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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Your
Claim To Faith Many who call themselves
Christians claim faith in Jesus, but is their claim of faith valid?
Do they have the Biblical faith they claim, or is it just a claim?
Since much of our western-world Christianity is Biblically
illiterate, do they even understand the meaning of Biblical faith? Although it's a
beginning step in true Biblical faith, faith or belief in Jesus is more
than a mere mental acknowledgement of the existence of Jesus and the
salvation He provides. The
words "faith" and "believe" that we read in the New
Testament are translated from the Greek word "pistis."
Pisits means trust, and trust implies some kind of relationship
with something or someone. If
you claim to have faith in Jesus, you claim to trust Him with your entire
life, not just your salvation. We
don't just trust Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and all of which that
implies. Biblical faith is
entering into a trusting relationship with Jesus.
With this in mind, read 1 Peter 1:6 and 7. "In all this you
greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer
grief in all kinds of trials. These
have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth
than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." Peter wrote that if we
have genuine faith in Jesus, that is, a valid trusting relationship with
Him, our faith, our relationship with Him, will be tested in order to be
proven genuine.
These tests come through trials of life.
If we have a valid relationship with Jesus, which is faith, we will
pass the test, but if we fail the test, our claim to faith was never
genuine. It was mere mental
acceptance of the reality of Jesus and the salvation He provides, and
that's not saving faith.
Here's the obvious
question. Is your claim of
faith Biblically genuine? It's
the question of the ages. Your
honest answer to this question will determine your eternal destiny.
If I had one last
message to speak before I die, it would be this one.
Hand your life over to Jesus so that you can enter into a trusting
relationship with Him by receiving His Spirit into your mortal being.
At that point, your claim to faith will become genuine.
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