In the US or the West in general, people who claim to be Christians are, in most cases, either merely culturally attaching, or just claiming to believe in the existence of God.
But this is not Christianity.
Merely having some kind of notion of God is not salvation. Satan and all evil spirits know that God exists, but there’s no salvation for them, only eternal judgment against them.
The sad condition is not because salvation is made complicated and very hard to attain. Not at all. Salvation is made simple in Jesus Christ:
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9.
It is the “believing” part that is the true barrier, the separation between life and death.
People simply don’t believe and can’t believe.
Unbelief is the very state of spiritual death. For sinners (we are all sinners), unbelieving is natural; believing is unnatural. This is not an excuse or justification for unbelieving, but a testimony against the sinful condition of the fallen man.
True belief is hard for us sinners. Believing in the true God the Creator is hard enough, believing in God who is holy and righteous is harder, and believing in the God who became Man to die for sinners but rose again from the dead to give new life to whoever believes, is much harder still. It is against a sinner’s very core, which is pride wrapped up with layers of “resistive” (deceptive, really) lies extruded from Satan.
Satan has a stronghold over man’s heart through sin.
Believing is breaking through
But some do break through the stronghold, and it is supernatural.
“For with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness…’
Romans 10:10.
Believes what? Not that God exists, but that God has become Man, and the Man Jesus became the very substance of righteousness. Believing does not create righteousness. It leads to the righteousness that is created by and found in the Son of God through his death and resurrection.
Believing is thus supernatural. It does not appeal to natural man’s sense. It goes against his pride. It is the very sign of the resurrection life, an indictment, and a negation of the natural life. After the fall of Adam and Eve, the natural life no longer has the capacity to regenerate. New life comes from resurrection life, which is supernatural. It is the greatest and the most precious gift God gives one in the universe.
Believing (having faith in the resurrection of Jesus the Lord) is not psychological, mechanical, or religious. It is the very state of resurrection life.
True Christian faith itself is a miracle.
Once one understands the above, he no longer examines God, the Bible, and Christ with a superior attitude, feeling autonomous and free to judge. He realizes that it is the grace of God that offers him an opportunity to believe. One has no more freedom to reject the truth than he does to deprive him of his own life. He realizes the absurdity of believing that God must appeal to man in order to qualify Himself for a “reward” granted by man making up his mind to express some kind of acceptance of God.
The truth is, when you see that believing or unbelieving is a matter of life or death, you would desperately cry out: “Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
Confessing is also breaking through
“and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.”
Romans 10:10
One who has believed in his heart may find it surprising that the Scripture requires him to confess with his mouth. Isn’t believing in heart enough? Doesn’t God see one’s heart? Why does He want to hear one confession with his mouth?
But here is a secret concerning God, man, and Satan: believing is business between man and God, while confessing is business between man and Satan. This is because righteousness (a result of believing) is a matter of man standing before God, while salvation (the result of confessing) is a matter of man standing against Satan.
Righteousness is man being found right or justified before God; salvation is man escaping from the control of Satan.
While God is omniscient (all-knowing), Satan and his angels and evil spirits are not. A silent and secret belief held in one’s heart only has no direct effect against Satan and his evil ones because they can’t feel it and may not even know it.
At the same time, the fact that people tend to feel uncomfortable in confessing faith in the Lord Jesus is in itself evidence of Satan’s control over people’s heart and acts.
The word “confess” in the biblical context means formally and solemnly pledge to a covenant. The covenant for salvation is one’s new contract with God for a new life. When you believe, you and God already know, but others don’t, and in particular, the enemy doesn’t. When your friends don’t know, they don’t know how to fellowship with you and support you. But when the enemy doesn’t know, he assumes that you still belong to him, bound by the old “sin deed” with which you sold yourself to Satan.
“Confessing with the mouth” is therefore not a passive condition imposed for salvation but an empowered opportunity for us to overcome the enemy.
Confession with the mouth is thus like blowing a trumpet on a battlefield. The trumpet is not only heard by people as a testimony but also heard by the invisible enemy who now sees the state of your heart, which follows the new Master according to a new covenant.
Believe unto righteousness, and confess unto salvation.