www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com
Part I
By Steven Merten
©Copyright 1990
Note: Jesus' words are in red
...that all who believe may have eternal life in him. Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life.
Men, what must I do to be saved? Their answer was, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, and all your household.
Then he told them: Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation. The man who believes in it and accepts baptism will be saved; the man who refuses to believe in it will be condemned.
Indeed, this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. Him I will raise up on the last day.
Do not say in your heart, Who shall go up to heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down) or Who shall go down into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). What is it he does say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach). For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith in the heart leads to justification, confession on the lips to salvation. Scripture says, No one who believes in him will be put to shame. Here there is no difference between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord, rich in mercy toward all who call upon him. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Let me firmly assure you, he who believes has eternal life.
I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come to life; and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die.
| MAT 18:6 | *MAR 9:23 | MAR 9:42 | LUK 1:45 | LUK 8:12 | LUK 8:13 |
| JOH 1:12 | JOH 3:16 | JOH 3:18 | *JOH 5:24 | JOH 6:35 | JOH 6:64 |
| JOH 7:39 | JOH 8:31 | JOH 9:36 | JOH 11:26 | JOH 11:27 | JOH 12:38 |
| JOH 12:44 | JOH 12:46 | JOH 14:11 | JOH 17:20 | JOH 19:35 | JOH 20:8 |
| JOH 20:29 |
What does Jesus mean when he tells us that those who believe in him will recieve eternal life? Well first we must ask, what does Jesus mean when he tells us that those who believe and have faith in John the Baptist are entering into the kingdom of God?
Jesus said to them, "I assure you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came preaching a way of holiness, you put no faith in him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe in him. Yet even when you saw that, you did not repent and believe in him. "
God's term believer that Jesus uses is many times misunderstood by people. To understand that you must believe in Jesus Christ and then develop your own definition of the term believe is wrong. We do not go out and make our own definitions of the Father's terminology. We must go into the bible and seek out the definition the Father has given to the term believe.
We have sinned, we and our fathers; we have committed crimes; we have done wrong. Our fathers in Egypt considered not your wonders; They remembered not your abundant kindness, but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name's sake, to make known his power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. He saved them from hostile hands and freed them from the hands of the enemy. The waters covered their foes; not one of them was left. Then they believed his words and sang his praises. But soon they forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel. They gave way to craving in the desert and tempted God in the wilderness. He gave them what they asked but sent a wasting disease against them. They envied Moses in the camp, and Aaron, the holy one of the LORD. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the faction of Abiram. Fire broke out against their faction; a flame consumed the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb and adored a molten image; They exchanged their glory for the image of a grass-eating bullock. They forgot the God who had saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt, Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham, terrible things at the Red Sea. Then he spoke of exterminating them, but Moses, his chosen one, Withstood him in the breach to turn back his destructive wrath. Yet they despised the desirable land; they believed not his word. They murmured in their tents, and obeyed not the voice of the LORD.
Therefore, while the promise of entrance into his rest still holds, we ought to be fearful of disobeying lest any one of you be judged to have lost his chance of entering. We have indeed heard the good news, as they did. But the word which they heard did not profit them, for they did not receive it in faith. It is we who have believed who enter into that rest, just as God said: "Thus I swore in my anger, 'They shall never enter into my rest.'" Yet God's work was finished when he created the world, for in reference to the seventh day Scripture somewhere says, "And God rested from all his work on the seventh day"; and again, in the place we have referred to, God says, "They shall never enter into my rest." Therefore, since it remains for some to enter, and those to whom it was first announced did not because of unbelief, God once more set a day, "today," when long afterward he spoke through David the words we have quoted:
"Today, if you should hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
Now if Joshua had led them into the place of rest, God would not have spoken afterward of another day. Therefore a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. And he who enters into God's rest from his own work as God did from his. Let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall, in imitation of the example of Israel's unbelief.
I wish to remind you of certain things, even though you may already be very well aware of them. The Lord first rescued his people from the land of Egypt but later destroyed those who refused to believe. There were angels, too, who did not keep to their own domain, who deserted their dwelling place. These the Lord has kept in perpetual bondage, shrouded in murky darkness against the judgment of the great day.
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!
Whoever believes in the Son has life eternal. Whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure the wrath of God.
13: Those on the rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. They have no root; they believe for a while, but fall away in time of temptation. (MAT 13:20)
In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn me? How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them with pestilence and wipe them out. Then I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."NAB JOH 11:11
After uttering these words, he added, Our beloved Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him. At this the disciples objected, Lord, if he is asleep his life will be saved. Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they thought he meant sleep in the sense of slumber. Finally Jesus said plainly: Lazarus is dead. For your sakes I am glad I was not there, that you may come to believe.
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you." So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD's bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed," when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: "Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, not shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish." When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
Reform your lives and believe in the gospel!NAB LUK 9:35
Then from the cloud came a voice which said, "This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him."
It is God's will that you grow in holiness: that you abstain from immorality, each of you guarding his member in sanctity and honor, not in passionate desire as do the Gentiles who know not God; and that each refrain from overreaching or cheating his brother in the matter at hand; for the Lord is an avenger of all such things, as we once indicated to you by our testimony. God has not called us to immorality but to holiness, hence, whoever rejects these instructions rejects not man, but God who sends his Holy Spirit upon you.
Whoever believes in the Son has life eternal.NAB ACTS 3:22
For Moses said: The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own kinsmen: you shall listen to him in everything he says to you. Anyone who does not listen to that prophet shall be ruthlessly cut off from his people.NAB MAR 16:15
Then he told them: Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation. The man who believes in it and accepts baptism will be saved; the man who refuses to believe in it will be condemned.
I was once a blasphemer, a persecutor, a man filled with arrogance; but because I did not know what I was doing in my unbelief, I have been treated mercifully.(Lot's wife sinned and disbelieved God's command not to look back at the destruction of Sodom.)
She delivered the just man from among the wicked who were being destroyed, when he fled as fire descended upon Pentapolis Where as a testimony to its wickedness, there yet remain a smoking desert, Plants bearing fruit that never ripens, and the tomb of a disbelieving soul, and standing pillar of salt.
"Let me firmly assure you, he who believes has eternal life."
"Send this message to all the exiles: 'This is what the LORD says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has led you to believe a lie, . . . . '"
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Finally, as they were at table, Jesus was revealed to the Eleven. He took them to task for their disbelief and their stubbornness, since they had put no faith in those who had seen him after he had been raised.
Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands.
" But," objected Moses, "suppose they will not believe me, nor listen to my plea? For they may say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'" The LORD therefore asked him, "What is that in your hand?" " A staff," he answered. The LORD then said, "Throw it on the ground." When he threw it on the ground it was changed into a serpent, and Moses shied away from it. "Now, put out your hand," the LORD said to him, "and take hold of its tail." So he put out his hand and laid hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand. "This will take place so that they may believe," he continued, "that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, did appear to you."
Again the LORD said to him, "Put your hand in your bosom." He put it in his bosom, and when he with-drew it, to his surprise his hand was leprous, like snow. The LORD then said, "Now, put your hand back in your bosom." Moses put his hand back in his bosom, and when he withdrew it, to his surprise it was again like the rest of his body. "If they will not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, they should believe the message of the second, And if they will not believe even these two signs, nor heed your plea, take some water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water you take from the river will become blood on the dry land."
Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people. The people believed. and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their affliction they bowed down in worship.
"Moreover, the Father who sent me has himself given testimony on my behalf. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, neither do you have his word abiding in your hearts because you do not believe the One he has sent. Search the Scriptures in which you think you have eternal life they also testify on my behalf. Yet you are unwilling to come to me to possess that life. It is not that I accept human praise it is simply that I know you, and you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name, yet you do not accept me. But let someone come in his own name and him you will accept. How can people like you believe, when you accept praise from one another yet do not seek the glory that comes from the One [God]?"Jonah was sent to the Ninevites with the word of God. The Ninevites believed God s word by obeying God's word. God worked miracles through Moses and Jesus so people would believe in them as God's prophets and then heed the message they spoke. Those who believe in the Good News and accept baptism will be saved. Obey the commandments of love and you will receive Christ's salvation. This is the Good News that Jesus spread.
How do we believe in Christ, God's living word? One must live as Jesus words teach in order to be a believer. God's commandments given to us by Jesus and Moses are the commandments of eternal life. Jesus tells us it is not him but the commandments, God s word, that will condemn those who do not believe. It is those who disobey Jesus commands who do not believe. Jesus saves only those who believe him by obeying his commandments.
Jesus proclaimed aloud: "Whoever puts faith in me believes not so much in me as in him who sent me; and whoever looks on me is seeing him who sent me. I have come to the world as its light, to keep anyone who believes in me from remaining in the dark. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I am not the one to condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save it. Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words already has his judge, namely, the word I have spoken it is that which will condemn him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own; no, the Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to speak. Since I know that his commandment means eternal life, whatever I say is spoken just as he instructed me."(The above John 12:44 is repeated in John 3:14.)
Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that all who believe may have eternal life in him. Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him avoids condemnation, but whoever does not believe is already condemned for not believing in the name of God's only Son. The judgment of condemnation is this: the light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were wicked. Everyone who practices evil hates the light; he does not come near it for fear his deeds will be exposed. But he who acts in truth comes into the light, to make clear that his deeds are done in God.
That your sons whom you loved might learn, O LORD, that it is not the various kinds of fruits that nourish man, but it is your word that preserves those who believe you!
"If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples; then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
