What True Belief Means

We thank the Lord that salvation is true and achievable. If it were not so people would not continue coming to our service to hear the Word of God. But the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ produces results in the lives of men and women. Those who look upon Jesus and his Gospel as a failure, as a dead issue, are people who have not put the Gospel to the test.

There are terms and conditions which people must keep to get any results from their prayers. The conditions are clear in the Bible. People who have neglected the teachings of the Bible often want something modern – something scholarly, something educational. The Gospel is much more than that: It has power to rebuke all the influences of darkness in man’s life and put something into his soul that helps him to live in harmony with the teaching of the Word of God.

The requirements for salvation have never varied or changed. God brings us face to face with the same facts that He did two thousand years ago. In Acts 16:25-31 we read: ‘And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them..’ Verse 31 ‘And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”’ This is the condition upon which we are saved – believing on the Lord. The prison keeper had two special prisoners that night, and it was God’s will and mercy that Paul and Silas were imprisoned, for it resulted in the salvation of the prison keeper and his family.

Please note: it was at midnight when Paul and Silas sang praises to God. They didn’t have to wait until Sunday morning for a man to come and give out hymn books. Their hearts were in tune with the God of Heaven regardless of them being bound hands and feet with chains. When they sang the songs of praises something happened. The God of Heaven visited that prison house. It began to shake and quake: the doors began to open, the shackles and stocks became loose and they were free. It was a case of God’s will being fulfilled. He came to set those captive souls at liberty. When the keeper found out what had taken place, he came trembling and fell down saying, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

That question has been upon the lips of people right down to the present day. The answer is: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In the first epistle of John 5:1 we read: ‘Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.’

A real Christian is counted as being ‘born again,’ not of this world, one who is committing sins, but one who is living a pure life, whose conduct is such before the world and people recognize this about him. God deals with people the same way today – He saves people who ‘meet the conditions’ just as Jesus did in days of old – and the Lord will save all who truly believe, repent and obey God. ‘Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.’ (Luke 13:5)

Bro. Gift Lungu (Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe)