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What we believe makes the difference between deliverance and condemnation - Faith

Does it matter what we believe?

I asked our church family recently to write down ideas and areas of interest they might have for future sermons. I didn’t give an unconditional guarantee, but said that I would do my best to address the topics that they submit. In the substantial number of little notes collected, the interrogative, “Does it matter what we believe?” was submitted three times. It is a good question, especially where faith is concerned.

First we need to define believe. Charles Spurgeon claimed that 98 per cent of the people he met, including the criminals he had visited in prison, told him that they believed the Bible. But the vast majority had never made a personal, life-changing decision based upon what they claimed to believe. For them, Spurgeon declared, “believe” was not yet an action word.

But even when believe has become an action word, it must be readily admitted that a creed or belief system in the hands of the bigoted and insincere can be used to manipulate and control. And there are times when even the most devout and well meaning person will act in a way that is contradictory to their beliefs.

Nevertheless, it is true that beliefs in general influence and govern actions one way or the other; erroneous beliefs often leading to wrong actions and correct beliefs tending to lead to good actions and results. Even a cursory examination of the scripture makes this quite plain.

Proverbs 23:7 states that what a person believes or, “…as he thinks in his heart so is he.” Jesus added that what a person believes is displayed by his speech. He taught, “Your words show what is in your hearts” (Matthew 12:24).

Nowhere is the importance of what we believe more clearly pronounced than in the gospel itself. Jesus explicitly stated in a classic and well known passage in John’s gospel, that, “…whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:15 – 18).

Jesus concludes then that our belief in Him makes the difference between deliverance and condemnation. So, what do you think? Does it matter what we believe?

— Pastor Ross Helgeton is senior pastor at Erskine Evangelical Free Church