I was reading Peter Enns’ The Sin of Certainty – Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our Correct Beliefs and apparently my words from last week’s Truth and Trust were still resonating in my head. Enns observes that the word translated as “believe” in most New Testament occurrences can also be translated as trust. He challenges his readers to read passages inserting “trust” whenever they come to the word “believe.”
He offered several examples and he’s definitely on to something. Now that he brought it to my attention I realize that those things in which I truly believe are where I place my trust.
Here are a couple of mine to jumpstart your thinking:
- Matthew 21:32: For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn’t even repent afterward, that you might believe him.
- Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
- Luke 24:25: He said to them, “Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
- John 12:44: Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.
- Acts 28:24: Some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.
- Romans 10:11: For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”
And then my mind turns to the Apostles Creed. “Believe” appears twice in the creed. Here I replace those two instances with “Trust.”
I trust in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
I trust in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
I definitely believe in God the Father Almighty, and the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Not only do I believe in them, I trust in them.
Trusting in my Lord,
Robert
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