What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

Jesus proclaims sin is that people do not believe in him. (Jn.16:9)  What does Jesus mean?  Is it unbelief in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Father?  Is it unbelief in his innocence as the victim of the violence of Jewish rulers, Roman leaders, and the crowds?

The message of the Gospel is this: turn around for the reign of God is coming.  Believe the good news of God's love, forgiveness, renewed relationship, and renewed purpose which is received by faith and promises the future renewal of all creation.  

What does it mean to believe in Jesus?  Is it to believe he is the Messiah, the Christ, sent by God for our salvation?  Is it to believe he gave his life as a sacrifice our sin?  Is it to entrust our lives to Christ as Savior and Lord?  In Romans, Paul writes, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." (Rom.10:9)

We have lost the revolutionary nature of this confession.  To publicly proclaim that Jesus is Lord sets one against all the powers of this world.  In the religious world, it sets the Christian in opposition to all other religions.  In the Roman world, Caesar is Lord.  Today, "Caesar is Lord" is manifested in wealth, power, weapons of mass destruction, and the prestige of social media.  To believe that God raised him from the dead is to live at the core of your being that Jesus is an innocent victim who vindicates all those who are victims of this world's powers.

We think of belief as primarily an intellectual assent.  We can believe propositions about Jesus without action.  Jesus calls us to believe and follow - to be disciples.  What does this entail?  The church is build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone.  (Eph 2:20).  He is the stone the builders rejected, but has become the cornerstone of a new edifice, the church. 

He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Is. 53:3).  He associated with tax collectors and "sinners."  He restored prostitutes and lepers.  He welcomes children, the crippled, lame, afflicted, and all who are neglected.  He dispels the darkness of possession to restore sufferers to their right mind.  He defends those accused and offers forgiveness to all.  He challenges the powerful, the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees who shut the kingdom of God in rules, regulations, and rituals which perpetuates violence and separates the religiously righteous from "sinners."  He was mostly silent before the rulers, Herod, Pilate, Annas, and Caiaphas.  Jesus give a voice to the innocent, to the sheep without a shepherd. 

However, he does not merely accomplish this in word, but in deed by proclaiming that he is sent by God to usher in the Kingdom of God.  This kingdom is in opposition to the kingdoms of this world.  This results in direct confrontation and conflict with the rulers of this present age.  How is culture transformed by Christ?  Not merely by his ethical teaching, most of which can be found elsewhere in the Jewish scriptures.  Rather, it is through his life, death, and resurrection that this foundation is constructed.  His death as the innocent lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  His resurrection through which he triumphs over the most powerful and earliest relic of human culture - the grave.

The transformation begins with his disciples as they initially abandon their teacher in acts of imitation of the crowd and self-preservation.  However, he appears to them in resurrected form and they are indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God to become witnesses to his innocence and triumph over the power of the grave.  They boldly proclaim this message and gather believers from all walks of life who embrace the message.  The leaven of the innocent victim slowly permeates the Roman world and, in the millennia which follows, the Western world.

The edifice of Western culture is built upon the same violent foundation, but contains the prophetic critique of Jesus.  In our culture, we are under the guardianship of powers which protect our safety.  We have a complex system of reciprocal relationships which govern our social relationships.  We share a foundation of violence and a heroic system.  We scapegoat the past and are surrounded by whitewashed tombs.  However, we have the leaven of the gospel and the foundation of the kingdom of God which challenges the edifice of human culture.