What's in a word
Believe
The best known verse in the bible is;
John 3:16
16   "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish,
but have eternal life."(NIV)

Fanatic and fundamentalist christians carry it around like a pistol and draw it on everyone.
For the most part, that's the only verse they know. They say
"All you have to do is believe and you will be saved."
Well, shake hands with satan when you get to heaven, he's the biggest believer of all.
The demons all believe and tremble.
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Gangsters, drug pushers, drug addicts, rapist, child molesters, thieves,
murderers and beaurocrats.. a percentage of all these types of people believe there is one God
and that Jesus is the son of this one God.
What shall we say then, is the bible wrong?
Not at all, the only thing wrong is the understanding and translation of scripture.
Satan would like for us to think that all we have to do is believe and we will be saved.
Believe, believed believers, etc. appear over three hundred times in the new testament.
The greek word translated in all but 25 or so cases is pisteuo.
This greek word means to trust in or to have faith in.
God doesn't want us to just believe that he exists.
He wants us to trust him, to have faith in him and his son,
to grab hold of his word and hang on no matter what.

God's word is forever settled in heaven.
If God said it, you can bank on it,
he will never change his mind or go back on his word.
[AMAN] The hebrew word translated believe in the old testament
has a similar meaning of faith and trust.
The hebrew word also means to run to shelter,
as the shelter of a rock or a mother birds wings,
or to run to the shelter of God for protection and comfort.
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Being a christian is much more than believing,
being a christian is acting on the promises God made and having faith that he will do what he said.
Being a christian is trusting God with everything.
Putting God first before your family, your bank account, your car,or your new TV set.
If you put God first, he wil take care of your family and your bank account,
I don't know about the car or the TV, he might take care of them too.
After all the children if Israel marched around the desert for forty years
and their shoes and clothes didn't wear out.
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Most churches teach that to please God, you don't do...
don't do, don't do, don't do, don't do and so on.
Scripture teaches that our best efforts are filthy rags before God,
that without faith it is impossible to please God.
That we are saved by grace, unmerited favor, a free gift that we are saved by grace not works,
And if we live by law we will be judged by law.
Anything we measure our righteousness by
or a set of rules we live by because we consider ourselves christians is law,
Moses law, baptist law, methodist law, holiness law,
catholic law, or just plain I don't do it because it's a sin law.
To live under this pretense or try to gain salvation by our efforts
is too say to God that the sacrafice of his son was not enough.
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Anything you add to your redemption except faith is legalism.
The only righteousness God accepts is the righteousness of Christ.
We obtain the righteousness of Christ by faith.
Can we go to heaven by obeying the law?
Absolutely, only one has succeeded and that was Christ.
The problem with trying to obtain righteousness by legalism is that
if you miss one jot or title of the law in your lifetime,
means you missed the whole law and are condemned.
The same with trying to obtain righteousness by not sinning.
If you live under this pretense, then when you sin,
your sins are counted against you because
you are trying to obtain righteousness by works and not by faith.

Rom 3:19-20
19    Now we know that whatever law says, it says to those who are under the law,
so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

Rom 3:21-24
21     But now righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known,
to which the law and the prophets testify.

22     This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,

23    for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

24    and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.


Rom 9:30-33
30     What then shall we say? That the gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness,
have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;

31     but Israel who pursued the law of righteousness, has not attained it.

32     Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works.
They stumbled over the "stumbling stone."

33     As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (NIV)


No works of the law or legalism or traditions or don't do's account for anything except in the eyes of men.
Only trust in God and faith in Jesus Christ is accepted by God.

Rom 4:1-5
1     What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter?
2     If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about---but not before God.
3     What does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
4     Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.
5     However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
6     David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man
to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.
7     "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered."
8     "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."(NIV)