Friday | 10 April 2026
In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul explained that ‘if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved’. Rom 10:9. Gospels that are ignorant of, or fail to acknowledge, the need for a person to be born of God’s divine nature, and to be baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit through discipleship, give rise to a form of ‘believism’ that can impede a hearer’s entry into the kingdom of God. Christ Himself is addressing this alternative to the gospel of sonship that persists in the church.
The first point to note is that believing is not our agreement with, or even appreciation of, the word. Nor is it just a personal acknowledgement, or declaration, that Jesus is the Son of God, or that God is one. Jas 2:19. Believing is not only our personal relationship with Jesus, as important as this is to salvation. In fact, it is a deceived and damnable error to set our claim of personal relationship with Christ over, or separate from, being built on Him with others as part of the temple of His body. 1Pe 2:4‑5. A person who truly knows Christ loves His word and the fellowship from which it proceeds. They will desire to be built on Christ, the Rock, as they let go of relational offences which are the evidence of their disobedience to the proceeding word. 1Pe 2:7‑8.
The apostle John was patently clear that believing is discipleship. He said, ‘Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.’ 1Jn 4:15. Equally fundamental is the reality that believing in Jesus is demonstrated by obedience to His word. This is the expression of a person who is spiritual, and who is entering the rest that belongs to obtaining their eternal inheritance as a son of God and a member of the body of Christ.
Further Study:
1 Peter 2
References:
Rom 10:9
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Jas 2:19
You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble!
1Pe 2:4-5
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1Pe 2:7-8
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone,’ and ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.’ They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
1Jn 4:15
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.