All year we have been talking about putting our best faith forward. If our laboring in faith is anchored in our belief and trust in God, and He credits that faith to us as righteousness, then it begs the question: What are we to believe?”

When we say we believe in God, it isn’t just that we believe He exists. It isn’t merely an understanding that there is a creative, holy, higher power out there in the cosmos. James, the half-brother of Jesus, said “you say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” (James 2:9 NLT) The existence of God is fact, even those who do not follow God, such as Satan and his demons, acknowledge that God exists. But, they do not serve God. Passive belief in God’s mere existence is clearly not what it means to believe in the biblical sense.

There are several basic, core tenets which mark the necessary beliefs of the Christian faith:

• Humans are all sinners and therefore separated from God, who is perfectly Holy, Pure, and Righteous (Isaiah 59:2).

• When we sin, we sin against God and rightfully deserve the penalty for sin which is spiritual death, darkness, and eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23).

• Since there is no mere human who could make us right with God again, like we were originally in the Garden of Eden before humans chose to sin, God sent Jesus to live a perfect, sinless human life and take the punishment of God’s wrath on our behalf (1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5).

• Jesus was conceived by the Spirit of God in the womb of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:25 Luke 1:34-35).

• Though Jesus was innocent, He suffered and died the death of a sinner, effectively absorbing God’s wrath so we who believe in Jesus would not be subject to it (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:9).

• Since Jesus was sinless, He was not subject to the eternal death penalty, and therefore He was resurrected (came back to life) on the third day (Hebrews 7:26; Mark 16:5-7; 1 Corinthians 15:6).

• Jesus spent 40-days with His disciples and others after His resurrection and then was taken to heaven where He remains for a time (Acts 1:3, 9-11).

• Jesus extends His righteousness and eternal pardon from sin to all who believe in Him and what He accomplished for us (Romans 10:9; John 5:24).

• When Jesus ascended back to heaven, He provided the Spirit of God, referred to as the Holy Spirit, to be God’s presence on earth and a helper to God’s people until His later return (Luke 24:49).

• Jesus will return to earth to judge all of humanity, separating those who truly believe in Him from those who don’t (John 5:26-30; Revelation 19:11-16; Matthew 25:32-33, 46).

The Apostle Paul perhaps says this best in his letter to the believers in Rome when he wrote:

“We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair…God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-26 NLT)

This is the active belief to which we refer when Christians say we believe. This is the belief that allows the believers to spend eternity in heaven with God and in the absence of sin, pain, sickness, or sadness (Revelation 21:4).

Receiving this gift of salvation through Jesus is free and available to all who will humble themselves and surrender. The Apostle Paul instructs that “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9 CSB)

This saving faith, or belief, in God then produces action out of gratitude for all He has done. We cannot do anything to earn our salvation, yet once we have been saved, we naturally have a deep desire to serve God and the people He loves so much.

The Christian faith is both incredibly profound and remarkably simple. Saving faith is not about what we do, but about Who we believe.

So put your best faith forward, in belief!