What Does It Mean To Believe?

# 233 Today’s Living Word comes from Mark 1:15 "Repent, and believe in the gospel."

Strong words from Jesus. This is not the sugar-coated invitation to have a “personal relationship” with Jesus that we have become accustomed to hearing. When Jesus preached, He called for repentance and belief in the gospel!

What does it mean to “believe the gospel?” First of all, to believe, is to acknowledge the gospel as truth. It involves a personal Holy Spirit conviction that Jesus died for those sins that you are sincerely repenting of, and God is no longer counting them against you..

Secondly, it involves an attachment. You believe the gospel when you willingly give yourself up for attachment or communion (common union) with God through Jesus. You surrender all your claim for self-government and yield to the government of the Holy Spirit.

And finally, to believe is to have confidence. Belief involves certainty and trust. It is a complete reliance in the saving power of the Good News that is embodied in the Word of God and the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

The question for each of us is not, “Do I have a personal relationship with Jesus?” But rather, have I repented and believed the gospel? The personal relationship will automatically follow based on the certainty of God's Word.

My salvation is contingent on my response to what He preached! And He preached repentance and belief! Joh 12:48 says, "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.