Believing Vs. Belonging

Wednesday, August 23

Believing vs. Belonging
By: Melissa Beauvais

There is a huge difference in these two statements:
I believe in Jesus.
I belong to Jesus.
Say those again. Do you hear it? Do you feel it? For some, salvation becomes an insurance policy for the afterlife. If you say this prayer and do these things or not do these things, then you’re saved, and eternity is secured.

However, what if it is more than simply believing since even the demons knew who Jesus was when He walked this planet in the flesh and He approached them (Mark 1:23-24).  Belonging to Jesus means He is in you, and you are in Him (John 15:4-5). It is what Paul speaks about in Romans. This old life that was held by the grip of its master, which is sin, to this new life of righteousness whose Master is Christ.
 
Simply believing makes us think that following some sort of checkmark system points us to be righteous, for that was the Law. In Jesus, there is no Law; He is Law. When you belong to Jesus, there are no rules to follow or check marks and prayers that secure you with Him, for there is freedom in Christ. When you belong, as Paul states, the Law is innate within you (Romans 2:14). You choose to obey because it is who you are as image bearers and those who are called in Christ. In Christ you are already: chosen, redeemed, adopted, justified, worthy, saved (Romans 8). 

For those who have grown up in a place where rules, checks and balances were what made you Christian, I am sorry. You are free because Christ has set you free “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Freedom” (2 Corinthians 2:14).  Or perhaps you grew up in a space that prayed a simple prayer when you were young but never cultivated what that relationship meant or somehow distorted it, I am sorry. You too, are free, and you belong.

Christian Perfection, as Wesley coined the phrase, is “to have a mind which was in Christ and to “walk as He walked,” (John Wesley). To be so inwardly and outwardly connected and devoted to God in your “heart and life” means that one can “be Holy as I am Holy” (1 Peter 1:16). This is sanctification and growing in holiness. These are not rules to be followed or a list of things you do not do, but rather your life reflects the very love that is in you, and you live out. This is how we belong.