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What Does It Really Mean to “Believe” in Jesus?                

This essay seeks to explain the spiritual concept of “believing” relative to salvation as portrayed through the gospel of John. It is the focal word John and Jesus use to describe entrance into saving relationship with God through Christ. It is a word also assumed to be so basic and commonly understood as to require no discussion. But as we shall see, the meaning of believing is not very well (if at all) truly understood among most of us. 

We attempt this study because, without grasping John’s thorough exposition of this very spiritual term, we are otherwise led to a false sense of salvation based on a shallow idea of believing as a self-generated “work” of the soul (usually called a “decision”) extracted by an equally soul-driven work of persuasion (wrongly called “evangelism” or “witnessing”)—concepts completely contrary to Jesus’ own spiritual teaching and practice throughout John’s gospel.   

Removing the Passionist Veil from John 3:16

The most famous verse in evangelical Christendom is John 3:16, which says (as most commonly translated):

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Taken utterly alone without context, the evangelical church (including some of its translators) has spun a passionist aura about this verse depicting an emotion-driven God taking a sacrificial action through Christ that promises eternal life to anyone who chooses to make a positive decision about that sacrifice for himself. That is, believing is cast as the mere making of a decision for (or choosing of) Christ, the eliciting of which is impelled by divine emotion, implying God’s dependence on our ability to make the “right” saving choice.

Before directly taking on this distortion of the word “believe,” we must first correct misperception about the emotional divine impetus behind Christ’s sacrifice, an illusion pegged to a false reading of the word “so” in the phrase “God so [much] loved the world….”

The Greek word hout?s translated “so” means nothing more than “thus” or “in this manner,” as otherwise translated many or most of the other 208 times it appears. Hout?s describes a factual condition only, never carrying an emotional color. This is clear from all other places where it is translated as “so,” as in “so shall it be in that day” or “so shall the last be first,” etc.

Only a few translations clearly translate hout?s in John 3:16 as “in this way,” while a few translations egregiously translate it as “so much.” This emotionally skewed translation has greatly contributed to the erroneous concept of “believe” as a humanly-dependent decision found nowhere in the rest of John, but which is instead contradicted by the Lord. (This skewing has also blinded us to the meaning of “world” which throughout John’s gospel is predominantly described as an irreconcilably condemned hostile entity, not a mass market universally open to the possibility of conversion.)

The truest meaning of John 3:16 is found in John’s own restatement of it in I John 4:9-10:

“By this the love of God was revealed among us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”    

The words “by this” and “in this” found here are the meaning of “so” in John 3:16. John conveyed the same, not different, meanings between these writings.

Removing the emotional skew from John 3:16 allows us to consider the real meaning of “believe” objectively depicted in the rest of the gospel as a culminating Spirit-shepherded work of the Father in the human heart. What then does it mean to “believe” in Jesus Christ for salvation, and how does one come to believe?

All Encompassing Spirit-to-Spirit Dynamic

The word believe as used by Jesus is an internal spirit-to-Spirit dynamic intricately tied to a series of other “spirit concepts” employed to explain its intensive depth of meaning. We cannot correctly understand the word’s meaning apart from these other concepts—concepts decisively grounded in spirit awakening authored by God as opposed to soulish engagement or physical activity generated by oneself.

Following is a complete bulleted breakdown of the spirit concepts networked to the meaning of “to believe” in John’s gospel. They are marked in two colors:

·        black depicts the concepts by which we consciously engage believing in Christ;

·        blue depicts the involvement of God in originating our believing before or outside of our conscious engaging of Christ.

The complete list in order of John’s gospel together with their further related references includes our:

·        spirit-recognizing / receiving of spirit-light/life (1:4-9,12; 3:19-21; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35-36,46; 17:8)

·        due to an internal spirit pre-work (4:36-38) of God (6:45) predisposing one to a love of good (3:21; 5:29) and of God’s will (7:17)

·        spirit-becoming God-children (1:12 (8:35-36; 11:52)) (of light (12:36)) by being untraceably spirit-born (again) by God from above (3:3,5-8),

·        specifically not by human willpower or decision (choice) (1:13)

·        spirit-looking (3:14-15)  to / seeing of (6:40) Christ

·        (= seeing/knowing the Father (12:44-45; 14:7,9; 17:3))

·        spirit-coming to (3:21)  / walking in (12:35-36) the light, being also our

·        spirit-coming to Christ (6:35,37,44-45; 7:37; 11:27; 17:7 (neg. 5:40; 8:55)) and our

·        spirit coming to the Father through Christ (14:6) in which we

·        will do the Father’s works (14:12)

·        are accompanied / indwelt by the Father (14:16-17,20)

·        will receive the Father-Son manifestation (14:21,23)

·        spirit-internal self-authenticating (i.e., “bearing witness”) of the testimonial veracity of the heavenly Spirit-word (3:33 (compare I Jn. 4:10)) in which

·        Testimony is the facilitator for precipitating conscious believing (1:6-7; 5:33; 17:20) by means of the witness of

·        John the Baptist (1:6-8; 5:32-33)

·        Jesus Himself (4:41-42; 5:31, 6:63; 8:13-14, 18a)

o       His predictions (8:28; 13:19; 14:29)

·        Jesus’ miracles (4:45,53; 5:36, 10:25, 37-38; 11:42; 14:10-11)

·        the Father (5:37; 8:18b; 12:28-30) 

·        scripture (5:39)

·        disciples (all believers) (4:39; 15:27; 17:20)

o       especially via their oneness in mutual love (13:35; 17:21,23)

·        the Holy Spirit (15:26 (16:8-11))

·        spirit-obeying/following Christ (3:36; 8:12,51-52; 10:27; 14:21,23; 15:10,20; 17:6)

·        by holding to Christ’s teaching (8:31)

·        by serving (12:26) (>thus a friend of (15:14-15)) Christ

·        being a disciple of Christ (15:8)

·        spirit-asking to drink living spirit-water (4:10,14; 7:37) and spirit-eating the will of God (4:34;) which is also the    

·        (continuous) spirit-eating / drinking (4:14; 7:37-38) of Christ-Spirit food (bread/flesh/blood (water)) (6:27-29,32-33,35,48-51,53-58)

·        spirit-worship in truth (4:23-24 (9:38))

·        being spirit-reaped of a ripened pre-planted spirit (4:36-38) (parallel to spirit-birthing (3:3,5-8))

·        spirit-chosen by Christ (5:21; 6:70; 13:18; 15:16)

·        for receiving open Father-revelation (17:6,26 [Comp. Mt. 11:27])

·        spirit-(pre-)hearing of the Father(‘s Voice) in/behind Christ’s word (5:24>37; 6:39>63; 7:16; 8:26,47; 12:49-50; 14:10,24)

·        spirit-(pre-)indwelling of the Father’s word / love (5:38)

·        spirit-seeking of God’s glory only (5:44 (7:18))

·        spirit-keeping of Mosaic scripture (5:46 (neg. 7:19))

·         (applicable to any previous source of God’s revelation as Noah, for instance, or as creation itself which testifies to the conscience of its accountability to a Creator (Rom. 1), being the creational gospel of Col. 1, i.e., “if you had believed creation, you would have believed me”)

·         (note: the teaching of evolution is the denial of the gospel through creation)

·        spirit-given to Christ by the Father (6:39; 10:29; 17:2,6,11)

·        spirit-drawn / enabled by the Father (6:44,65)

·        spirit-pre-learning of the Father (6:45)

·        spirit-remaining in Christ (6:56; 15:4-7,10)

·        predisposed conditional state of choosing to do God’s will (7:17)

·        spirit-pre-(conscious)knowing of the Father (8:19)

·        pre-belonging to the Father (8:47 (neg. 10:26))

·        spirit-(obedient) loving of Christ (8:42; 14:15,23; 15:10; 16:27) that yields

·        spirit-loving of one another (13:34-35; 15:12-13,17)

·        spirit-knowing the (voice of the) Shepherd (10:14-16)

·        spirit-accepting of Christ (13:20)

·        spirit-bearing of fruit in Christ (15:1-8,16)

Witness now this vast concept network characterizing the believer. It describes one who internally lives in a continuous enduring and remaining state of coming, following, accepting, receiving, hearing, seeing, looking, learning, knowing, in-taking, keeping, doing, obeying the will of and becoming “Spirit-birthed” and indwelt by the living God through Christ.

This is anything but a superficial one-off making of a humanly convinced “decision for” or a humanly empowered “choosing of” Christ, though such decision and choosing appear as a reflection through the soul of what has first transpired in the Spirit (shortly to be elaborated).       

In the main, two vital points are to be deduced from this comprehensive portrayal of believing. Let’s consider them:

Spirit Believing vs. Soulish Believing

Believing is a matter of interior spirit existence and dynamic beneath and apart from all natural human soul-consciousness that interfaces with the exterior world. The well-known capacities of the soul include the mind, the will and the emotions. Believing as taught in John’s gospel and by Jesus’ testimony is strictly not a function of human thinking, willing or feeling. It is purely about spirit-consciousness, awakening and responsivity to the Spirit of God.

Such spirit awakening and responsivity goes on to find expression through the capacities of the soul (as in the form of a decision or a choice and/or of some responsive action), but is not derived from those capacities. This distinction is critical and must be repeated: 

Such spirit awakening and responsivity goes on to find expression through the capacities of the soul, but is not derived from those capacities.

This truth establishes the root difference between salvation by grace and salvation by works. Grace operates through and between spirit, while works emanate directly from the fleshly soul. (The flesh and the soul are of one essence. When Jesus says “the flesh profits nothing” (6:63), He is referring to soul life, not just the body.) Thus the soul powers of mind, will and emotion lie at the root of every human work, all originating from a human decision and determination. This is why believing that produces eternal salvation cannot come from human decision and determination.

Distinguishing spirit from soul respecting faith is specifically demanded because the soul has its own independent capacity to “believe” apart from the spirit. There is a soulish believing as well as a spirit believing. Contrary to spirit believing, soulish believing is self-centered in its own capacities. Men have the capacity to believe out of their own minds, their own will and/or their own emotions. Such inferior believing however does not permanently save, for, as just shown, eternal salvation cannot be a work of the physically-attuned soul.

The soul, already void of spirit Life, has no capacity and can play no part in regenerating the dead human spirit. It can only reflect that regeneration once it occurs in the spirit. (Such reflection, appearing as a decision or a choosing or an action like baptism or a work of repentance, is thus a fruit of the spirit’s believing. (See Mt. 3:8 here.))

Jesus pointedly cites the distinction and ineffectuality of soulish believing in the gospel of Matthew where, quoting Isaiah, He says:

“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Mt. 13:13

In other words, people may believe in Him based in their soulish seeing (of the miracles, for instance), but still not spiritually see; and they may believe based in their soulish hearing (e.g., they like the sound of His voice), yet they remain spiritually deaf. Jesus could have made this same soul/spirit distinction regarding the entire list of spirit qualities above that mark true believing, as if to have said,

“In receiving Me, they receive not; in coming to Me, they come not; in following Me, they follow not; in worshipping Me, they worship not; in obeying Me, they obey not…(etc.)”  

Indeed, for every true spirit quality associated with believing, a false soulish counterpart exists. Such look-alikes are empowered, not by the Spirit, but by the human mind which may accept Christ’s logic, the human will which asserts its own controlling power to choose Christ, or the human feeling which is emotionally moved to tears over the story of Christ’s death, but is not convicted of its own sinfulness.     

We witness soulish believing in action a few times in John’s gospel where he mentions a qualified superficial “believing” by some that is not marked by the internal spirit qualities of saving belief, and which must be tested and proven for those qualities to be validated as saving faith. These incidents occur at the wedding in Cana (2:23-25), after the feeding of the 5,000 involving both crowd followers and inner circle disciples (6:14-15), and in the discourse with believing Pharisees (8:30-36ff. Similar examples occur in Acts 8:13-24 and 15:5).

None of these soul-believing followers actually believed on the spirit regenerating terms Jesus everywhere describes as essential to eternal life. In fact the greater part of His ministry is spent distinguishing and culling out soul believers from spirit-birthed believers. This is the exact purpose of not just the parables, but for all the offenses Jesus intentionally creates in His messages. It is the purpose for His constant proving of the true internal state of everyone that approaches Him. Jesus’ offending of the souls of His hearers to prove the truth about their spirits exactly demonstrates the scripture which says God’s word divides between soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12).

Soulish belief fails when sufficiently offended over any terms of faith which it cannot ultimately control. It does not remain, but eventually falls away. Only genuine spirit-birthed believing can overcome to endure the tests of lasting  saving faith. This is why John elsewhere says,

I Jn. 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the child born of Him….4 For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.”

See how in John’s mind here the word “believes” can only mean what he means by it throughout his gospel as we have broken it down, which is the operation of an eternally empowered spirit. It cannot merely mean “everyone who of himself ‘decides’ that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” or “everyone who ‘chooses’ to accept Jesus as the Christ is born of God.”

The first step of the reborn spirit in overcoming the world is, in fact, to overcome his own soul, which he ultimately succeeds at doing. The spirit undergoing rebirth requires the soul to give up its own power to make its own decisions and choices for itself. Such surrender lies at the root of repentance necessary to eternally saving faith. But the soulish believer can neither overcome his own fleshly soul nor thus the world to remain in Christ. He has not been born again.

So it is we cannot understand the true meaning of believing in Jesus without discerning between spirit and soul believing. Failure to make and enforce this distinction has corrupted evangelistic ministry into an enterprise of sowing and reaping primarily “soul-tare” conversions. Such ministry is geared to producing soul-convinced, soul-determinate and soul-moved believers who are not really born again to enter the kingdom of God, but who think they are because they made a “smart choice.”   

The Role of the Father in New Birth

Not only is believing in Jesus a matter of pure Spirit-to-spirit interaction in the human spirit divided from the soul, but it is also a work authored and at root carried out—not by Jesus—but by the Father. This reality has completely escaped us in our human response-centered view of salvation. But John’s gospel is abundantly clear, as witnessed by all the “blue” passages outlined, that heart conversion does not originate with man, nor even with Christ, but with the Father.

Reading John carefully, we see that conversion to eternal faith is not a matter of Jesus trying to convince people to make a decision or a choice about Him. It is one rather of Jesus serving as a conduit for the Father’s voice to the outer ear in order to connect with a hidden subterranean work of the Father already at work in the conscience beneath the level of human consciousness. The point at which the external hearing of Christ’s Word meets the Father’s subterranean planting in the conscience is the point where saving faith is generated, a new spirit is born, and genuine permanent irrevocable salvation occurs.     

Let’s restate this: permanent salvational believing occurs as the consummation of a spirit intercourse between the Father’s voice through Christ (or His witnesses) and the Father’s pre-heard voice in the hearts of those called by the Father according to His gracious mercy. The Father’s outer call through Christ’s voice catalyzes the Father’s pre-heard voice in the conscience, which has already moved toward repentance before Christ’s Word is heard or encountered. (Verse 21 following John 3:16 which we never read makes this very clear!)

Christ is always only speaking from the Father that which mirrors what the Father is / has been already speaking to the heart, which explains that pre-sense of knowing the Father that Jesus constantly references. The same principle applies forward through the consummating testimony of Christ’s followers. Believing is the ripening to consummational harvest of the pre-heard Voice of the Father through the heard message of Christ.

So it is Jesus attributes the capacity for human believing to a paired work between Himself and the Father (which is the real meaning of 5:17, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”) Salvation consummates from a dual labor of the Godhead, one part hidden under the ground of the heart pre-established by the Father according to His choosing and direction, the other part reaching the surface of the ear through Christ or His messengers by the Holy Spirit, but in turn scattered abroad to all ears. Such scattering results either in failing soulish conversions or direct rejection among those in whom the Father has not already done His foundational targeted pre-planting.     

John’s presentation of the complete tandem work between Son and Father in eliciting faith radically conflicts with the historic evangelical belief in conversion as a one-to-one ministry event in which a solo witness makes a “cold call” direct connect with a hearer who then makes his own decision or choice to believe in Jesus to thus become born again. This view may (or may not) also recognize that the Holy Spirit has a convicting role to play in the hearer, and it will superficially acknowledge that Jesus otherwise lived to please the Father in what He was doing. But it has little to no concept of the Father’s actual initiating role in the “lost sheep” underneath the hearing of the word of Christ. That this is true is witnessed by the wholesale evangelical ignorance and avoidance of all the passages in “blue” in the above study.           

Further Questions

Questioning the human soul’s ability to rebirth its spirit by its own free willpower immediately provokes human questions regarding God’s justice and rationality in the way He deals with mankind at large. Scripture notes some of those questions itself.

The purpose of this article however is to neither answer nor evade such questions, and so we will say only this in acknowledgement of them:

Such questions do have answers, but they are found outside the mortal knowledge of good and evil under which veil all such questions are formed; and otherwise, the answers are found within a deeper understanding of the tensional relationship within God between His own superior holy Will and His subservient Passion for all creation, Whose same blended image we all bear. Such discussion remains, however, for another treatise.

The purpose of this article, rather, is to simply acquaint us with the full robust comprehension of what believing in Christ means and how it comes to be as outlined in the complete revelation of John’s gospel. Why is this important to comprehend? It is because our own ultimate goal is to become conformed to the image of Christ in how He related to man and to His Father on His incarnational mission.

If our stated desire is to be conformed to that image, we must believe all of what He believed according to all of what He taught, allowing the Spirit to meld the entire picture into one for us, at whatever expense necessary to what we have been deficiently taught in Sunday School, Bible College and throughout evangelical culture at large. We have no liberty to pick and choose what we want to believe about so basic a matter seated on a mere smattering of isolated verses like John 3:16; 3:36; 5:24, 8:12, 10:9, etc. We need the whole truth and counsel of God, if we are going to grow up into Him in all things, and bring others there likewise.

May someone be elevated to a truer and more comprehensive spirit apprehension of our Lord and His salvation through this study!

Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

02/25

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