Lecture 4: Glorious spiritual step called ‘Believing’

(GB Message)

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek”, Rom 1: 16.

Let us go through this verse and consider carefully the meaning and implications of the step called “believing” in the life of a believer, and how the under-noted expressions in the same verse garnish it.

• the power of God
• not ashamed of
• the Gospel of Christ
• every one
• the Jew and the Greek.

The power of God
What does an average man understand by this expression “the power of God”? He does not even know what ‘God’ means and so there is no chance of his knowing anything about matters pertaining to God. Even to understand the meaning of the word “power” a man does not have sufficient knowledge.

There was a time when man worshipped the sun, moon, stars, lightning, rivers, mountain, mud, stone, animals, and birds. Things have not changed much since those days. Man is still ignorant, and his ignorance of the fact that he is ignorant leads to more transgression. This ignorance coupled with his sky-high pride are his greatest handicaps in understanding God.

Only after a person becomes spiritual does he begin to understand how ignorant he is and how great God is. A secular scientist may understand what power is only from his observation of nature. But he does not realise that everything visible and invisible is all the creation of Almighty God and that there is no power whatsoever without Him.

So the wise King David declared, “Thine O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, ….” 1 Chr 29: 11. The Gospel of Christ, according to apostle Paul, is the power of God; it is our experience too, praise be unto God.

Not ashamed of
There are many so called Christians in the world who are inwardly quite ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It is possible that many could be ‘Christians’ not by deliberate choice but by a spate of unexpected circumstances or even ignorantly. Search your heart and see if you are truly proud of being a Christian. Are you more proud of this fact than you are about your status or about the achievements of members of your family, or about your wealth? You do not need to tell me the answer, and the Holy Spirit knows it already. If you are more proud of anything else above the fact that you are a Christian, you are no better than a nominal Christian.

On the other hand, if you are truly proud of the Gospel of Christ, others will see you as a person with a poor and contrite spirit, who denies himself and bears his cross daily. They will see you thus following the Lord Jesus, not sorrowfully but enthusiastically. If this describes your case, you are indeed a much wanted person in the kingdom of God and an outstanding example in the church to many members. You will then be a person eagerly looking for occasions to be a witness unto Lord Jesus about His Gospel, the power of God.

Paul was a wealthy man, a Roman citizen and a Rabbi by his education and status. But after He discovered the Gospel of Christ he considered all his wealth, education, and status as rubbish, worthless and good for nothing. By the same token, whenever he came across another human being he did not care for his status either. It mattered little whether he was a sweeper, a labourer, or a district collector; what mattered to him was whether he was a deliberate Christian, whether in fact the call of God to him through the gospel had been followed by the convicting work of God in his heart and willing obedience.

We read in the following verse, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen…. that no flesh should glory in His presence”, 1 Cor 1: 26 – 29.

If we pose as a somebody important in the world, let us beware lest God reduce us to a nobody in His kingdom. To many, to be a Christian is stylish, something that gives one dignity and respectability in the eyes of the world. This is not the Christianity that Bible speaks of. No true saint ever enjoyed such a status in this world. They were often treated like beggars, as aliens, peculiar, and strange, but they were proud of such treatment for the sake of the Christ and His gospel. If there is one thing I can be proud of, it is the chance of my being in His kingdom. I too consider everything else as rubbish, my qualifications, status, family background, and anything for that matter.

The gospel of Christ
The text states that it is the power of God to salvation. A man who does not know who God is, cannot possibly understand even an iota of what the Gospel is, not to speak of availing its power. Do you understand what it is. If you do, praise the Lord and preach the Gospel to others more through your life than your sermons. If you do not know, praise the Lord again for the humility He has given you to own the fact, which is not very palatable or stylish in these days, and learn it, “For what are men better than sheep or goats” as Tennyson wrote, “that nourish a blind life within the brain?” We are better because we have the potential of getting immortal life through the Gospel of Christ, if only we approach it with faith and humility.

For every person who understands the Gospel and accepts the condition stipulated therein, God promises to grant him immortal life; and every such person who is in God’s list for immortal life possess an I.D. That I.D. is the gift of the Holy Spirit. All those who have this I.D. are a new creation in Jesus Christ. Such a man is humble and growing into one who is poor, broken, and contrite in spirit. He is deeply interested in the reading and meditation of the word of God along with the messages heard in the church. He gives very careful attention to what he hears in the church whether it is joyful and encouraging or not, and is anxiously eager to implement the instructions in his life.

Such a person would have come to this state by a process that is very much like the following:

• He heard the Gospel of Christ and believed. By the power inherent in it he was saved by grace on account of the atoning sacrifice of Lord Jesus.
• Summing up all that he did by way of obedient action:
  • He entered into a covenant with God the Father under the mediation of Lord Jesus by which God promised to grant him eternal life and a place in His kingdom and on his part he made a total commitment to God to abide by the word of Christ till the end.
  • He developed a deep commitment to church discipline and took all that he heard in the church very seriously.
  • So impressed was he by the warnings he heard that he shared it with as many as he could.
  • He began to understand that what he needed was to grow more and more in humility, with a broken and contrite heart, listening with childlike faith and eagerness and being obedient to what he hears in the church, supplementing it by what he reads privately from the word of God
  • Thus he continues in the path of sanctification.

Everyone
The afore-stated experience is free for everyone who believes. This blessing is granted by the power of the Holy Spirit to all those who go through the process explained above. God does not show partiality. However, everyone does not evince the same interest. Some may even wish to achieve it cheaply like bargaining for the pearl of great price at a 50% discount or some such perversion. Salvation is by grace and free but not obtainable cheaply by any stretch of imagination.

The Jew and the Greek
This is a phrase we come across frequently in the scriptures (1 Cor 1: 24; Rom 10: 12; Gal 3: 25; Col 3: 11). They are used in two senses: (1) equivalent to stating every one in the world and (2) God has not abandoned the Jewish nation raised from Abraham. Though the Jews were dispersed, having been cursed by God because of their disobedience, there is always a remnant of Jews beloved of God, by whom the epistles and the gospels were written and the first church of the Bible planted; after, all is said and done they are the original olive tree, into which we the wild branches of the Gentiles were grafted in. Let us never lose sight of the fact that the Lord Jesus Himself was born a Jew, according to prophetic fulfillment. There is also a prophecy that the two shall ultimately become one to the glory of God Almighty.

The glorious step called “believing”
This is, as indicated in the title, the unique and the most vital spiritual step. At the same time, it is the most misunderstood term in Christendom. I would not be exaggerating if I said that Satan has perhaps invested a great deal of his efforts in causing people to misunderstand this particular step as it happens to be most crucial one in salvation.

This step of Believing is as explained in the 3rd part of this series. I cannot say for certain how many went through that write up in all sincerity with the vigilance needed to understand a term grossly corrupted by the evil forces. Our lives should reflect the fact that we have indeed understood the crucial message.

The part Satan plays at this stage includes (1) causing a pseudo faith in otherwise innocent believers (2) giving them pseudo signs and a false sense of satisfaction about their salvation.

Those without the genuine saving faith can also remember a lot of verses and pray cogently and confidently. Yes, nominal Christians, because of their upbringing and training can often be very eloquent in praying and quoting scripture. It is difficult for unspiritual persons to diagnose this tragic situation. This is one of the reasons for the series of special retreats that I am conducting.

Conclusions
The five expressions mentioned in our text, Romans 1:16, are embellishments for the step “Believing”. They are closely interrelated and make the glorious step of “believing” shining bright and beautiful, and we praise the Lord for this beautiful verse which highlights so many facts.