For God So Loved . . . Well, Wait a Minute

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

—John 3:16

When I was in college, in my days as an agnostic, many Christians tried to make a Christian out of me by quoting John 3:16 and telling me: “Just believe in Jesus Christ and you’ll be saved.” My response was always something like: “Then why doesn’t Jesus come down here and show Himself to me? Then I would believe.” For well over a year, none of those Christians gave me a satisfactory answer to that question. Now I see that my question completely misinterpreted the real meaning of John 3:16.

Salvation does not depend on “belief” in the sense of believing that Jesus Christ was a real person, or that He was a wise teacher who was cruelly and unjustly executed by the Roman Empire, or even that He is the Son of God and that He rose from the dead. Believing certain facts will not save you. If belief in this sense were all that was necessary, then Satan and his demons would all be saved, for they know that Jesus is the Son of God and that He rose from the dead. [i]

Other scriptures provide clues that my naïve, pre-Christian understanding of John 3:16 was simply wrong. In Romans 1:17, Paul said: “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” If mere belief is sufficient, why does Paul emphasize faith? And Jesus said: “ ‘You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.’ ” (Matthew 10:22) Then He further muddies the waters by asserting that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) [ii] If belief is all it takes, why does Jesus talk about endurance and love as though they were critical?

Our problem is that “believe” is an ambiguous word in English. I can say I believe the world is spherical, and I believe the football game begins at 3:30 p.m., and I believe aliens have visited the earth, and I believe the President is an honest man. In each of these statements, the word believe has a slightly different meaning, and none of them adequately conveys the true meaning of “believe” in John 3:16. . . .

Beyond Blind Faith is available on Amazon.com.

[i] For example, see James 2:19: “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” For other verses which demonstrate that demons recognized who and what Jesus was, see: Matthew 8:28-29; Mark 1:34, 5:2-9; Luke 4:41, 8:27-30.

[ii] See also Matthew 22:37-38.