Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 3:14-21)

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John 3:14-21 is a passage where the idea of “believing” occurs five times. So, this passage includes the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth times the term occurs in John’s Gospel. Since it would be tedious to cover each of these times individually, especially since doing so would involve going over the same context five times, we’re going to cover every time the idea of “believing” occurs in John 3:14-21. So, this time, we’re going to 1) briefly consider the context of this passage before 2) examining each use of “believe” in this passage.

First, what is the context here? The context is John 3:1-13. Nicodemus has come to Jesus during the night to talk with Him. He tells Him that they [1] know Jesus is a teacher from God, since no one could perform the miracles Christ is doing unless God is with him. Jesus answers Nicodemus by passing over his comment and assuring him that, unless a man is born again, he can’t see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus responds by asking how a man can be born when he is old and if a man can enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born. Jesus answers his question by slightly rephrasing what He said: except a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Jesus goes on to say that that which is born of the flesh is flesh, while that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. He tells Nicodemus not to marvel that He said to him that he must be born again. Christ goes on to say that the wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you can’t tell where it comes from and where it goes, and that it is the same way with the one who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus responds by asking how these things can be. Jesus answers him by asking if he is a teacher in Israel and doesn’t know these things. Christ goes on to say that they [2] speak what they know and testify what they have seen, and Nicodemus does not receive their testimony. He asks this teacher of Israel that, if He has told him earthly things and he does not believe Christ, how will he believe Christ if He tells him heavenly things. Jesus then says that no man has ascended up to heaven, except He who came down from heaven, who is the Son of Man who is in Heaven. That is the context.

Now, let’s examine each occurrence of “believe” one by one here! Each paragraph will be devoted to each occurrence, with the one exception being the final paragraph.

The first use of “believe” in this passage is John 3:15. Christ goes on to say that, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, [3] even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Here, Jesus is talking about His crucifixion (John 12:32-33). And He’s saying what the purpose of His crucifixion is: so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. What “perish” and “everlasting life” mean will become clearer as we go through the other uses of “believe” in this passage. So, what do we learn about faith here? Faith is believing Christ, as a Person! And how can we know this person? From the Bible, the 66 Books of the Old and New Testaments, which is God’s Word in written form (2 Timothy 3:15-17). So, how does one believe in Jesus? He learns who the Bible says Christ is, and he trusts Christ to be what He reveals Himself to be in the Bible. A final note here is that the Israelites looking to the serpent to be healed (see Footnote #3) is a picture of the sinner believing on Christ to be saved and given eternal life.

The second use of “believe” in this passage is John 3:16. There, we’re told that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. This passage is largely a repetition of John 3:15, but there is some more information we can glean. Here, we’re told that the crucifixion of Christ is a result of God the Father’s love, and the object of this love is the world. Because, in this passage, the world is the recipient of God’s love, there are those who say that the entire world will be saved from the wrath of God and experience eternal life. But does the passage say that God loved the world in such a way that all the world would have eternal life? No! It says that God loved the world in such a way that whoever believes in His Son will not perish but have everlasting life. The debate over both the extent and the intent of Christ’s atonement has occupied much theological discussion for centuries. But what we have in Scripture as a whole, and in this passage in particular, is enough to answer all the questions we need. God loves the world, yes. And that love yields this fruit: all who believe in God the Son will not perish in the eternal death that all God’s unrepentant enemies will be consigned to. Rather, all who trust in God’s Son will experience eternal life. And Christ defines in John 17:3 as knowledge of God. [4] In verse 17, we’re told that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world through Him may be saved. As we’ll learn later, here we get an idea of what it means to “perish”: it is to be under the condemnation of God. We also learn one aspect of what it means to have eternal life: it is to be saved. Saved from what? The condemnation of God. Eternal life is infinitely far from only escaping the condemnation of God’s justice, but it is an element of eternal life nonetheless. So, what can we learn about faith from here? It is believing in God the Son (again, as the Bible reveals Him). And this belief leads to eternal life, which is a loving knowledge of God. Also, the Son of God, who is the Object of faith, is the “only begotten” Son of God (“only begotten” meaning “one of a kind” [5]).

The third, fourth, and fifth uses of “believe” (which are the last occurrences in this passage) are all in John 3:18. So, we’ll quickly cover what we learn about faith in Christ from each of these three uses! In the first use, we learn that the one who trusts in Christ, as we just covered, is not condemned by God. In Romans 8:1, the Holy Spirit tells us that there is NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Therefore, comparing John 3:18 and Romans 8:1, we learn that, to be “in Christ,” we must believe in Christ. In the second use, we learn that the one who does not believe is condemned already. We learn two things here: 1) the one who does not believe in Christ is outside of Christ and 2) the unbeliever will not just be condemned after death or Christ’s return (whichever comes first), but is already, while he is living in this world, under the condemnation of God. It is for this reason that he must trust in Christ RIGHT NOW, without ANY delay. In the third (and final) use, we see that the reason the unbeliever is condemned already is that he has not believed in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God. I’ll name two insights from this final usage quickly here: 1) while the basis for the condemnation of all men is sin in general (Romans chs. 1-3), there is a special condemnation for those who hear of Christ but reject Him by their unbelief; 2) to believe in Jesus is to believe in His Name. [6]

To conclude this post, we’ll consider what John 3:19-21 says about the characters of both the believer and the unbeliever. For the unbeliever, the Light comes into the world, and the unbeliever loves darkness rather than light, because his works are evil. He is one whose life is characterized by doing evil, and this evil heart of his hates the light. He does not come to the Light, so that his deeds won’t be rebuked or exposed. For the believer, he does truth [7] and comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested that they are wrought in God.

If this post requires any corrections, I pray that God will bring it to my attention, and I will correct accordingly! May He make this post FULLY accord with His Word so that it may be a blessing to all who read it!

[1] As judged in the last post, this is likely the group of superficial believers in Jesus in John 2:23-25, who believe in His Name upon seeing His miracles, to which faith Jesus does not entrust Himself to, because He knows what is in man. [2] Also as judged in the last post, this is likely primarily the Trinity and secondarily those who trust in the Triune God. [3] To know what Christ is talking about here, read Numbers 21:1-9. [4] This knowledge of God cannot be the kind of knowledge described in Romans 1:18-32, given how the text says that the wrath of God obviously abides on such people. Rather, it is a knowledge of God characterized by love for God (Galatians 4:8-9; 1 Corinthians 8:3). [5] https://biblehub.com/greek/3439.htm [6] We must keep in mind that Jesus’s Name is His character (Matthew 1:21). [7] Keeping in mind that both Jesus and God’s Word are called “truth” in John’s Gospel (John 14:6, 17:17), it is my opinion that this is the meaning: the believer is one who does what Jesus, the Word and God (John 1:1), and what the Word of God in written form (the Bible) says. See also Matthew 7:21-27. However, we must keep in mind that, given the Bible's clear distinction between faith and works (see Romans 4), that this DOES NOT mean that the believer is saved by faith in Christ plus works. No, the believer is saved by belief in Christ APART FROM WORKS (Ephesians 2:8-9). But this belief, when it is truly in a man, WILL produce good works (Galatians 5:6; Ephesians 2:10).