Why Believing On Jesus' Name Is Not Enough

Luke 18:31-34, “Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.”

According to Jesus in the preceding Scripture passage, the Old Testament prophets preached 'The Gospel.' I wrote this article about it. There has always been only one plan of salvation, never two! People in the Old Testament were saved by faith in the Messiah, with the understanding that He would pay for their sins with His blood. That's what the high priestly work in the Tabernacle was all about. The Israelites fully understood that “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22b). 

Dr. Bob Wilkin of the Grace Evangelical Society (GES), errantly teaches that a person cannot by saved by believing 'The Gospel.' According to Bob Wilkin, I quote:

“Nowhere in the entire Bible are we told that the person who believes the gospel has everlasting life, is saved, is justified, will never die spiritually, or anything of the kind.”

According to Pastor Wilkin, we should just believe on Jesus' name to be saved. 

If you are a born-again Christian, you absolutely won't believe what I am about to show you, check this out—a QUARTER of all professed “Christians” don't even believe that Jesus resurrected bodily from the dead.

They claim to have faith in a Savior that is still dead!!! What saith the Scripture? 

1st Corinthians 15:14-15, “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not." So here we see an example of why merely believing on Jesus is insufficient to be saved.”

So here we plainly see that it is not enough to merely believe on the name of Jesus, you MUST also believe that Christ DIED for your sins on the cross, and that He was BURIED, and then physically RESURRECTED three days later. This is what is taught by God's Word in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4. 

To be saved we must know WHO, WHAT and WHY concerning Christ:

• WHO is He? - Jesus is the CHRIST, the only begotten Son of God (John 20:31)
• WHAT did He do? - Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, was buried, and He resurrected the third day (1st Corinthians 15:1-4)
• WHY did He do it? - Because we are guilty needy sinners, and we need a Savior to get us to Heaven (Romans 5:15-19)

LAW and GRACE

We must see our need as sinners—deserving of hellfire for breaking God's commandments. That is what the LAW does, it shows humanity our sinnership and guilty condition in the sight of a holy God (Romans 3:19-20; 7:13); and then we must see the solution provided by God's GRACE, which is salvation through faith alone in the 'Gospel' ('Good News') of the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:9). 

So believing on the name of Jesus must be with the understanding of why we are believing on Him—because we are a guilty sinner, and Jesus has already paid our debt of sins, by His sacrifice on the cross. Jesus was buried, officiating that He was in fact physically dead. If Christ didn't raise up from the dead, then He cannot save anybody today. Therefore, we must believe that Jesus has been bodily resurrected from the dead. This is the 'Good News' (or, 'Gospel').

Moses preached 'The Gospel' to the children of Israel in the Wilderness...

Hebrews 4:2: "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."

Unfortunately, the Jews in the Wilderness heard the Gospel for 40 long miserable years, but they didn't have any faith in what they heard; just like Judas didn't, being one of Christ's very apostles. The Gospel only has the power to save THEM THAT BELIEVE (1st Corinthians 1:18, 21; Romans 1:16). The important thing for us to focus on is that the apostle Paul made very clear in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4, that we are saved IF WE KEEP IN REMEMBRANCE the Gospel which he taught...

1st Corinthians 15:1-4, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:"

If would seem clear to me from the preceding passage, that merely believing on the name of Jesus is in VAIN, if a person fails to grasp that Christ DIED for their sins on the cross, was BURIED and RESURRECTED the third day. So should a person believe 'The Gospel' or on Jesus' name to be saved? Dear friend, to believe 'The Gospel' is to believe on Jesus' name; and to believe on Jesus' name is to believe the Gospel, if you understand why you are trusting Christ as your personal Savior. 

“God's 'Words' are inspired, not just the 'Word' (Ezekiel 2:7 and 3:4 'words'; Isaiah 51:6 'words').” —Pastor Al Lacy, King James Bible Seminar, 1993 at Hyles-Anderson College