Do You Really Believe in Jesus?

Here is a wonderful article by John Walvoord made available by his son through Bible.Org:

Do You Really Believe in Jesus?

By: John F. Walvoord

Have you ever really believed in Jesus Christ? I was talking to my five-year old son. He replied quickly, "Of course, dad."

"But have you ever really been saved? How do you really know you are saved?"

He replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,." He ripped off the words as fast as his little mouth could phrase them. It was a verse he had memorized, and he had heard it explained so many times.

Perhaps you would have answered just as he did. "Of course I am saved. Of course I believe in Jesus Christ."

Do you really believe?

It is not uncommon for children, as well as adults, who have taken the position that they believe in Christ, later to question it and to wonder whether they really believe. How can you really know?

The answer is found in a series of smaller questions, questions that are natural to our own thinking, and questions that are often raised in the Bible. Through the ages men have traveled on many roads, seeking some assurance that after this life they would have a blessed eternity. Really believing in Christ is the Christian answer to the way of entering a blessed eternity. But what is involved?

First of all, it means that you believe something about yourself. One of the plain facts that confront any reader of the Bible is that man is naturally sinful, and as a sinner, is far from God. This theme can be traced from Genesis to Revelation as the Bible records every known human sin. Man is revealed to be born a sinner by nature as confirmed by the fact that men universally have sinned. Obviously the problem of salvation is how to deal with sin.

There have been many answers. The most common answer, found in the non-Christian religions, is that the solution is to do better. An Orthodox Jew, if he follows his own theologians, believes that if his good works outweigh his bad works, he will have a blessed eternity. Heathen religions often prescribe the most torturous and painful ceremonies to make a person acceptable to God. In some religions, parents had to offer their infant children as a fiery human sacrifice to God. Salvation for many pagan religions is a painful, almost hopeless pursuit of some way by which they can appease the gods and find rest and peace in eternity. Most religions teach that salvation is difficult, not easily attained.

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