Salvation: Believe in Me

Jesus said many times that salvation is to believe in Him - simple as that. "Believe in Me," He would say. But this has long been a mystery and a point of contention in the church(es). What exactly did He mean by 'me'? What part of 'me' was He referring to? Maybe even what did He mean by ‘believe’?

If believing in Jesus is the solution to the whole problem, then defining the problem should help us figure out what part of 'me' He was talking about, right? Well, the problem is ancient, and started with Adam. Adam disobeyed the one rule, and because of it there were consequences. Whenever there is disobedience, we have to consider that there are consequences and punishment - they are 2 separate things. For example, when a child is told not to touch the stove top, but does, the consequence of his action is burns to his hands, and a punishment may be doled out so that this is sure to never happen again (a form of protection). Some of what happened after 'the fall' was consequence, some was punishment (curse), but I gather that the curse was actually an accommodation for the new knowledge in them (but that's another story).

What causes disobedience? In my last post (What then is Salvation?) I said that the root of disobedience is unbelief in God’s love. If there are rules, they are from God, and if we believe that His intentions for us are good and his laws are for our protection, we will not disobey them. Even though we may not know the reasons why we should or shouldn’t do certain things, we should be able to trust that it’s better to follow what He said.

So in the garden, when Adam and Eve had the words of God challenged by the snake, they succumbed to the belief that maybe God had ill-intentions towards them and that He was holding good things back from them. So they fell. Had they continued with the belief that God did not tell them not to eat from that tree because He knew it would destroy them, they wouldn’t have eaten, they wouldn’t have fallen.

The same applies to us today; disobedience is still very possible, and we are constantly choosing the unwise options, and facing the consequences of our choices.

If disbelief in God’s love for us led to ‘the fall’, then salvation, which was provided to reverse everything involved in ‘the fall’, must begin with the opposite. It must begin with belief in God’s love.

Jesus is the ultimate and final word of the length, depth, width, and breadth of God’s love. Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5-7)

Jesus forsook forever his form and his being in heaven, came into a human body, and left earth in that same body, and will remain in that body forever. He died once in it, came back to life, and there is nothing saying He will ever shed that body. He forsook it all for us! That is love.

Jesus went to the cross; that is love.

The belief in God’s love, in God as love, does wonderful things. Naturally, not wildly spiritually and intangibly, it transforms the mind, and brings new life to our beings. Value and worth are treasures given, and the root cause of disobedience is taken away.

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:14-17

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26

Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me." John 12:44

One who hears of God’s love for them loves Him. It’s love for Him that refuses to disobey.