Zaccheus is eager to
see Jesus, and when Jesus says He must stay at his house, Zaccheus is
excited and repents and offers to give half his wealth to the poor
and repay four times as much to anyone he defrauded. Jesus says
salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham
and that He came to seek and save the lost.
Zaccheus believed in
Jesus – he “welcomed him gladly” – and that belief resulted
in his generosity and his salvation.
Jesus says one of
the reasons for his salvation is that Zaccheus is “a son of
Abraham.” I think Jesus is saying that Zaccheus is showing exactly
the kind of faith Abraham showed; he is a true son of his father
Abraham.
Luke 19:12-27
The servant who does
nothing with the mina is rebuked and has what little he had taken
from him.
The master had told
the man to do business with the money and he didn’t.
It seems doubtful
that this passage refers to salvation, but if it does, a rebuke is
not necessarily the same as hell. However, if this passage does refer
to salvation, it appears the servant did not have faith since he did
not act on it even though he had opportunity.
Luke 23:34
On the cross Jesus
asks the Father to forgive those who were crucifying Him because they
don’t know what they are doing.
Jesus prayed for
those who were to some degree ignorant in crucifying Him, perhaps
because they had been told and believed it to be the righteous thing
to do. It was a prayer meant to be heard by both the Father and those
around the cross, asking the Father to forgive them, and encouraging
those around the cross to believe. Perhaps this prayer was answered
during Peter’s sermon shortly thereafter in Jerusalem, when so many
– perhaps even of those who crucified Him – believed in Jesus.
John 1:7
John the Baptist
came to testify about the light, so that “all men might believe.”
In John 1 Jesus is
identified as the light, and John’s whole mission in life was to
encourage people to believe in Jesus. How critical it is to believe!
John 1:12-13
To all who received
Jesus He gave the right to become children of God.
John 1:29
Jesus is the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world.
John 3:3-6
You must be born
again, of water and of the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh; the
Spirit gives birth to spirit.
We are born again of
the spirit when we believe in Jesus.
John 3:15
Everyone who
believes in Jesus may have eternal life.
John 3:16
Whoever believes in
the Son shall have eternal life.
John 3:17
God sent Jesus to
save the world through Him.
John 3:18
Whoever believes in
Jesus is not condemned.
John 4:14
Jesus says the water
He gives will become “a spring of water welling up to eternal
life.”
John 4:39, 41
Many Samaritans
believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony and by hearing
His words.
John 4:42
Many of the
Samaritans believe that Jesus is the “Savior of the world.”
John 4:48
Jesus laments that
unless the people see miraculous signs, they will not believe.
In the middle of
hearing a request to heal a sick boy, Jesus takes time to say how
important it is to believe.
John 5:24
Those who hear
Jesus’ word and believe in God who sent Him has eternal life.
John 5:25
Jesus says that a
time is coming, and has already come, when the dead will hear the
voice of the Son of God and live.
This may refer in
part to the final resurrection from the dead, but since it also says
that the time has already come, it mainly seems to mean that
if we respond to Jesus’ voice calling us we will live.
John 5:29-30
There is a
resurrection of those who did good and of those who did evil, a
resurrection to life or to judgment.
The good are those
who believe in Jesus (and, because of that, live out their faith) and
the evil are those who do not believe.
John 5:32-34
Jesus says John the
Baptist testified about Him, and Jesus mentions this, “that you may
be saved.”
John 5:38-40
They study the
scriptures that testify of Jesus, yet refuse to come to Jesus and
have life.
John 6:27, 29
Do not work for food
that spoils but food that endures to eternal life, which Jesus will
give you. The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.
What we need to do,
our “work” in this passage, is to believe.
John
6:29
Jesus
tells the people that the work that God requires is “to believe in
the One He has sent.”
John 6:32-35
Jesus is the bread
of life who comes from heaven so those who come to Him will never be
hungry and those who believe in Him will never thirst.
John 6:35
Jesus is the bread
of life. The one who comes to Jesus will never go hungry and the one
who believes in Him will never be thirsty.
John 6:40
The Father’s will
is that everyone who looks at the Son and believes in him shall have
eternal life, and Jesus will raise him on the last day.
John 6:47
He who believes [in
Jesus, from the context] has everlasting life.
John
6:48, 50-51
Jesus
is the bread of life. The one who eats this bread will never die but
live forever.
Jesus
equates believing in Him – following on the previous verse, John
6:47 – to eating His flesh. We need to take Jesus into our lives
by believing in Him. In John 6:63 Jesus explains that He is speaking
spiritually, not physically.
John 6:51
Jesus is the bread
that comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live
forever.
John 6:53-58
Jesus said he is the
bread of life and anyone who eats His flesh and drinks His blood will
have have eternal life.
Jesus uses graphic,
dramatic and unforgettable language to say we need to take Him into
our lives. When the disciples are bothered by His words He explains
(John 6:63) that He is speaking spiritually, not physically.
John 6:64
Jesus says,
referring to Judas, that there are some do not believe.
Jesus makes clear
that Judas did not so much fall away as simply not believe in the
first place.
John 6:68-69
Peter says that
Jesus has the words of eternal life and that they [the disciples]
believe in him.
Jesus’ does not
contradict that He has the words of eternal life, but denies that all
of them (thinking of Judas) really believe.
John 7:31
Many in the crowd
put their faith in Jesus.
John 7:38-39
Jesus says that
whoever believes in Him will receive the Spirit.
It seems likely that
those who believe and receive the Spirit that Jesus gives will be
included in heaven.
John 8:12
Whoever follows
Jesus will have the light of life.
John 8:19
To know Jesus is to
know His Father.
John 8:24
Jesus warns that the
Pharisees will die in their sins if they do not believe Jesus is the
one He claims to be.
John 8:30
As Jesus spoke many
put their faith in Him.
John 8:31
Jesus tells those
who “believed” in Him that if they hold to his teaching they are
really his disciples.
In this passage
Jesus does not seem to be addressing those who really believed in Him
in the sense that they have given their lives to Him, so it is not
saying that if you slip up that you are lost.
Looking at John
8:37-49, these people did not believe in a trusting way because Jesus
said they have “no room for my word” and they were doing “what
you have heard from your father” (the devil), and they were
“determined to kill” Jesus. God, He said, is not their Father
because they do not love Jesus, and “You belong to your father, the
devil,” and they “do not believe me” and “The reason you do
not hear is that you do not belong to God,” and they answered Jesus
and accused him of being a Samaritan and demon possessed, and Jesus
said they “dishonor” Him. So, their belief was apparently just an
acknowledgement of Jesus in some minimal fashion, not a giving their
hearts to Him.
John 8:36
Jesus says that if
the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:47
Those who belong to
God hear what God says; those who don’t hear don’t know God.
John 8:51
Anyone who keeps
Jesus’ word will never see death.
What Jesus wants us
to do is believe in Him. If we do that we will never see eternal
death and we will live the kind of lives He wants us to live. In
verse 8:39, Jesus says that if the people he was talking to were
Abraham’s children, then they would act like Abraham, and in 8:42
He says that if they were God’s children, then they would love Him
(Jesus). In 8:44 He says they act the way they do because they belong
to their father, the devil; and in 8:47 He says they do not hear what
He says because they do not belong to God.
So, we need to be
God’s children, and if we are children of God by believing
in Jesus, then we will do what our Father wants, just as those
whose father is the devil do what the devil wants.
John 9:41
Jesus says if you
are blind you have no sin.
Jesus had just
healed a physically blind man, who then believed in Him, so the man
was given both physical and spiritual sight. Then, in John 9:39 Jesus
says that he came into the world so the blind will see and those who
see become blind (the Pharisees immediately recognized that he was
speaking of them). I think when Jesus refers to making those who see
become blind, He means that his message will be offensive to many
(such as the Pharisees) and they will close their eyes to Him.
In John 9:41 I think
Jesus means that those things we do that we do not understand to be
wrong will not be counted against us, but this does not let us off
the hook because there are so many things we do that are wrong that
we do understand to be wrong.
John 10:3-5
Jesus is the true
shepherd. His sheep follow him and will never follow a stranger.
Those who love
Jesus, who belong to Him, will hear His voice and follow Him. It is
not that they will someday be His
sheep; they already are His sheep and because they are His
sheep they will follow Him.
John 10:26-28
They do not believe
because they are not Jesus’ sheep. His sheep hear his voice, follow
Him, and he gives them eternal life.
John 11:15
Jesus says He is
glad He was not there when Lazarus died, so that His disciples may
believe.
Teaching His
disciples to believe was so important that Jesus delayed going to
heal sick Lazarus and actually let him die so that his disciples
would believe when Jesus raised him from the dead (John 11:43-44).
John 11:25-26
Jesus says He is the
resurrection and the life and the person who believes in Him will
live even if he dies, and whoever lives and believes in Him will
never die.
John 11:42
Jesus is about to
resurrect Lazurus and prays aloud, saying he is praying this way for
the benefit of the people, that they may believe that the Father sent
Him.
John 11:45
Many believed in
Jesus.
John 11:49-53
Caiaphas prophesies
that it is better for one man, Jesus, to die than for the whole
nation to perish. John says this is a prophesy that Jesus died for
all the scattered children of God to make them one.
John 12:11
On account of
Lazarus many Jews were putting their faith in Jesus.
John 12:25
He who loves this
life will loose it but he who hates his life in this world will keep
it for eternal life.
Love your life and
lose it; hate this life and keep it for eternity. The Father will
honor any who serve Jesus.
I believe Jesus
means this in the same way as when he says we must hate our families
(Luke 14:26). In other words, that our love for family and our love
for this life should be so overshadowed by our love for Jesus that it
is like hate by comparison.
He says if we do
love this life first of all then we will eventually lose it and have
nothing to replace it with. If we love the world first, then we never
really surrendered our lives to Jesus; we surrendered to the world.
But if we hate it (in comparison to our love for Jesus and spending
eternity with Him) then we have a God-life that we will keep forever.
John 12:36
Jesus tells the
people to put their trust in the light while they have it so they may
become sons of light.
John 12:37
John laments that
despite Jesus’ miracles the people would not believe in him.
John 12:39-40
John says the people
could not believe in him because their eyes had been blinded and
their hearts had been deadened.
John 12:42-43
Many leaders
believed in Jesus, but kept quiet because they loved men’s praise
more than God’s.
It is unclear
whether these leaders’ faith was real and weak, or false, but
either way, John points out the critical importance of faith.
John 12:44-45
Jesus says that
believing in Him is also believing in the Father.
John 12:46-48
Jesus says that
those who believe in Him will not remain in darkness (12:46) and adds
in 12:47-48 that those who do not keep His words, but reject Him,
will be condemned on the last day.
John 12:50
Jesus says the
Father’s command leads to eternal life.
And the Father’s
will is that we look to the Son and believe in him. (John 6:40).
John 13:8, 10
Jesus tells Peter
that if He does not wash him, he has no part with Him. He adds in
13:10 that if a person has bathed he only needs to wash his feet.
Jesus does not mean
that people are alienated from him unless He physically washes their
feet. After all, He was about to leave them and wouldn’t be
physically present to wash feet. Rather, Jesus means that He must
cleanse them spiritually.
Also, in verse 10
Jesus tells the disciples that there are two kinds of cleansing – a
“whole body” cleansing, for heaven I would assume, and feet
washing, for – I believe – serving Jesus on earth. Jesus seems to
mean that when we believe in Him we are essentially clean, but we
need to come to Him regularly to remove the dust of sin we gather as
we walk through the world. So I believe Jesus is saying that we can
have no part in His ministry to the world if we don’t keep coming
to Him to be cleansed from the little daily sins that we commit.
John 13:19
Jesus says he is
telling the disciples that someone will betray him, so that when it
happens, they will believe “that I am He.”
John 13:20
Whoever accepts one
whom Jesus sends, accepts Jesus, and whoever accepts Jesus accepts
the one who sent Him.
Jesus sends His
disciples to testify about Him. If we accept these messengers –
which includes accepting their message about Jesus – we accept
Jesus.
John 14:1
Jesus says to trust
in God and trust in Him.
John 14:6
Jesus says He is the
way, truth and life. He is the only way to the Father.
Works are not an
alternate way. Jesus is the only way.
John 14:15
Jesus says that if
people love Him they will keep His commandments.
If we love Jesus it
will be natural to obey Him.
John 14:21
The one who keeps
Jesus’ commands is the one who loves Him, and that one will be
loved by the Father.
Keeping Jesus’
commands is not a precondition to loving Jesus and being loved by the
Father, but rather, love is the precondition to obeying Jesus. We
naturally obey Jesus if we love Him.
John 14:23
If you love Jesus
you’ll keep His word and the Father will love you.
Loving Jesus is the
motivation to keeping His word.
John 15:3,4-5
In this passage
about fruitfulness Jesus says his followers are already clean because
of “the word I have spoken to you.” He tells them to remain in
Him and He will remain in them.
If we believe in
Jesus we are already clean, and if we walk with Jesus we will be
fruitful for Him.
John 15:6
If anyone does not
abide in Jesus, he is thrown away as a branch and burned.
This passage is in
the context of bearing fruit. As Jesus prepares for being arrested
and for His final days on earth, He is teaching his disciples how to
live. If we do not abide in Jesus we will bear no fruit and will –
like dry branches – be discarded from participating in His work on
earth. If we do bear fruit (John 15:8) we show ourselves to be Jesus’
disciples – it is the evidence of our faith. So, I don’t think
Jesus is warning his disciples that they may go to hell (especially
since he reassures them in 15:3 that they “are already clean”),
but rather He is telling then how to live so He can use them on earth
when he returns to heaven, and is telling them that if they do not
abide in Him then they will be of no earthly use, and will be
discarded from His great work.
So, while I doubt
that the discarding and burning refers to hell, if it does mean that
then we may understand that the one who does not “abide” (trust
in) Jesus lacks faith and, according to John 14:24, does not love
Jesus. If he did love Jesus he would have obeyed Him. If so, then
perhaps Jesus means that there are those (the discarded branches) who
appear to be part of the body (like Judas) but really are not; they
are just dead wood attached to the body.
John 15:10
If we obey his
commands, we will remain in Jesus’ love.
Are we then
condemned if we do not always obey His commands?
No. This passage is
in the context of daily life, not in the context of eternal
salvation. It is part of a section of instructions about how we can
be productive, how, if we, like the branch of the vine, remain
attached to the vine, we will bear much fruit (John 15:1-8). Jesus
emphasizes this here-and-now aspect by saying that he is telling us
this so that we may experience full joy in Him (John 15:11). So, I
would say that this passage means that if we obey Jesus’ commands,
we are living in the flow of His love.
John 15:14
We are Jesus friends
if we do what He commands.
Doing what Jesus
commands is evidence that we are his friends.
John 15:22, 24
If the people had
not seen Jesus perform miracles among them, they would not be guilty
of sin.
The sin Jesus seems
to be referring to here is the sin of rejecting Him.
Understanding that
we have sinned makes us responsible for that sin. When Jesus made
himself clear by speaking and by doing miracles, those who heard and
saw had no further excuse. They needed to repent and believe. We may
not be guilt of a particular sin if we are ignorant that it is
sinful, but there are so many things we all do that we do
understand to be sinful, that we are hardly off the hook.
John 16:9
Jesus said the
Counselor, the Holy Spirit, will come and will convict the world of
sin because the world does not believe in Jesus.
John 16:27
Jesus says the
Father loves the disciples because they loved Jesus and believed the
Father sent Him.
John 16:30-31
After the disciples
tell Jesus that they believe in Him, Jesus rejoices and says that
they “believe at last!”
John 17:3
Jesus says eternal
life is knowing the only true God, and Jesus, whom He has sent.
John 17:8
Jesus’ followers
believed the Father sent Him.
In this prayer of
Jesus, as He comes to the close of His earthly ministry, He rejoices
that He has accomplished what the Father wanted – the disciples
believe!
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