“If you want me to protect you, learn to believe what I say” (Isaiah 7:9). This little comment from God was directed to Ahaz, King of Judah. Ahaz wasn’t a very good king – he was weak spiritually and militarily. As a result, the kingdom was vulnerable to attack by outsiders. But God in His kindness promised to protect unbelieving Ahaz and Judah.
Shortly after this God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign that He will keep His word. Ahaz refuses, so God responds, Okay, I’ll choose the sign. Here’s the proof that I will crush your enemies – the virgin will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).
Our problem with the promised child often has less to do with His immaculate conception and more to do with our inability to believe that He was the snake-crusher promised in Genesis 3:15.
He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was astonished and said, “Where does he get his wisdom and his miracles? He’s just a carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers – James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. What makes him so great?” And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him… So he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:54-58
Mark describes this incident in stronger terms: “Because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief” (Mark 6:5-6).
The people of Nazareth refused to believe. Their unbelief caused them to miss out on the physical healing and spiritual restoration Jesus offered to all those He touched. I’m not sure exactly what to make of Mark’s statement that Jesus couldn’t do any miracles, but it tells me that our belief matters.
Later a desperate father came to Jesus seeking healing for his son. Do something if you can, he begs. And Jesus responds, “What do you mean, if I can?… Anything is possible if a person believes” (Mark 9:22-23). Our belief is essential to the working of God in our lives. Belief welcomes God to reveal Himself by doing what He alone can do, what it’s impossible for us to do for ourselves.
When a Philippian jailer asked, What must I do to be saved? he was told, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with your entire household” (Acts 16:30-31). Simple as that. Belief is the road to salvation.
Some older translations render this, “Believe on the Lord Jesus”. Something that’s resting on something else is being supported by whatever’s underneath it. Believe on, rest on, the Lord Jesus. He’s the only foundation secure enough to support a life.
This got me wondering what the word belief actually means. Belief is convinced by, trusts, has confidence in its object. To believe in Jesus is to be convinced that He is who He says He is, that He will do what He says He will do. It’s confidence in Christ as the One who saves.
Turns out belief is basically a compound word – be + lief. You probably have a good sense of what it means to be – to become, to have the quality or identity of. Lief has fallen out of usage, but means happily, gladly. The origin of lief is a word that means pleasing, desire. There’s another word that shares the same root – love.
Belief leads to love.
So what Paul and Silas were telling the jailer is rest your happiness on Jesus. Have the quality of glad desire for Him. Love Him. Base your decisions on, build your life upon a relationship with Him. It’s not enough to be able to recite Christ’s history. Belief must make a difference in what we do, the decisions that we make, the actions that we take. Just as love does.