6. 1 John 5:4-5. "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" John equates "believes" with "faith" not with "agree." To believe in Jesus, then, is to have faith in Jesus. This gives us more insight into what it means to believe. Faith is surely more than agreement. Faith entails the ideas of trust and surrender. Faith not only acknowledges facts, but throws itself upon those facts for salvation.

7. 1 John 5:12-13. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." John also ties "belief" to possession, possession of the Son, which means possession of eternal life. To "believe" is to "have" the Son. This is why I hold that NT belief means something like "embracing Christ." Believing in the name of the Son of God means to cling to Christ as your hope and salvation and life! Belief does not take hold of the truth about Christ; belief takes hold of Christ!

8. James 2:19. "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-and shudder!" The purpose of pointing out this verse is to demonstrate that the NT warns against equating saving belief with mere mental agreement to facts. Demons "believe," that is, they assent to facts about God. Yet their belief is not the saving kind. Non-Lordship advocates would reply that this verse has nothing to do with salvation. It is simply addressing monotheism. I would respond two-fold. (a) Monotheism - yes - but even more than that. It seems that James is recalling Deuteronomy 6:4 where Israel is told, "The Lord is one." This is not saying, "There is only one God (monotheism);" this is saying, "There is only one God, and He is Jehovah!" The demons not only believe in one God, they believe the one God is Jehovah. That is why they shudder! Once one admits that the one God is Jehovah, submission, worship, love, and service are automatically required. Hence, Deut. 6:5, "Love the Lord . . ."(b) That there are types of "belief" that are not saving is exactly James' point in the passage, for he has just said in verse 14, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?" Of course, the answer is "No." So an inactive faith does not save! Mental assent accompanied with no physical, emotional expressions is not a belief that saves.

9. John 9:24. "Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" To take the non-Lordship position, one would have to understand this father as saying, "I agree; help my disagreement," which doesn't seem to make sense or fit the context. It would seem he is saying something like "I believe (agree that this is possible); help my unbelief (now may I trust, may I cast myself upon your sufficiency, may I embrace this as true)" This father essentially acknowledges there is more than one kind of belief, and whatever the first belief contained, he knew it to be insufficient and lacking!

10. My experience. I saved this for the last point because it is subjective, but it is nonetheless true. I grew up in church agreeing with the Gospel message. I "believed" Jesus died for my sins and He was the only way of salvation. I would even defend that belief. However, I was not converted until I was 15! My conversion took place when I threw myself upon Christ because I knew I was sinful, hypocritical, and unsaved! It was then that I "believed" and was saved!

May the Lord grant us all the grace to believe in a saving way that Jesus Christ is Lord!