(Submitted By
Kerry Patton)
“But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU,
IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are
preaching, 9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in
your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with
the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he
confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES
IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” Romans 10:8-11 NASB
I Believe - Prologue
This is not about
“works-righteousness.” Ephesians 2:8-10 reads: “For by grace
you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Nor is it pointing a
finger at any particular sins and casting judgment upon them. Rather, it’s about me striving to conform my
living to obedience in what I believe.
Sidewalk Wisdom
My friend Steve posted something
on Facebook recently…and I don’t think he was mistaken to do it. It was a photo shared by someone else that
pictured a chalkboard sign on a sidewalk that read: “Your beliefs don’t make you a better person…your behavior does.” Steve noted that this was a valuable
concept. And I agree…or do I?
That concept got me to
thinking. You see, I understand what it
is saying: “If my beliefs are not affecting my behavior, then what good are
they?” I agree with this. The same spirit of wisdom is echoed in James 2:14-17: “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says
he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or
sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to
them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what
is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no
works, is dead, being by itself.”
But, I was concerned with what the
chalkboard concept ALSO seemed to say…if accidentally: “It doesn’t matter what you believe, just behave right.” Or
another perspective: “As long as you
behave right, you don’t have to believe at all!” And that is where I hit the brakes on
agreement.
It matters very much what I
believe, for if I cast my belief on something untrue, and begin to model my
life after it, it cannot lead me to where I need to go. Untruth remains untrue, even if it is
believed in with great conviction, or held by great numbers of people. If what I believe is in error and it is
guiding my behavior, then my behavior will be in error also.
But do I need to believe at
all? Absolutely! If we remove the blood of Jesus, and the wise
counsel of an all knowing benevolent God from our lives, then we are released
to our own recognizance, and will ultimately face the judgment of Almighty
God…whether we believe in him or not!! Proverbs 14:12 cries out: “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end
is the way of death.” To merely choose to not believe as a means
of avoiding judgment makes the same sense as hiding under an umbrella for
protection from a falling mountain. You
may not see it coming, but you won’t like what happens when it gets there!
What if I believe the right
things, but make no connection to how I behave?
•
What if I believe the Bible teaches stealing is
wrong, but do not correct an error when I am given too much money in change at
the store? Am I not stealing?
•
What if I believe the Bible that lust is a sin, but
I have no conscience about viewing pornography, or looking at someone with lust
in my heart? Am I not still committing
adultery?
•
What if I believe the Bible’s instruction about
controlling the tongue, but am in the habit of being verbally abusive to my
wife or children when I become frustrated?
Am I not still destroying with my tongue?
In such cases, I may be in
agreement with the belief, but I am also in conflict with it, and am subject to
its judgment.
If my behavior is not directly
affected by my beliefs, in what capacity can I say the beliefs are mine? If my belief is not affecting my behavior, I
must understand that it is not necessarily the fault of the belief itself! We may in fact believe what we should
believe. But if we are not pursuing the
application of those beliefs in our daily living and interaction with others,
what good are those beliefs? We render
them ineffective not because they are so, but because we are unyielding to them.
Ultimately, we must come to
realize that AGREEING with a belief is not the same as placing our belief upon
it…living and behaving as the belief dictates.
My assessment and agreement that a bridge should be strong is not the
same as loading my wife and children into a car and driving across it. In driving across the bridge, my belief
becomes evident. Effectively, “faith
without works is dead.”
So, here’s a good question: What
do I say I believe? Are those beliefs
affecting my behavior? If they are not,
do I in fact believe those things? My
aim is for the things I believe to become evident in all that I do. I find myself crying out much in the same way
as the father in Mark 9:24: “I do believe! Help my unbelief!”
Almighty God, Help
me choose this day and every day to live what I believe. Validate my confession of faith by the
evidence of what I do. I believe, O God,
help thou my unbelief! In Jesus’ name I
pray, Amen.
