What Precisely Must One Believe About Jesus?
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Paul put it this way in 1 Tim 1:16, I obtained mercy...as a pattern to those
who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life (emphasis added). Note the
same three elements: believe, Jesus, everlasting life.
The object of faith is not the cross or the resurrection. Packer put it this way:
What the New Testament calls for is faith in (en) or upon (epi)
Christ Himself--the placing of our trust in the living Saviour, who
died for our sins. The object of saving faith is thus not, strictly
speaking, the atonement, but the Lord Jesus Christ, who made
atonement.
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The cross and resurrection are the means by which Jesus can fulfill His promise of
eternal life to all who simply believe in Him.
So we err if we fail to make it clear that all who simply believe in Jesus have
everlasting life.
A person might believe in the deity of Christ and not believe that all who
simply believe in Jesus have eternal life. Belief in the deity of Christ is not enough
to result in a person gaining eternal life.
Similarly, a person might even believe in substitutionary atonement and yet
not believe that Jesus gives eternal life to all who simply believe in Him. If we
share the cross and do not make it clear that simply by faith in Jesus we have
everlasting life, then we have not shared the gospel clearly.
As the Titanic was sinking, a British Pastor, John Harper was clinging to
wreckage. He was on his way to America to preach a series of messages at Moody
Church. Instead, he was preaching in icy waters. A man drifted near him and he
said, Are you saved? The man replied, No, but I`d like to be. Harper said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Then the waves
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J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, p. 66. Note, however, that Packer doesn`t believe that one can
have faith in Jesus apart from a host of things including, faith in atonement, recognition of one`s sinfulness,