Jamin Bradley

We live in the world of express evangelism. We work hard to get people to pray a prayer. We run large emotional conferences where people come up to receive Jesus by the thousands. We preach cheap grace with a works-free gospel and then allow people to return home without changing. All we teach people to do for their salvation is to believe that Jesus is real and that he is the king of the cosmos—the same kind of things that demons believe.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that you’re actually saved by “pistis”—the Greek word we translate as “faith.” But as Bible scholars are starting to realize, a better English term for “pistis” is “allegiance.” In English, faith generally means “believe,” but this is only one part of what pistis is. The term “allegiance” expects us to do works, to be faithful to Jesus, and to think and act like he would.

This kind of faith is not the current climate of Western Christianity. Because we put so much stock in belief, not all Christians feel the need to think or act like Jesus. Indeed, some would call such a thing “legalistic” or “performance.” Therefore, the world hears about belief in Jesus through our lips, but they do not always see our allegiance to him in our lives or Christian beliefs. Our minds remain untransformed.

Jesus did evangelism by seeking out the hungry. While the masses came out to see him, he spoke in parables so only those who were supposed to understand would hear the meaning through a supernatural process. It’s not that Jesus didn’t want to save everyone—it’s just that everyone wasn’t ready to get saved. Many were just there to see the magic man do another magic trick. Jesus needed the hungry, allegiant ones to come to him as the Holy Spirit drew them closer.

Eyes on Jesus friends. There’s no clearer revelation of who God is. There’s no better person to act or think like.