without waiting until daybreak even! So what word did Paul and Silas speak? Since we know that they have already baptized the household of Lydia in the same chapter and later, in Acts 19, have him later rebaptizing believers described as followers of John's baptism, it seems more than safe to say that "the Word of the Lord" that they spoke  spoke to him was "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38).

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 upwaypubs@earthlink.net 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.
 
 

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