Suppose you asked someone if they believed in me. Suppose he answered, “Sure, I know him. He’s the starting center for the Los Angeles Lakers. He’s a vegetarian and drinks light beer. During the off-season, he sells used cars.” If none of those things are true of me, can that person really say he believes in me? He’s used my name, but has been misinformed about who I am, or has willfully made me into someone he wishes I was. No, he does not know me, and does not believe in me. He believes a fiction.
Sadly, that is the situation for a great many who claim to be Christians. They believe in either a popular but fictional notion of Jesus, or a Jesus tailored to their own personal likes. They do not believe in Jesus any more than the character introduced above believes in me. If that person wants to know me, he’ll have to come to me and get the facts first hand. If he wants to know Jesus, he’ll have to do the same. He’ll have to go to the source and find the biblical Jesus.
However, it is possible to have all the right information, believe all the right facts, and yet be unsaved. Correct belief is surely a part of faith, but it is not the whole. Theologians divide faith into three elements: notitia (knowledge), assensus (assent), and fiducia (trust). If knowledge does not lead to assent, and assent to trust, real faith is not present. Mike McKinley writes,
[A] true Christian must believe in the factual truth of certain propositions. But . . . biblical belief or faith is more than intellectual assent to a set of truth propositions. Biblical belief or faith is a personal, heartfelt trust in a person.
The difference between these two kinds of belief isn’t too hard to see. Intellectual assent is like a sideways nod of the head to someone passing by while you continue on your merry way. A personal, heartfelt trust, however, means changing the direction in which you’re walking. Someone you love and trust has asked you to follow, and so you do. Heartfelt trust yields a happy obedience.
—Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian? (Crossway, 2011), 55.
Knowing and assenting to the truth about Jesus can only lead to trust if we understand our needy condition. Trust is moot until we find ourselves in need of someone to trust.
You are not a Christian just because you like Jesus. You must believe things about Jesus. You must believe that you need a Savior, and that he is that Savior. You must believe that you need a Lord, and that he is that Lord.
Our confidence must not merely be in things that once happened, but in the person who accomplished them. When we come to Jesus in trust for the forgiveness and healing that we so desperately need, we find that he is willing and able to help us.
—Ibid. (Crossway, 2011), 56.
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