What does it mean to Believe?

A friend recently asked me a question, and I wrote a rather lengthy reply. I thought it would be helpful to you as well, and so I thought I would post it up.

The verse: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."  John 3:36

The question: May I take this passage literally? Does 'believing in' the son mean just acknowledging that He exists, or is there some hidden clause within the Bible that says I also haveta love Him/worship Him/whatever before I receive eternal life?

My response:

I'm glad you see that there might be something more to understanding the passage. I don't think it's about taking the passage "literally" or not; it's about having a comprehensive understanding of the passage in its proper context, rather than ripping them out of context.

I suppose the key to your question and the passage is this: What does it mean to "believe in" the Son?

One important thing to understand is that John the Baptist is making a "compare and contrast" statement. But what is John comparing and contrasting? The key is the little word, "but". We often notice the first clause, but we forget about the (very) important second clause joined by "but"! So here, it seems that John is comparing "believing" in the Son of God with "rejecting" the Son of God.

Why would "believing" be compared with "rejecting" at first thought it wouldn't make sense. You'd think the opposite of "believing" is "disbelieving" or something like that.

At this point I cheated a bit and went to the Greek hahaha. There's this really cool internet resource that let's you see what the Bible says in its original language, as well as go to the "dictionary meaning" of the word. You can see the section for John 3:36 here. If you click on the numbers (not the words themselves) then you can get to that dictionary I was talking about.

You will see there that "believe" actually comes from the word "pisteuōn"; whereas "reject" comes from "apeithōn". You will notice that "pisteuōn" means "I have faith/trust in" in the Greek, but it is derived from a word for "be persuaded". When you go over to the meaning for apeithōn, you will find it means, literally, "refuse to be persuaded", and is a word used to indicate disobedience and disloyalty. From there, it's a little easier to understand why John would decide to compare "pisteuōn" with "apeithōn", since both has something to do with persuasion.

There are a few important implications from this little word study:

• -          "believe" means more than just an acknowledgement that Jesus exists. ("Even the demons believe - and shudder!" James 2:19). To have eternal life, you have to need to have "pisteuōn" - "faith/trust in" Him. Intellectual assent does not mean saving faith.
• -          Rejecting the Son of God means you will not see life. Disobedience, disloyalty, to the Son means you will not get eternal life. A "refusal to be persuaded" by the Son will lead to death.
• -          When "pisteuōn" is directly compared with "apeithōn", it tells you that both are important criteria to consider. Having faith means obedience. Disobedience indicates lack of faith. They go hand in hand together - one leads to another - and so you cannot just say "I believe" and get a "get out of jail free" card.

What does "faith in the Son" mean anyway? It is much more than the intellectual acknowledgemeent that a single person existed. The entirety of the Bible points to this Son of God as the fulfilment of God's great Promises from ages past; "faith in the Son" means trusting in this very fulfilment. It is much, much more than just believing that Jesus existed. It is believing that "God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

It gets even more interesting when you get out of the single verse itself and consider it in its broader context. What has happened just before and after? Why did the author (John) place this story before/after?

Zooming out a bit you discover this verse was actually some words spoken by John the Baptist, acknowledging that it is good that Jesus was increasing in fame while John the Baptist was decreasing in fame, because ultimately humanity needed to come to faith in the Son, not John the Baptist. What a clear example of faith in the Son of God! He has such faith and trust in the Son that he's willing to step down in importance in order for Jesus to be raised up!

Going back just one more story, you realise that it is actually the story of the Pharisee Nicodemus that comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness to learn about Salvation from Jesus. This was where we get the famous, "For God so loved the world" verse. Notice that in this verse, it talks about "belief" (pisteuōn) as well! So you find out through this story actually starts off a whole section that talks about what "belief" in the Son of God means! Each story is geared to display an aspect of belief, and what it means to believe in the Son of God. After the story of John the Baptist's faith, comes the story of the faith of the Samaritan woman at the well. When she believes, she goes into town and tells everyone about Jesus! The story after that talks a bit about unbelief.

So in summary, paying careful attention to the words the author uses, where he puts the word, and how he shapes the story helps reveal a LOT about the verse. In this particular verse, we find out that Eternal Life can only be gained through faith, trust and obedience in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.