In our relationship with Christ, He asks for our obedience, not a warm feeling or a statement of belief. He asked those following Him, "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46).

I began this treatise titled "Are you really saved" in response to those claiming salvation based upon the believers prayer or the equivalent profession in Christ as their savior with out the attempt to totally follow and submit to Christ teaching. To gain the promises the Bible teaches that you must not only confess with your mouth but believe with your heart. If you really believe with your heart you will be committed to drawing closer God, understanding God, and following and submitting to Christ and His teachings. If one is not committed to this then they do not believe and the bible says they will be condemned. 

Luke 6:47-49 gives the parable that if a man hears and does not put what he hears into practice 'he will be compleatly destroyed.'

Romans 11:22 says: "Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off."

 As I studied it became obvious the important issue was that belief is the key to releasing Gods promises and power. The evidence of this position is presented below.

The word believe in the bible days met to have faith in, accept and follow (put into practice the teachings of). Today it has come to mean a mental accent. But even the devil gives mental accent to Christ.

We are given many promises based upon our belief: Life, salvation, receipt of what we pray for, and condemnation if we do not believe. This is not a mental accent of Christ position but a commitment to trust and follow him. I believe it is nothing less than the unconditional surrender of our will to His (God/Christ) as demonstrated by our willingness to keep his commandments and follow his teachings and Word. Any thing less is unbelief and will condemn us.

(John 6:28,29 NIV) Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe (pisteuo) in the one he has sent."

(John 8:24 NIV) I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe (pisteuo) that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins."

(John 11:25-27 NIV) Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes (pisteuo) in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe (pisteuo) this?" "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe (pisteuo) that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

(John 12:44 NIV) Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes (pisteuo) in me, he does not believe (pisteuo) in me only, but in the one who sent me.

(John 20:31 NIV) But these are written that you may believe (pisteuo) that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Rom 10:9,10 NIV) That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe (pisteuo) in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe (pisteuo) and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

(Mat 21:22 NIV) If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

(Mark 11:24 NIV) Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

(Mark 16:16 NIV) Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

(John 3:18 NIV) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

The greek word for believe is 4100. pisteuo, pist-yoo'-o; from G4102; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit; by impl. to entrust (espec. one's spiritual well-being to Christ):--believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.

(1 John 2:3 KJV) And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments

(1 John 2:5 KJV) But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

(Luke 6:46-49 NIV) "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

Holman Bible Dictionary Believe see Faith

Faith - FAITH Trusting commitment of one person to another, particularly of a person to God. Faith is the central concept of Christianity. One may be called a Christian only if one has faith.

Our English word "faith" comes from the Latin fides, as developed through the Old French words fei and feid. In Middle English (1150-1475) "faith" replaced a word that eventually evolved into "belief." "Faith" came to mean "loyalty to a person to whom one is bound by promise or duty." Faith was fidelity. "Belief" came to be distinguished from faith as an intellectual process having to do with the acceptance of a proposition. The verb form of "faith" dropped out of English usage toward the end of the sixteenth century.

New Testament Expressions The Greek noun, pistis (faith), is related to the verb pisteuo (I have faith, trust, believe). The noun and verb are found virtually everywhere in the New Testament, with the notable exception that the noun is absent altogether from John's Gospel and occurs only once in 1 John. The verb form does not occur in Philemon, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, or Revelation.

Classical Greek used pistis and pisteuo to mean "trust" or "confidence." In this period belief in the existence of the gods of the Greek pantheon would be expressed with the verb nomizo (to think, believe, hold, consider). In the Hellenistic period, however, both the noun and verb moved from secular to religious usage. The noun came to mean piety, and the verb took on the meaning "to believe"--a usage derived from debates with atheism in which faith required the overcoming of objections.

Faith as the Way to Salvation The concept of faith is primarily that of a personal relationship with God that determines the priorities of one's life. This relationship is one of love that is built on trust and dependence. We receive it by trusting the saving work of Jesus. Faith is the basic Christian experience, the decision for Christ Jesus. It is the acceptance of Christ's lordship (i.e., His God-given, absolute authority). In this sense faith is doubly a break from the past: it is one's removal from sin, and it is one's removal from all other religious allegiances (1 Thess. 1:9). As a break from the past, faith is the beginning of relation to God and not an end. It is, especially in Paul's letters, the inauguration of incorporation "in Christ," in which one continues to grow and develop.

If faith is primarily a relationship into which one enters through acceptance of Jesus' authority, it also includes a certain amount of "belief." As a derived use, then, "faith" may also denote the content of what is believed. In this sense faith is the conviction that God acted in the history of Israel and "that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). In theological usage "the faith" may refer to many more doctrines and dogmas that have been developed since New Testament times, but in the New Testament "that which must be believed" was more limited as Romans 10:9-10 may demonstrate.