Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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.

• John 3:16

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

• James 2:19

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

• Romans 10:9-10

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

• Apostle’s Creed

John 3:16 ”Everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. When you trust in Jesus alone as your personal sin-bearer, divine judgment is removed and eternal life is freely given.”

• Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary

The Message

If people were paying attention, last week our vespers covered Job 42 and that is the last chapter of the book of Job.  This is a new study.  I was going to use a book as a guide, but I had some theological issues with what the author was saying.  But that does not mean that I cannot do the research on my own.

The Apostles’ Creed was probably written in the fourth century.  It is generally agreed that the first creed was the Nicene Creed.  It was originally written and adopted at the first council of Nicaea in 325AD.  The creed was written to combat a heresy of that day that questioned the deity, or possibly the full deity of Jesus.  But the Apostles’ Creed appeared in some text around 390AD.

It consists of three statements starting with “I believe.”  These three generally follow the persons of the Trinity, but the last statement does not go into detail on the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) as much as it does the things that the Holy Spirit helps us attain and maintain, like a Church of true believers, communion of the saints, etc.

So, this week we will look at “I believe.”

I have spoken to many people over the course of my life who say they believe in God, but their belief is more vague than the belief James 2 talks about.  The demons believe there is a God and they tremble.

I wrote recently about how Bertrand Russell believed that there was someone once in history known as Jesus.  He did not believe that Jesus was God, thus when Jesus died, that was it.

So, when Jesus told Nicodemus that he must believe, it was more than just accepting that Jesus once existed.

Paul tells the Romans that the resurrection is important.

There is an element of trust in the meaning of the Greek word that is used here.

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? … Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief.”

• C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

I am not asking anyone to go rappelling. But you literally trust in the rope with your life.

We must trust in Jesus with our life.  If we do not “believe” in the resurrection, then Jesus has been dead for nearly 2000 years.  How could a belief in a dead Jesus help us today?

Jesus rose from the dead.  He sits at God’s right hand.

So, when we say that we believe, we are saying that we believe in God like our life depends upon it, and God is actively working for our good this very minute.

And now let us sing.

The following song is I Believe.  This is sung by Phil Wickham.  There are many songs with that title, but this one is some type of a modern creed of its own.

 

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We believe in You.  We trust You.  We owe our lives to You.  Help us to serve You better each day.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.