It's All About Whom You Believe
“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12)
The Apostle Paul had been thrown in prison for preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here he is in jail and he writes to the young evangelist Timothy and says, “…I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” A lot of people think that salvation is some kind of a commitment that they make to God. In other words, “I promise that if You will save me Lord, I will do so and so.” That is not what Paul is talking about here when he uses the word, “committed.” He is saying that “I have committed something to Jesus for safe keeping. I am trusting Jesus with the matter of my soul’s salvation. I am persuaded that He is able. I have put the responsibility of getting me safe home to heaven into His hands and I am persuaded that when the Day of Judgment comes, He will keep that which I have committed unto Him.” It is like committing money to a bank and trusting the bank to keep it safe. The word “keep” in this verse has the idea of guarding something. Here comes the thief to the bank to steal your money, but bank security is guarding and protecting it. Here comes the judgment day, but Jesus Christ is guarding your salvation. He will keep you safe from judgment.
Notice that Paul did not say, “I know WHAT I have believed.” He said, “I know WHOM I have believed.” Many people are trusting a WHAT to get them to heaven. They say, “Oh, I trust my church to get me to heaven.” But, it is not a matter of what you believe, but whom you believe. Going to church will no more make you into a Christian than going to a garage will make you into an automobile. If you are trusting in a church or good works or baptism or any THING to get you to heaven, then you are not saved. The Bible is clear, only Jesus Christ can save you, and your faith must be in Him alone.
Acts 4:12 says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Jesus says that He is the way to the Father. No one can come to the Father but by Him. If Jesus is the way, then how can baptism, or church, or good works be the way? If there is no other name given among men, whereby we must be saved, then how can a man say that the Bible teaches that there is some other way to heaven besides the Lord Jesus Christ? It is not WHAT you believe, but WHOM you believe.
If you have trusted in Jesus Christ for your salvation then you are saved. If you are trusting in a church, or good works, or baptism, then you are lost. It is not WHAT you believe but WHOM you believe.
Also, it is not a matter of WHERE you believe. You can be saved anywhere. Do you think that God is limited in His power so that He can only save people at church? If that is true, then how did the jailor in the story that we just read get saved in jail? Or, how did Zacchaeus, the tax collector in Luke nineteen get saved in a tree? How did Cornelius in Acts chapter ten get saved at home? It is not WHERE you believe but WHOM you believe.
It is also not a matter of HOW you believe. Some people think that in order to be saved, that they must cry and be extremely sorry for their sins. I used to think that I wasn’t sorry enough for my sins, and truth of the matter is, I wasn’t. No one is. We can never look on sin with the same hatred and contempt as a Holy God. Sorrow over sin is a good thing, but the point of “I know whom I have believed” is that in order to have assurance of your salvation, you must stop looking at yourself, and what your motives are, and how sorry you are, and you must look to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will look to Him and see His death on the cross as the answer to your sin problem then you can have assurance. Simple faith in Jesus Christ brings eternal salvation to the sinner.