Belief is a funny thing. A powerful thing. What we believe often determines the choices we make, the actions we take. But somehow in our modern language we’ve watered it down to mean little more than to think. I believe I’ll get to your house around 4:00. I believe I’ll have the steak tonight. Surely this kind of belief is little more than wishful thinking.
One of the most well-known verses in the Bible talks about the importance of belief – “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). According to this passage, belief is essential.
Can your belief in God be similar to your belief that it will rain today, or that you will have another cookie, or that the Patriots will win the Superbowl?
I don’t think so. That kind of belief is based on head knowledge, something you’ve analyzed and evaluated and decided to accept based on a preponderance of evidence. It’s likely to be true. But that kind of belief is a flimsy thing on which to stake your life.
Instead, when the Bible talks about belief, it’s talking about a sure and certain thing. To be utterly convinced that something is true. And if something is true, it’s reliable. And if something is reliable, we can rely on it, depend on it, put all our weight onto it, because we’re certain that it will hold up under the burden. It’s entrusting yourself to the thing being true, counting on it, betting your last penny, putting all your eggs in the basket so if you’re wrong and this thing isn’t true, then you’re sunk. Toast. Finished.
Dead.
That’s what the passage in John is driving at – belief in Jesus is relying on the fact that He is the Peacemaker, the perfect offering, the Son of God. There aren’t any other avenues, there’s no other hope, there’s no other way to be saved from judgment. It’s not enough to just think that Jesus is God’s Son. He is the only way to the Father (John 14:6) – He’s our only hope.
What you really believe is always most clearly revealed by what you do. Why else would Noah build an ark in the desert? Why would Abraham pack up and move? Why would Moses head back to Egypt, where he was a wanted man? Why would Joshua show up to a battle with a marching band? Why would David take on Goliath with a slingshot? Why would Esther approach the king uninvited? Why would anyone choose death over denial?
Often we’re asked to believe in something we can’t see. To come to a precipice and step onto an invisible bridge. Taking that step is where faith comes in. It’s “the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see” (Hebrews 11:1). I’m never going to take my foot off the ledge if I just wish there’s something there to hold me up. But I can step out in confidence if I believe there’s a solid footing for my feet.
God isn’t asking us to do things that are senseless. He’s asking us to do things that are based on belief. When we entrust ourselves to Him, we’re saying that He is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do. Even when that seems unlikely, far-fetched, or impossible. We are completely and fully convinced that “nothing is too hard for the Lord” (Jeremiah 32:27).