Have You Believed?

Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
- Romans 10:13 -

Intellectual belief that Jesus died to save you will not save you from sin and hell. You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder (Jas 2:19). Surely the demons are not saved from hell. Heartfelt agreement is also not enough. Suppose you go skydiving. You may acknowledge that the parachute will open and keep you from plummeting to your death. You may agree that it will, and tell everyone so. But until you jump out of the plane, you have not truly trusted your parachute. Therefore you may agree Christ can save you, and yet still be unsaved. Intellectual knowledge is necessary, and certainly agreement with God’s word is necessary too. But that which saves is faith. You must take Christ words and claim them for yourself, and depend on them. You must confess that you are a sinner and turn away from your sinful ways, your efforts to reach God and your refusal to trust him. You must fully cast yourself upon Christ, depending on nothing else but him and his perfect sacrifice to cleanse you of your sin and deliver you from eternal judgement. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life;" said Jesus, "no one comes to the Father but through Me (Jn 14:6)." You must take Christ’s words and apply them to yourself: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life (Jn 6:47)." Simply ask him to save you then claim his promise for yourself. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life (Jn 2:25). Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves (2 Cor 13:5)! If you have not trusted Christ for yourself before, then do it now.