Privileged to Believe
Knowing Christ is an awesome privilege. It’s not uncommon to talk about faith, to talk about believing, even to say that we believe, but sadly, many of us don’t live out our lives as though we truly do believe on Jesus Christ. I can’t help but think that if more of us lived out our faith with acknowledgement that we have the very same power that raised Christ from the grave living in us, then it would be impossible not to see the transformation that awareness brings. Belief is much, much more than a mere mental agreement. Belief and faith, when in conjunction with Christ, goes much deeper. To believe is to be trusting, convicted, and relying – all very much action verbs. As Kay Arthur puts it, “genuine faith implies some sort of action or change as a result of your belief." This leads me to ask myself – have I allowed Christ to change me? I so want to step out of the arena of doubt into Christ’s robe, where my weakness is exchanged for his strength. He provided the way for me to do just that – through his sacrificial lamb, his son, who died and rose again to bridge the gap into eternity. All that’s required – that I die to myself. Perhaps living out belief is so very hard because our flesh is so very greedy. It gets in the way and pulls us farther away from the one who loves us more than anything. Sin clouds our vision, but it doesn’t remove Christ. He’s still there for us, if we take the steps in obedience to fall into his arms without reserve. It’s not impossible, as long we are living in his power, in his strength, instead of our own. R.A. Torrey said this of belief, “That is one of the many good things about believing on Jesus Christ, it puts us on praying ground, it puts us in the place where we may go to God in every time of need and get from Him the very thing that we need and ask for. I would rather be on praying ground, rather be in such a relation to God that He can and will answer my prayers, than to have the combined wealth of a hundred Rockefellers. Times will come in the life of every one of us sooner or later when no earthly friend can help us, and no amount of wealth can help us; but the time will never come when God cannot help us and deliver us completely.”
Knowing Christ is an awesome privilege. It’s not uncommon to talk about faith, to talk about believing, even to say that we believe, but sadly, many of us don’t live out our lives as though we truly do believe on Jesus Christ. I can’t help but think that if more of us lived out our faith with acknowledgement that we have the very same power that raised Christ from the grave living in us, then it would be impossible not to see the transformation that awareness brings. Belief is much, much more than a mere mental agreement. Belief and faith, when in conjunction with Christ, goes much deeper. To believe is to be trusting, convicted, and relying – all very much action verbs. As Kay Arthur puts it, “genuine faith implies some sort of action or change as a result of your belief." This leads me to ask myself – have I allowed Christ to change me? I so want to step out of the arena of doubt into Christ’s robe, where my weakness is exchanged for his strength. He provided the way for me to do just that – through his sacrificial lamb, his son, who died and rose again to bridge the gap into eternity. All that’s required – that I die to myself. Perhaps living out belief is so very hard because our flesh is so very greedy. It gets in the way and pulls us farther away from the one who loves us more than anything. Sin clouds our vision, but it doesn’t remove Christ. He’s still there for us, if we take the steps in obedience to fall into his arms without reserve. It’s not impossible, as long we are living in his power, in his strength, instead of our own. R.A. Torrey said this of belief, “That is one of the many good things about believing on Jesus Christ, it puts us on praying ground, it puts us in the place where we may go to God in every time of need and get from Him the very thing that we need and ask for. I would rather be on praying ground, rather be in such a relation to God that He can and will answer my prayers, than to have the combined wealth of a hundred Rockefellers. Times will come in the life of every one of us sooner or later when no earthly friend can help us, and no amount of wealth can help us; but the time will never come when God cannot help us and deliver us completely.” After all, belief is an awesome, awesome privilege. But we cannot come to God on our own terms; we must come to God on his. And what might God’s terms be? Mark 8:34-38 states, “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or, what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
In our belief, in our faith, can we truly say we have chosen to make following Christ our life-long habit, or, have we merely said to God, “alright, but . . .?” We all probably have something that could be filled in the blank. As Torrey stated, it’s not “Do I believe ABOUT him, but do I believe ON him?” So, do we?
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