Title: Do You Really Believe in Jesus?
“Going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).
There are many who believe in God, even among unbelievers. We believe in the existence of a certain The Ultimate Being. However, in Christianity, it is said that only by believing in Jesus Christ can you be saved and become a child of God. From simply believing in the Absolute to becoming a true believer in Jesus, you have to go through many theological stages.
We don't have time to go through them all, so let's take a quick look at the important steps. It is not enough just that God exists, we must believe in the God who created all things in the universe. Also, since we believe that He is still alive and is in control of all things in the world, believers must be able to pray to Him. When you reach this stage, almost all religions in the world are excluded and there are three main ones. Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Christianity (including the Old and New Testaments and their cults), it is a religion that believes in one and only one God.
By the way, these three religions share the Old Testament. However, only Christianity believes in the New Testament. The crucial difference between Christianity and these two religions is that it is Jesus. They only recognize Jesus as a prophet. Christianity believes and follows Jesus as the true God.
There are three main contents of faith in Jesus. First, it is to thoroughly admit that you are a sinner who has no choice but to die. (100% sinner) Second, realize that there is no way to be saved from that sin on the human side. (0% possibility of salvation) Third, that is why I fully accept by faith that you, God, have forgiven my sins by dying on my behalf and saved me as a sinner in my place. (100% grace)
So life before and after Jesus is at the polar opposite. It has been moved from sin, darkness, and death to righteousness, light, and life. His status and privileges were completely changed from being slaves in Satan's kingdom to being the heir of God's kingdom. (The doctrines of Catholicism and Christian heresies also claim these three truths literally, but specifically, they are different or artificially added to what the Bible does not say because these three are insufficient. No, of course there is no salvation in such a religion.)
But the real problem is that all the believers who come to the Protestant church believe in all three. However, in reality, no one can say that they are all born again believers. Among them, it was because they accepted that truth only as a dogmatic head. Because that truth did not become a personal experience that affected his entire personality. There was no event where one's old self completely died and a new self was formed in the Lord.
In other words, it is difficult to distinguish a true believer just by believing in these three truths, and there must be another standard. However, being born again as a new person does not mean that you have changed into a holy saint who does not sin. Then, there is no one in the history of mankind who will be saved, and there will always be.
If a sinner died and rose again in Jesus Christ, what would change if a person who had no qualifications for that was done only on the basis of God's mercy? Will you not fully devote your life after that to living only according to God's will? British Christian apologist C. S. Lewis said, “There are only two kinds of people. In the end, there are those who depend on God to say, “Do your will,” and rather, those who ultimately ask God to do your will.”
Even among those who believe in God, those who ultimately use God to do their own will cannot be said to truly believe in Jesus. This is not to say that this is not the case with prayers for urgent matters or wishes. Believers should naturally ask God for anything. But in the end, Jesus gave his all to God, saying, Do your will.
To truly believe in Jesus means to surrender completely in that love because I realized through real experience that God loves me even to the point of killing His only begotten Son. I am convinced of how big and abundant that love is, so I open up my everything so that I can fully accept that love. In short, since I have entered the kingdom of God, it means that it is the essence of really believing in Jesus to entrust everything related to me to God's will.
Now that you have been born again by the Holy Spirit, there is a certain standard that you can check to see if you truly believe in Jesus. Are you ready, and are you, ready to surrender your entire life to His will? Furthermore, are you confident that you can pray for anything for your own problems, but if God wants you to, you will eventually give up and follow His will? If no one else knows about this standard, can't you at least apply it to yourself and answer it yourself?
However, those who do not do the will of God do not end up simply not doing so. In the end, he said, on the part of God, you will become a person who tells you to do your will. That's not what Lewis said. Actually, this is what Jesus said.
“He who believes in him will not be condemned, but he who does not believe is already judged because he does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The condemnation is this, that light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. He comes to the light, so that it may be revealed that his works have been done in God” (John 3:18-21).
Those who do not believe have already been judged for their unbelief. Since God allows you to do what you want, do you have no choice but to go to judgment automatically? So what happens when we connect this principle of salvation with the attitude of believers in prayer? Those who insist on only their own plans and will to the end and pray, ultimately, God will tell you to do whatever you want. The second thing that cannot be answered to prayer is that the believer is left to the stubbornness of the believer. Because they do not follow God's will, they already have no relationship with God.
Let's ask ourselves again. Are you sure you really believe in Jesus? Even so, do you not believe that if you stick to your own will and plan until the end and pray for it, it will come true?
10/30/2006