“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”

Eph. 1:13 opens with "In whom ye also trusted." In whom, in Christ, ye, you Ephesians, also trusted in Christ, which was designed to be compared to the trust at the end of the previous verse. Just as the Father trusted in Christ, so too, ye also trusted in Him after you heard the Gospel. The Father trusted in Him before the cross. We trust in Him after the cross. The Father trusted that His Son would make that sacrifice. We trust in that sacrifice He made and the promised redemption of our bodies.

Notice also that after you heard the Gospel, you trusted in Christ personally. In Him you trusted. A relationship of trust in God was established when you accepted the gospel by faith. You didn’t simply believe in the facts of the Lord’s payment for sin and His death, burial, and resurrection. When you heard the gospel, you also trusted in Christ personally. In whom ye also trusted. In Christ you also trusted. When you heard the gospel and you said, “Yes, Lord, I believe,” in that moment, Christ became the object of your trust. You accepted by faith who Christ is. You also accepted by faith that He paid for your sins.

Everything about the gospel and your eternal destiny hinges upon who Christ is. The gospel can’t be true unless Christ is the Son of God, because only the Son of God could be sinless, and only the sacrifice of a sinless person would be an acceptable payment for all of your sins. Everything about your salvation and your eternal destiny hinges upon the truth of who Christ is. When you got saved, you trusted in Christ personally. Your faith is an expression of an intimate personal trust in the person of Christ Jesus.

But in Eph. 1:13, Paul doesn't only say, "In whom ye also trusted. He also says, "in whom also after that ye believed." Is there a difference between trust and belief?

Trust

Let’s look at the definitions in Webster’s 1828 beginning with trust. There were many definitions for trust. I’m just sharing the first two.

TRUST, noun 1. Confidence; a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle of another person. He that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe (Prov. 29:25). 2. He or that which is the ground of confidence. O Lord God, thou art my trust from my youth. (Psa. 71:1)

Notice the second definition. He says, “He OR THAT which is the ground of confidence.” Something other than a person can be the ground of one’s confidence. This is Biblical. Do you remember 1 Tim. 6:17? “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God.” Or you might remember Paul saying in Php. 3:4, “If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.” A person can place their trust in a person or a thing like riches or the flesh. You can also misplace your trust in lies.

Belief

Let's now look at Webster's definition of belief.

BELIE'F, noun 1. A persuasion of the truth, or an assent of mind to the truth of a declaration, proposition or alleged fact, on the ground of evidence, distinct from personal knowledge; as the belief of the gospel; belief of a witness. Belief may also be founded on internal impressions, or arguments and reasons furnished by our own minds; as the belief of our senses; a train of reasoning may result in belief; belief is opposed to knowledge and science. 2. In theology, faith, or a firm persuasion of the truths of religion.

At the heart of belief is a persuasion of a truth without physical evidence sitting in front of you. Notice that one’s belief in something can come from a variety of sources. We often say we believe in the gospel because of the integrity of the source – God Himself and His love and grace shown to us at Calvary. But you can also believe something someone told you even if you don’t trust that person. My mother was a nut about true crime shows. Investigators might interrogate a murderer and believe something the murderer said, not because they trust that person but because what he or she said lines up with the evidence. Or they may believe the testimony of a witness until they come across evidence to the contrary that makes them think otherwise. The point is, having a belief is not always the acceptance of something you were told based upon the integrity of that person. Webster said, “Belief may also be founded on internal impressions.”

When it comes to faith, I would argue that belief and trust are practically synonymous. When the Philippian jailor said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul did not say “Believe on AND TRUST IN the Lord Jesus Christ.” He only said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Because when it comes to faith, belief and trust are practically synonymous. If you have been persuaded of a truth, then you have also placed your confidence in that truth. To believe that something is true, you are also placing your trust in that truth. If you believe it is true, then you are also trusting that it is true. If you didn’t trust it, you wouldn’t believe it. Being persuaded of a truth also means that you have been moved to have confidence in that truth. Belief and trust both involve the acceptance of something as being true. And neither belief nor trust require absolute proof.

Trust has been described as a bridge that connects people to each other. We’re connected to each other because we trust each other. Likewise, our eternal life and our relationship to God is also built upon belief and trust. We believe because we’re persuaded by God. We have placed our confidence upon the truth God revealed to us in the Gospel. We became connected to God through our trust in Him, our trust in what His Son accomplished at Calvary, and our trust in His Word, the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation. We are connected to Him when we trust in Him and in His Word to us.

When we accept the gospel, what is it we’re trusting? We placed our confidence in the testimony God gave us about His Son. We were fully persuaded by what God told us in the gospel, that all of our sins are blotted out by the blood of His Son, that our sins have been perfectly judged at the cross of Christ. “The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ [is given] unto all and upon all them that believe” (Rom. 3:22).

How strongly does one have to believe and trust to get saved? I think God is gracious with His grace. I remember Fred often talking about the assent of the mind. There is an assent in the mind when you accept the Gospel. You think, “Yes, I believe.” I suspect that even the slightest, faintest assent in the mind in accepting the gospel will get a person saved.

You just must believe.

Today, the value is not so much in how strongly you believe in the gospel, although believing the gospel is essential to get saved, but the value is placed upon Christ Himself, not a church, any man, or that there is a God. Believing is simply the answer to, what is in the sight of God, the immeasurable worth of His Son and His sacrifice on our behalf. By accepting those truths, by believing in His Son, and trusting in His payment for all our sins, God the Father saves your soul and gives you eternal life by declaring you righteous and sending His Spirit to transform you and indwell you.

By Joel Hayes