Look to Jesus: what it means to believe in him

Thirty years ago this May I prayed to receive Jesus Christ to be my Savior from my sins. I’ve questioned whether I was really “saved” at that time or not, because how much did I really understand at such a young age? I wondered about the timing of my salvation for most of my 20s. But the more I understand what the Bible says about salvation and our Savior, I’m more convinced than ever that I was genuinely saved at almost-6-years-old when I prayed to “ask Jesus in my heart.”

Although I haven’t used the phrase, “Ask Jesus in your heart” with my own kids (we instead use phrases such as, “Trust Jesus to save you from your sins”), when I turned to the Lord as a child, I did clearly understand two crucial things: 

(1) I am a sinner, and

(2) If I ask him, Jesus will save me from sin and hell. 

I could not have articulated it at 6 years old, but at that age, in my heart I looked by faith to Christ to rescue me, and Jesus’s promise is that “…whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

It is not our knowledge by itself or the words we say that save us, nor can our fervency, zeal, or passion make us right with God. It is the OBJECT of our faith who saves us, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, the reason I want to press in on my conversion as a young child is because I believe it highlights the God that saves. And remembering that initial joyful, life-giving look to Christ is a balm to tired Christians, because the Good News isn’t simply the starting line of our pilgrimage: it’s the hope of our entire journey.

One of the greatest explanations of coming to Jesus for salvation is given by our Lord himself in John 3, when Jesus refers to a situation recorded in Numbers 21:4-9. You may already know the story of The Bronze Serpent.

The people had sinned, and “the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.” And so God provided a means by which the people could be saved from the deadly snake bites. He told Moses to “make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that the serpent on the pole is a picture of himself and how he would be lifted up on a cross to die: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

The little 6-year-old Amanda didn’t understand a lot, but she knew she had been bitten by the serpent — she knew she had a sin problem and that she would die and go to hell unless Jesus rescued her. How could she be saved from certain death? She could be saved by looking to the Man on the cross. He died so she could live. She looked because she wanted rescue, and what is Jesus’s promise? “Whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:15).

Jesus’s definition of “believe” is explained by the Bronze Serpent story he reminds Nicodemus about. A snake-bitten-Israelite had only to look up to the serpent on the pole and be healed from his snake bite. Do you think there could have been unbelieving, rebellious Israelites who wouldn’t look? “Look up, Israelite!” we might plead. “Just look to the snake on the pole and you will be well.” And maybe some Israelite refused to look away from himself for his rescue; maybe he covered his eyes and went back in his tent to avoid even the shadow cast by the pole.

Due to the strike of that serpent of old, Satan, you and I have all been bitten, too, but our bite is eternally more deadly. Our problem is not a physical wound and ensuing death, but a spiritual cancer with a coming, sure eternal death.

And yet there is a remedy! Jesus Christ was made sin for us. The serpent lifted up on the pole represents Jesus himself, bearing in his body the reproach and shame that is ours. And to anyone who will look to him for rescue from their terrible sin-bite, he will forgive their sin and that person will live.

And yet there are many, thousands and millions, even, of snake-bit souls who shield their eyes from the cross, returning to their tents lest the light of the glory of God should illuminate their ghastly, deadly condition. Do not hide your eyes from looking to Jesus who died for you!

Come to Jesus and live. Look to him — put your trust in Jesus who died on the cross in your place for your sin. In your heart, do not trust in your own reasoning or goodness, or even your own fervency or emotion. Could your tears forever flow, and your zeal no respite know, these for sin cannot atone — Jesus must save, and Jesus alone!

And so, bringing nothing to Jesus in order to obtain the cure – no gift, no exchange or bargaining, no offering of even your very life – look to Jesus and live.

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else,” Isaiah 45:22.

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I read this sermon by Charles Spurgeon in my mid-twenties when I was wrestling with whether or not I had truly trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and been saved. It helped me greatly, and I think it made the gospel more clear to me. If you are doubting or questioning your salvation, I hope you’ll take time to read it.

I also want to point you to another specific resource for those who may be questioning their own salvation. The Bible gives “tests” to know whether we are really Christians or not — God’s design is not to leave us waffling in doubt. 1 John contains many of those tests, and I commend this free pdf booklet by John MacArthur to anyone who wants aid in working through God’s tests for salvation in 1 John.