Unless You Believe That I am He…

By John Foll, written 03/20/2019 - 03/23/2019.

© Copyright 2019 John Foll

Jesus said, ‘unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins.’ John 8:24 NASB.

Do not suppose that Jesus was merely referring to the children of God on earth in His day here when He spoke this. Jesus said ‘unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.’ Yes, Jesus is speaking to the people in our day too and you! No one can save themselves, no matter how hard they try, no matter what they do - no matter what, regardless of how much truth they believe in, or how good they think they are. You simply cannot save yourself, dear reader. Unless you believe that Jesus was the Lamb of God, sent to take away the sins of the world - unless you believe that God sent Jesus to take away your sins, you will not have any life within you. Unless you believe that Jesus is the only one, you do not have any life within you. But if you believe Jesus is the one, you will have this life Jesus promised to all who would take it. When John-the-Baptist declared that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, that is what he said and that is what he meant. John 1:29, 36. For Jesus to be able to take away all of the sins of the world - He must take away your sins too. He came not only to clear your guilt from the record books in heaven, but He came to take away your sins as well, to help you stop sinning.

Jesus' declaration in John 8:24 addresses every single person here on this planet. Unless they believe that Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah, to save them from their sin, they will die in their sins. This not only includes forgiveness of sin, but their salvation as well. Salvation was paid for at the cross, but it is not complete until God's people are taken to heaven, to never see death or feel pain again - all crying and dying will pass away! We must believe that Jesus is the one who can save us or we will die in our sins! Ah dear reader, do not miss this point! Unless you believe that Jesus is the one, the one who can save you, you will die in your sins. We're sorry if you think this is too blunt, but it is the truth. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It means to believe the He is the one who can save you out of all of the distresses in this world, and that He can save you from your sins. It is the belief that He can save you. He takes away your addiction to sin and your sinful propensities - He can make you righteous.

We were saying that when Jesus said ‘that unless you believe that I am He, the one, that you will die in your sins’ – that it applies to us in our day too because it's the truth - it's not just for God’s people in the days when Jesus walked this earth. We are not saying this to pick on those whom He was speaking with, because unbelief and pride seem to be a common problem in humanity. And yes even in our day, many Christians have trouble believing the Jesus can save them from all of their faults and problems. Oh they may say they believe, but where is their belief when doubts and discouragement come? Where is their belief when trials and temptations come? Do they believe that He loves them and died to save them? Do they believe the Jesus has the power to save them? Really save them? Or do they think they are stuck in an endless cycle of sinning with no way out, except to pray for forgiveness? This belief is not correct. True belief believes that Jesus is God, and that He has the ability of saving them.
 
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see! * What God did for me was so amazing – He overcame my doubts when He filled my heart with His love and peace! And now when temptations and struggles to doubt come my way, He helps me regain my faith in Him. So I no longer worry about these things as long as I stay right with God. But oh how sweet it is to know that God loves you, and that you are forgiven! You have a new chance to please Him and start over! Oh how sweet it is to get the victory over the problems and sins that bind you! Jesus claimed that He would free the captives. Luke 4:16-21. If the Son of man has made you free, you shall be free indeed! John 8:36. This is the message we want to preach with all of our strength today in this article. If the Son has made you free, you are free indeed!

* From the Song Amazing Grace, by John Newton.

Dear reader, do you believe the Jesus is the one? Our prayer for you, dear reader, is that you would believe that Jesus loves you and died to save you, and that you would believe that He is the one! And the only one who can ever save you! From this world of sin suffering and death! You may wonder why we are using so many exclamation marks here? It’s because we want you to get it! We want you to get that if you believe that Jesus is the one, that you can have eternal life. If you trust in Him, if you believe in Him with all your heart mind and soul, and that He will finish the good work He started in you, then you will be saved! Philippians 1:6. We wish that someone had fully taught this to us years ago. It would have saved us so much heartache and grief! Perhaps if we had fully given ourselves to God then, we would have known without a doubt that He loved us, and would have really believed that Jesus His Son died to save us, and we would have had this joy that was impossible to hide. But no matter, He has revealed His love to us now and our life is so much the better. We don't want to go back to the way we used to live, of not really believing that Jesus was the one - the only one. And that He is well able to save us, if we trust in Him all the way.

Dear reader, why not trust in him all the way now? What do you have to lose? If you trust Him all the way, you'll be given the ability of knowing that He can save you, bad as you are, and you will stop worrying about whether you are good enough to be saved. And you will want to serve God and obey Him! And you'll have the power to obey Him too! This is our prayer for you, and for everyone who would come to the Fountain of Life. Drink, all who are thirsty! Drink from the Water of life, flowing freely from the throne of God, offered to you if you will take it. If you would accept it and drink to your heart's content, oh how can you not want to drink more and more? You will be changed and be filled with riches beyond measure, and you will have the priceless love and joy in your heart from your most blessed savior! He loves you and wants to save you!

Dear reader, do you believe that Jesus is the one? All the peace, joy and love an eternal life that you have longed for and more can be yours, if you truly believe in Him. If you find you are having trouble believing in Him, keep reading about His wonderful love and the plan of salvation in the Bible, starting in Genesis going all the way to Revelation, praying that He will help you, and learn to devote yourself to Him, then this blessing will overtake you.

It's not about how smart you are, or how strong you are, or how good you are. It's about believing in Jesus. It's about believing that He is the one! The only one! The one who loves you and died to save you! There, we did it again! We're using exclamation marks again because we want you to get it dear reader! Whenever this happens to you, no one will have to tell you that a wonderful change is taking place in your life because you will know it. I know how happy you'll be! Oh how happy you will be to belong to Him! Then when Jesus comes in the clouds with great glory you won't shrink back in fear from your Lord whom you love! Hebrews 10:39; Isaiah 25:9. Oh no! You will say this is my God whom I have waited for, and He has come to take me home! I knew that He loved me and I love Him. I knew that He was going to save me! I knew this because He told me so – yes, He told me so! I knew He would come back to take me home like He promised! John 14:1-3.

May the grace of God be with you all!

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Lessons on Faith: Part 1 of 14: Cultivating Faith

Without faith it is impossible to please God. The reason for this is that "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom.  14:23), and of course sin cannot please God.

This is why it is that, as stated by the Spirit of Prophecy on the first page of the Review, Oct. 18, 1898, "The knowledge of what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith is more essential than any other knowledge that can be acquired." 

And for this cause we shall hereafter, in this place in each number of the Review give a Scripture lesson on faith -- what it is, how it comes, how to exercise it -- that every reader of this paper may have this knowledge that "is more essential than any other knowledge that can be acquired." 

RH Nov. 29, 1898    

In order to be able to know what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith, it is essential to know, first of all, what is faith. 

Plainly, it must be to little purpose to urge upon a person the necessity of cultivating faith, while that person has no intelligent idea of what faith is. And it is sadly true that, though the Lord has made this perfectly plain in the Scriptures, there are many church members who do not know what faith is. They may even know what the definition of faith is, but they do not know what the thing is. They do not grasp the idea that is in the definition. 

For that reason the definition will not be touched now, but rather there will be cited and studied an illustration of faith - an instance which makes it stand out so plainly that all can see the very thing itself. 

Faith comes "by the word of God." To the Word, then, we must look for it.  

One day a centurion came to Jesus and said to him, "Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed . . .  When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Matt. 8:6-10. 

There is what Jesus pronounces faith. When we find what that is, we have found faith. To know what that is, is to know what faith is. There can be no sort of doubt about this, for Christ is "the Author . . . of faith," and He says that that which the centurion manifested was "faith" -- yes, even "great faith."  

Where, then, in this is the faith? The centurion wanted a certain thing done. He wanted the Lord to do it. But when the Lord said, "I will come" and do it, the centurion checked Him, saying, "Speak the word only," and it shall be done. 

Now what did the centurion expect would do the work? "The word ONLY." Upon what did he depend for the healing of his servant? Upon "the word ONLY."  

Now, brother, sister, what is faith? 

RH Dec. 6, 1898 

  

Faith is the expecting the word of God to do what it says and the depending upon that word to do what it says.

As that is faith and as faith comes by the word of God, it is plain that the word of God, in order to inculcate faith, must teach that the word has in itself power to accomplish what itself says. 

And such is precisely the truth of the matter: the word of God does teach just this and nothing else, so that it is truly "the faithful word" -- the word full of faith. 

The greater part of the very first chapter of the Bible is instruction in faith. That chapter has in itself no fewer than six distinct statements that definitely inculcate faith; with the essential connective of the first verse, there are seven. 

The inculcation of faith is the teaching that the word of God itself accomplishes the thing which is spoken in that word. 

Read, then, the first verse of the Bible. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." How did He create them? "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 

"For he spake, and it was." Ps. 33:6-9. Before He spoke, it was not; after He spoke, "it was." Only by speaking, it was. What caused it to be? The word only. 

But darkness was upon all the face of the deep. God wished light to be there, but how could there be light when all was darkness? Again He spoke. "And God said, Let there be light; and there was light." Whence came the light? The word which was spoken, itself produced the light. "The entrance of thy words giveth light." Ps.  119:130. 

There was no firmament, atmosphere. God wished that there should be a firmament. How could it be produced?  "God said, Let there be a firmament . . . and it was so." Another translation for "it was so" is, "And thus it came to pass." What caused the firmament to be? What caused this thus to come to pass? The word only. He spoke, and it was so. The word spoken, itself caused the thing to exist. 

God next desired that there should be dry land. How could this be? Again He spoke. "God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear; and it was so." 

Then there was no vegetation. Whence should this come? Again God spoke. "And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth, and it was so." 

Again He spoke. "And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of heaven . . . and it was so." 

Again He spoke. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature . . . and it was so." 

Thus it was that "by the word of the Lord" all things were created. He spoke the word only, and it was so. The word spoken, itself produced the thing. 

Thus it was in creation. And thus it was in redemption. He healed the sick; He cast out devils; He stilled the tempest; He cleansed the lepers; He raised the dead; He forgave sins -- all by His word. In all this, also, "He spake and it was." 

And so He is the same yesterday and today and forever. Always He is the Creator. And always He does all things by His word only. And always He can do all things by His word, because it is the very characteristic of the word of God that it is possessed of the divine power by which itself accomplishes the thing which is spoken. 

This is why it is that faith is the knowing that in the word of God there is this power, the expecting the word itself to do the thing spoken and the depending upon that word itself to do that which the word speaks. 

The teaching of faith is the teaching that such is the nature of the word of God; the teaching of people to exercise faith is the teaching them to expect the word of God to do what it says and to depend upon it to do the thing which is by it spoken; the cultivating of faith is by practice to cause to grow confidence in the power of the word of God itself to do what in that word is said and dependence upon that word itself to accomplish what the word says. 

And "the knowledge of what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith is more essential than any other knowledge that can be acquired." 

Are you cultivating faith? 

RH Dec. 27, 1898 

By A. T. Jones in the Review and Herald periodical in 1898.

Blog Edited by John Foll.

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