“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
Belief - a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The title ‘Lord’ is the English equivalent to the Hebrew ‘Jehovah’. It is the name the Jews never utter. Whenever it occurs in scripture they substitute the name ‘Elohim’ for God or ‘Adonai’ for Lord. The meaning of Jehovah is either ‘HE IS’ or ‘I AM’ depending on its usage. “ … it denotes the self-existence, independence, immutability, and infinite fullness of the divine Being, which is a pledge that he will fulfill all his promises.”* If you take the Bible in its entirety and don’t just pick and choose the verses that you like, believe and adhere to, you will find that when the Bible says that all you have to do is proclaim “Jesus is Lord” or as it says in verse 13 “call on the name of the Lord and you shall be saved” it doesn’t mean that you can proclaim these truths and then simply go on with your life. That would be the same as realizing that God loved me no matter what state I am in and not allow that fact to change you.
When we come to the realization that Jesus truly is our Savior, having saved us from the fiery pit of hell, we should also understand that He desires to be our Lord as well. He is capable of doing for us whatever is necessary for us to succeed in this life, but our success cannot be measured monetarily. Our success is linked to our obedience to the word of God which is found in the Bible. Being a Christian involves a whole lot more than just declaring “yes, I believe in God”. James 2:19 tells us that the demons of hell believe in Christ and shudder and quake in fear at the sound of His name. God is not some genie in a bottle that we call on whenever we need Him. God is the Almighty Creator of all things and deserving of all glory, honor and praise. We are to shed our old skin and become all He knows we can be FOR HIM and His kingdom.
WALK WITH THE KING TODAY AND BE A BLESSING!
* American Tract Bible Society Dictionary
