Believe in Christ and you will be saved. That’s true, as long as we understand what it means to believe in Christ. After all, everyone in this passage believed in Jesus in one way or another.

Thinik about the unclean spirits, the demons in verse 11. They had the most accurate intellectual understanding of anyone recorded here. They knew good and well that Jesus was in fact the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity. But just knowing Who Jesus is doesn’t mean the demons were saved. And the only reason they fell down before Him was because they were overwhelmed by His power – they were not willing subjects of His Kingdom.

And think about the multitudes that flocked around Him. They certainly believed in Jesus’ power to heal them. And like the disciples, some of them may have come to understand that Jesus was in fact the Messiah God had promised to His people. But they weren’t any more obedient to Jesus than the demons were – that’s why Jesus had to get in a boat and move away from the crowd standing on the shore in order to teach them. They didn’t really want to hear what He had to say – they just wanted to touch Him and receive a physical blessing.

No, acknowledging Jesus’ power while continuing to rebel against His authority isn’t believing in Him. And just admitting that Jesus has power so that you can wheedle some blessings out of Him for yourself isn’t believing in Him either.

So, what does it mean to believe in Jesus? It means bowing the knee before His sovereign majesty, accepting His gracious pardon, turning away from our rebellion and living as His loyal and grateful subjects. It means trusting Him not only to forgive us, but to give us the blessings He thinks we need according to His timetable. In short, it means transferring our trust from ourselves to Jesus.

So, do you believe in Jesus?

Mark 3:7-12 (NASB)

7 And Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea,
8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude heard of all that He was doing and came to Him.
9 And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the multitude, in order that they might not crowd Him;
10 for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed about Him in order to touch Him.
11 And whenever the unclean spirits beheld Him, they would fall down before Him and cry out, saying, “You are the Son of God!”
12 And He earnestly warned them not to make Him known.