Read transcript below.
Keywords
belief, identity, New Covenant, transformation, spiritual growth, faith, forgiveness, living water, children of God, radical repentance
Summary
In this episode of Dispatches from the Spiritual Front, Alan Wartes explores the profound significance of belief in the Christian faith. He emphasizes that belief is not just a label but a transformative identity that connects believers to God’s promises. Wartes discusses the New Covenant, highlighting how it empowers believers through the Holy Spirit, enabling them to live out their faith fully. The conversation encourages listeners to embrace their identity as children of God and to understand the depth of what it means to believe in Jesus.
Takeaways
Belief is the key to becoming children of God.
Our identity as believers transcends labels like ‘Christian’.
The New Covenant offers transformative power through the Holy Spirit.
Radical repentance involves complete surrender to God.
Forgiveness is just the beginning of what Jesus secured for us.
Every promise God made is accessible to believers.
We are called to be fountains of living water in Christ.
True belief requires faith and obedience.
God’s grace completes both sides of the covenant.
To believe is to see the glory of God.
Chapters
00:00 The Power of Belief
03:03 Identity Beyond Labels
06:09 The New Covenant and Transformation
Transcript
Welcome, I’m Alan Wartes and this is Dispatches from the Spiritual Front. We begin today’s episode with a pair of verses from the Gospel of John, the first one from chapter one.
“Yet to all who received him, to all who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision husband’s will, but born of God” John 1: 12-13.
Then in chapter seven, Jesus says:
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” John 7:38.
You probably noticed that those two verses have a key word in common. It’s a word that’s also become very common in everyday Christian use, to the point where we’re in danger of forgetting the truth it represents.
As words go, it’s rather humble and easy to overlook, but that’s deceptive because this one word expresses and defines the whole object of God’s infinitely patient plan: to restore us to all that we lost in Eden. It is the center around which all our Father’s promises and all his judgments pivot.
The word? To believe.
“To those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” And for all who believe, “rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
I mean, wow, right?
The writer Robert Fulghum once shared in an essay his frustration at having to label himself. We’ve all experienced when someone we’ve just met asked the question, “So what do you do?” And whatever you answer sort of collapses your marvelous complexity as a person into single dimension.
Fulghum had done a lot of things in his life and he bristled at the idea of having to pick just one thing to define himself. He wanted an answer that was broader and more fundamental.
He finally came up with a solution by asking, what is it that we all do from the moment we arrive here? Well, we breathe, he decided. So he took to introducing himself as a breather. He even had business cards made with that title.
Now that’s a funny story, but I really think he’s onto something.
I’d like to suggest that for those who trust in Jesus, there is also an overarching word that describes what we do and who we are:
Believer. One who believes.
When you say that about yourself, it doesn’t collapse your identity. It explodes it beyond anything we can ask or imagine.
We also refer to ourselves as Christians collectively, but honestly, that word can mean just about anything these days. It covers so many denominations and doctrines and creeds — whose members are sadly often at each other’s throats over the differences between them — that calling yourself a Christian when meeting someone new is no guarantee of common ground. We’ve all experienced that, and it’s sad but true.
The Bible doesn’t say to those who belong to a religious affinity group, he gives the right to become sons of God. No, it says to those who received him, those who believe in his name.
First, we believe that Jesus paid for our sins, something that we could never do for ourselves. Old Testament law made that very clear, as Paul repeatedly wrote.
But if you stop there, you might as well continue calling yourself a “breather” or whatever else you like. Yeah, salvation is yours, but until, by surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit within you, you have believed the rest of what Jesus purchased for us, then you’ll remain with one foot in the Old Covenant and one foot in the New.
With this in mind, James wrote that such a person is “double-minded and unstable in all they do,” and furthermore, shouldn’t expect to receive what they ask for from God, for lack of faith.
So what is the rest of what Jesus secured for us in His death and resurrection?
It’s just as huge as the forgiveness of sin!
What follows that is the fulfillment of every promise God ever made to those who believe in Him by faith. Think about that for a minute.
This is exactly what Ezekiel foresaw when he wrote in chapter 36:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh; I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them” Ezekiel 36:26-27.
How can that be? I mean, we all know good and well that we’re still weak and susceptible to sin.
Well, here’s how. Under the terms of the New Covenant, Jesus delivers God’s part of the deal — the promised redemption — and our part — faith and obedience — by transforming us from within by the work of the Holy Spirit.
The mind-blowing good news in the Gospel is not just that we’re forgiven, though that would be enough! The scandalous grace of the New Covenant is that God, through Jesus as our High Priest and Mediator, does our part too. Both sides of the deal are now completed, unlocking for us every promise God ever made to us in His great love.
Here and now.
To truly be a “believer” — not just a redeemed breather — is to believe that and surrender to it without holding anything back.
That is radical repentance.
That is the essence of coming out of Babylon, of being transported as a new creature into a new kingdom.
This is what it means to become a child of God, “not of natural descent or human decision or a husband’s will.” In other words, not by our own power or understanding, but by His. This is how to become a fountain of living water in Christ.
It’s all summed up in this word: believe.
Believe it. Believe it all, believe it all the way.
I want to leave you with a quote from a book called “The Two Covenants” by Andrew Murray.
“Dear believer, come and be a believer. Believe that God is showing you how entirely the Lord Jesus wants to have you and your life for Himself. How entirely He is willing to take charge of you and work all in you. If you believe, you will see the glory of God. What Christ has undertaken, you confidently count on His performing.” Andrew Murray, “The Two Covenants”
Until next time …
