Imagine if you were in a theater and someone shouted "fire!" In that moment, would you stay or would you run? It all depends on whether or not you believe the person who said it. If you believed the person, you would likely either run or find the nearest fire extinguisher. If you were skeptical and did not, you would likely remain in your seat wondering who the jerk was who was trying to interrupt your movie.
Action betrays belief.
Now, let me ask you this, if you were taking a class in, say, metalworking or blacksmithing, which requires that you work around heavy and dangerously hot materials, would you or would you not believe what your instructor was telling you about how to handle those materials? You would have to trust that the instructor knew what he was talking about. You would have to put your faith in his experience in the field, and do what he taught you in order to not get hurt, and to fashion implements out of metal correctly. To trust in your instructor is to believe what he says and put what he says into practice.
The same is true of putting your faith in Jesus Christ. How many times are we told that salvation is by faith alone, and all that we need do is believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins? And how many times are His actual words and teachings disregarded or explained away because they're inconvenient? Because they require action? Because they don't follow whatever party line (theological, political, or philosophical) we adhere to?
Belief doesn't work that way, and when the Scripture talks about believing in Jesus Christ, none of the authors are describing this crippled and empty shell of what faith in Jesus Christ truly means. Without the evidence of action, faith isn't faith no matter how much you say you believe something. At worst, you're lying to yourself and everyone else.
To put your faith in Jesus Christ also means putting your faith in what He said and taught. It means listening to Him and following His instructions just like a blacksmith's apprentice must follow the instructions of his master if he wants to progress in his craft without getting hurt. As Jesus Christ Himself said, "He who hears my words and doesn't do them is like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand (at the bottom of a desert wadi where it is most vulnerable) and the winds and rains and floods came and the house fell because it had no foundation." And also, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do anything I say?"
How long would the blacksmith's apprentice last if he completely ignored the master blacksmith's instruction and admonitions? It's likely he would severely burn himself, if not kill himself. This is every person who professes faith in Christ and ignores what He taught. If you don't trust Him enough to know what He's talking about, how can you claim to have put your faith in Him?
If you, by your actions, disavow His teachings, how can you claim faith in Him? "Oh yes, I trust you but I'm not going to do anything you say." Is that even logical? If you do not remain in Him, if you do not deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow Him, if you do not forgive, let go of everything to attain Him, if you judge, if you do not turn the other cheek neither love your enemies, if you don't practice what He taught and insisted on as conditions of discipleship, how can you claim faith in Him? Even the demons know for a fact that He died for our sins. Even they know for a fact He is God and man and will return. And yes, they shake with fear at that knowledge. Belief without action isn't belief at all. It's lip service and self deception at best.
Belief is a binary option. You either do or you don't. There is no such thing as a spectrum of belief. This is why Jesus used the illustration of faith as small as a mustard seed being able to move a mountain. You either believe something or you do not believe it. There is no in-between. There is no, "Well, I sort of believe it." or "I mostly believe it." You either believe it or you don't. If you say you believe in Christ but do nothing that He said, what exactly is it that you believe in? What are you putting your trust in?
You either believe in Jesus Christ or you don't, and your actions will betray this with every moment and every action taken. It is one thing to struggle against your own malfunctioning flesh. God knows I struggle every day with surrendering to Christ within me against my own physiological impulses and ideas. We all do this. It is a process of turning away from yourself and towards Him and the struggle is real. This is not what I am talking about. It is however quite another thing entirely from this to totally disregard His teachings altogether because you just don't want to do them, or because they don't align with your personal philosophical beliefs.
How many of us, having professed faith in Christ with our lips, will find ourselves in unending darkness because we ignored Him with our actions? How many of us will find a nasty surprise because we ignored His commands to remain in Him, to love God, our neighbors, our enemies, and one another? How many of us are going to be told, "I don't know you," because we held the traditions, doctrines, and forms of our religion, and through our actions completely denied any faith in Jesus Christ even to the point of not really knowing Him at all?
You can profess His teachings all you want, you can evangelize all you want, you can run all the ministries you want, but if His life is not manifested within you (not you trying to imitate Him but Him actually acting and speaking through you), if no one can see Jesus Christ in what you do and say, if you do not surrender yourself to His death as He taught, then you aren't one of His. As Paul wrote in Romans, "anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ is none of His."
Notice, I'm not talking about earning anything. I'm talking about actually believing Him and trusting in Him. What you do will show what you believe in any given moment or decision, one way or the other.
Salvation begins here. Now. In this life. It is brought to fulfillment with full theosis where we become like Him in His resurrected body (for most of us after our current fleshly bodies die). But it begins here and now with trusting in Him that He knows what He's talking about just as much as trusting in His death for our sins, burial, and resurrection. That theosis begins here and now with fully surrendering to Him and His life to which we were melded so that it is He who acts and speaks through us, and not our own experiential and physiological responses. That begins with simply trusting His words and following them.
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