John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Here is the difference between belief and faith.

Jesus is the bread of life and I believe in Jesus. See, here, I can show you, He is right here in my lunch box. I can take the bread and prove to you I have it. See this is my belief.

Jesus is the bread of life and I have faith in Christ. I ate the bread. He nourishes my soul. I am alive because I ate.

John 6:52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

If you are having a hard time understanding how faith can do this, you are not alone. Many struggle with this very thing. On this issue I must confess I did not understand at first how faith eats because my focus was on eating with my mouth.

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Here once again the word believe is used as faith. Faith consumes the bread of life with the heart. If you take what Jesus said in John 6 and translate it into what Paul is saying in Romans 10 then it would sound like this; I confess I ate the bread of life for I have taken it to heart.

Belief is a mental condition, faith is a spiritual yearning of the heart, a longing for God.

Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

First of all I must ask this one thing. What are you being saved from? It is not only a vital question, it is the only question at hand this moment.

We were talking about being lost. Did you get what lost meant? Being lost to a personal relationship with God is being lost. The whole point of this saving faith is restoration of relationship and if it is not, you may find yourself on a path of wandering aimlessly, searching for answers to the wrong question.

Sin is the barrier to relationship with God and sin has to be dealt with in order to restore a right relationship with your creator. If you feel lonely and want to be surrounded by loving people you can find that but it will not satisfy that hole inside you, that longing for God. They cannot make you whole again. Only God can restore a right relationship with God. People cannot do it and you cannot do it. Only God can.

There will be many who will focus your attention of the penalty of sin, eternal damnation. They have their point and if fear is great enough, this persuasive argument will get you into church, get you into studies, will get you into performance of rituals, but will not save you because that alone will not restore your relationship with God.

God provided each and every one of us with a measure of faith to restore that relationship. It admits that in the most quoted scripture in the Bible.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Whosoever is all inclusive, meaning that anyone can be saved IF they put that faith in Christ. I emphasize IF because once again the word believe is used in place of faith here. There is no saving belief, there is only saving faith.