What Must I Believe?

This is a question that is often asked, is it not? People who want to know if they are ready to be baptized ask this question. People who teach others ask this question in helping to know if a person is ready to obey the gospel. And it's often given long answers. Often we may answer it with explanations of various doctrines. Yet the Bible gives us several short, easy to understand answers to this question.

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

I John 5:1

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Matthew 16:16
We must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the Christ. We must believe that He is long prophecied and awaited Messiah that came for our salvation.

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
I Corinthians 15:14
We must believe that Jesus was crucified for our sins, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day.

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Hebrews 5:9
We must know that He is our Savior if we obey Him. The belief that we must obey Him is vitally important if we are going to actually obey Him.

If we consider passages that deal with the conversion of individuals (Acts 2,8, & 9 for example) , we see very simple initial belief in these things. This is the starting point, the point of choosing to follow the Lord. On Pentecost, Peter told the people gathered who the Christ was, and told them what they needed to do in order to be saved (Acts 2:38). In Acts 8, Philip teaches the Ethiopian Eunuch who makes the good confession as Peter had done, and responds obediently in baptism to be saved. In Acts 9, The Lord appears to Paul, telling Paul who He is. Paul then believes and responds in obedient baptism.

Our initial faith is in just a few key points. And after we obey, consider how we grow in Christ! (Hebrews 5:12-6:3) Consider how much more there is! This initial faith is not the end of our walk with Christ. It is the very beginning.