Apostolic Friends Forum - When Is Righteousness Imputed ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam (Post 682856)

As Abraham was "reckoned" righteous when he believed and prior to circumcision, it is my opinion that one is "reckoned" righteous when he/she believes prior to water baptism.

Belief here is not an intellectual agreement but a trust/commitment.

Here is something I've posted before about "believing" in Jesus.

Some times we are accused of making it too easy or too simple when we talk about a person being saved or justified by faith. The way I understand it is that faith is not just mentally agreeing with some one or some thing. Faith results in action.

Hebrews chapter 11 is called “the faith chapter” or “God’s Hall of Fame.” Throughout the whole chapter we are given example after example of people of faith. In each case the faith of these people resulted in action. Over and over we read, “by faith, so and so DID such and such.” It is an action chapter. Joni Eareckson -Tada said, “Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future, It’s simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.” Martin Luther King said, “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just the first step.”

These are some notes that I’ve written in my Bible in chapter 2 of the Book of James. Some are attributed to the person who said or wrote them, others I don’t remember where I heard or saw them.

Faith is the root of salvation, works are the fruit.

John Calvin said, “Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.”

“Faith is not even worthy of the name until it erupts into action,” Catherine Marshall

“Faith is never passive. It is an action word. It is not just mental assent. It demands a response --some kind of action,” Bill Bright

Doing, not doctrine, is the test of faith.

Faith leads people to do what the men of the world cannot understand at all.

Rev. Dr. Halsey Dewey spent at least 30 years as a missionary for the Methodist Church in India. On one occasion he invited Mahatma Gandhi to speak to his congregation. Gandhi said, “If you Christians would truly follow the teachings as found in your Bible, you could take this city by storm.”

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Believing in Jesus or believing on Jesus, or trusting in Jesus as Savior.

I’m not quite sure what “easy believism” is. I’ve heard the term before and I think it means just a mental assent to something or what we might call head faith. For example we could say we believe in George Washington or we believe in Abraham Lincoln This could mean that we accept the concept that there was indeed an historical person named George Washington and one named Abraham Lincoln. Many people believe in Jesus this way. Yes, there was years ago a person named Jesus who lived, taught, and died in the area we now call Israel. I don’t think that is what the Bible means when it speaks of believing in or having faith in Jesus Christ. James chapter 2 speaks of faith which is demonstrated by and accompanied by action contrasted with just saying we believe. The difference would be between head faith and heart faith or between living faith and dead faith. James 2:18 sarcastically says that just claiming to believe doesn’t mean much because the demons believe in one God and obviously they are not saved by that kind of faith. Some times we hear the term saving faith which would mean a trust in or surrender to Jesus.

John 1:12 says that if a person receives Jesus he then has the right to become a child of God. The term receive is then expanded to mean believing in His name. Acts 16:31 says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. 1 John 5:1 says that whoever believes that Jesus is the Anointed One or the Christ has been born of God. Romans 10:9-10 says that if a person confesses with his mouth Jesus as Lord and believes in his heart that Jesus has risen from the dead, that person is saved. This is further explained that with the heart a person believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. In other words, salvation occurs when a person believes in or trusts in Jesus. One of the pastors of the VCC where I used to go says he prefers to use the word trust instead of faith or believe. One of the Bibles I regularly use, The Complete Jewish Bible, uses the words trust or trusting instead of faith, believe or believing.

These are a couple of notes from the Spirit Filled Life Bible, copyright 1991, Jack Hayford, General Editor. These notes attempt to define the words believe and faith as used in the Old and New Testaments.

Believe, Hebrew word aman, Strong’s number 539, To be firm, stable, established; also, to be firmly persuaded; to believe solidly. In its causative form aman means to believe, that is, to consider trustworthy. This is the word used in Gen 15:6, when Abraham believed in the Lord. ...From aman comes emunah, faith. The most famous derivative is amen which conveys this idea; It is solidly, firmly, surely true and verified and established.

Faith, Greek word pistis, Strong’s number 4102. Conviction, confidence, trust, belief, reliance, trustworthiness, and persuasion. In the NT setting, pistis is the divinely implanted principle of inward confidence, assurance, trust, and reliance in God and all that He says.

Believe, Greek word pistseuo, Strong's 4100, The verb form of pistis, faith. It means to trust in, have faith in, be fully convinced of, acknowledge, rely on. Pisteuo is more than credence in church doctrines or articles of faith. it expresses reliance upon and a personal trust that produces obedience. It includes submission and a positive confession of the lordship of Jesus.

This is a note from the preface of the Amplified Bible
...Acts 16:31 reads: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What does the word believe mean? Webster defines it: to place credence...apart from personal knowledge; to expect or hope...to be more or less firmly persuaded of the truth of anything, to think or suppose. In this sense, most people believe in Christ --that He lived; that He was a perfect Man Who sincerely believed Himself to be the Son of God, and that He died on the cross to save sinners. But this is by no means the meaning of the Greek word which twenty-two New Testament versions out of twenty-four consulted render believe. They do so because there is no one English word that adequately conveys the intended meaning. Actually, the Greek word used here for believe is pisteuo. It means to adhere to, cleave to, to trust, to have faith in; to rely on. Consequently the words, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ really mean to have an absolute personal reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

This is the way Acts 16:31 reads in the Amplified Bible
31And they answered, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ give yourself up to Him, [take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into His keeping] and you will be saved, [and this applies both to] you and your household as well