According to John, his stated purpose for the
presentation of the Gospel is evangelistic, apologetic, and authentic in
nature.
1. Evangelistic: but these [signs, v30] are written
that you may believe (keep on believing).
2. Apologetic: that Jesus is the
Christ [the Anointed One, the Messiah], the Son of God.
3. Authentic: that believing [Gk., pisteuo, continuing to believe] you may have [keep on having] life (Gk., zoe,
eternal life, God’s life] in His name.
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence
of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these signs are
written that you may keep on believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that continuing to believe you may keep on having life in His name (free
translation).
It is very interesting that the noun,
translated faith (Gk., pistis)
is conspicuously absent in the book that contains the famous whoever believes in Him passage found in the Gospel according to John in 3:16. John is a book all about
believing that is characterized by motion. Under inspiration, John is
emphasizing action or the outworking of one’s belief (Gk., pistis, found only in 2 Thes 2:13) or faith (translated 243 times in
the NT) in spiritual stark contrast to the claim of a belief or faith that is
fruitless or barren or inactive. James would have loved this Gospel
perspective of John (cf. Jas 2:17-18). It seriously begs for an answer to the
question, “In whom or what are we believing (or trusting) for eternal life?
We see this through the various active verb
forms of pisteuo, a cognate of pistis (faith), occurring in
John’s Gospel account (based on the Received Text [TR]) 100 times in the KJV
and NKJV translations, respectively, containing Strong’s numbering system. It
is readily apparent that this verb believe is a keyword in the Gospel according to John. The only
chapters in John where pisteuo does not occur are in 15, 18, and 21(including
NASB). Note the chart for comparison in occurrences between KJV and NKJV and
the different verb forms translated from pisteuo.1
Occurrences
of pisteuo in the Book of John
|
Tot
|
|||||||
Trans:
|
Believe
|
Believest
|
Believes
|
Believeth
|
Believing
|
Believed
|
Commit
|
|
KJV
|
51
|
3
|
0
|
17
|
1
|
27
|
1
|
100
|
NKJV
|
59
|
0
|
15
|
0
|
2
|
23
|
1
|
100
|
Below are the occurrences of various forms of pisteuo
in the Book of John in the NASB, based on the Majority Text [MT].
Trans:
|
Believe
|
Believes
|
Believing
|
Believed
|
Entrusting
|
Tot
|
NASB
|
56
|
13
|
4
|
24
|
1
|
98
|
Belief or faith in Scripture is not a
standalone proposition; faith must have fruit to exist (cf. Jas 2:20); a tree
is known by its fruit, (Mt 7:16-20; 12:33), not just any kind of fruit, but the
kind of fruit that is solely defined by Scripture (e.g., Gal 5:22-23). The lack
of fruit in the life of a so-called believer is not a spiritually healthy sign.
It is the Word and the fruit of our faith that feed and reinforce the
spiritual healthiness of our belief. If you claim to be an apple tree, there
will be apples dangling for all to see, not barren boughs or some other kind of
fruit.
The Apostle John utilizes this verb more than
any other author of Scripture. Second place goes to Dr. Luke (Col 4:14) in
using pisteuo 39 times in the Book of Acts. The Apostle Paul comes in
third with 21 in Romans. In comparison, there are only 35 occurrences of pisteuo
in the Synoptics (Mt [11], Mk [15], Lk [9]).
To be clear, John, Paul, and Luke were
including this Greek verb under inspiration; they were not making that decision
on their own cognizance; it is always good to keep in mind that the Holy Spirit
was superintending the work of inspiration, not man. Rather than accusing Paul
as a racist, sexist, homophobic bigot, et al, such vitriolic accusations should
be directed at the Holy Spirit of God for that is what the accusers are doing
unwittingly!
The Holy Spirit is the Author (2 Tim 3:16-17;
2 Pet 1:20-21)! Paul knew right well in his day that his accusers were not
rejecting him but God (cf. 1 Sam 8:7; Jn 12:48; 1 Thes 4:8). The position of
the Apostle was in full agreement with the Holy Spirit. I, too, embrace Paul’s
position who embraced divine revelation.
Moving forward, if we add the 10 occurrences
of pisteuo from 1 John to John’s Gospel tally, he has a total of 110. If we include Luke’s gospel account with Acts,
he uses pisteuo 9 times in Luke for a grand total of 48. Should we throw
all of the writings of Paul together, he utilizes pisteuo 52 times. If
we credit him with authoring Hebrews, we can add 2 more occurrences of pisteuo
for a grand total of 54, edging out Luke for second place.
The lineup for the writers using the Greek
verb pisteuo in their writings are John (110), Paul (54), and Luke (48)
for a grand total of 212 occurrences out of 248 in the NT. Concerning the usage of pisteuo
in the NT, John accounts for 44%, Paul with 22%, and Luke at 19%. Between the
three, they are credited with 85% of the appearances of pisteuo in the
NT. The only books in the NT where pisteuo does not occur is in
Colossians, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Revelation.
Why am I hammering on this Greek verb? To show
the importance that the Holy Spirit places on this verb for salvation and the
need for it to play an active part in our faith as long as we have breath. It demonstrates
that we are a new creation in Christ, not just in talk but in our walk. Our faith
is verbal; it’s active; it’s current; it’s relevant; it’s sorely needed in the
daily walk, authentically acting out our faith.
Many put off salvation with this warp notion
to have their cake and eat it, too! They want the best of what both worlds have
to offer, or so the thinking goes. After enjoying this world, they plan to get saved when they are older and go to a happy ever after in heaven! I get it, but it doesn't work that way. I will concede that a person in his
or her last breath could be saved if he or she called on the name of the Lord,
but so-called “foxhole” conversions that go beyond the hole are rare and the
thinking is extremely risky; based on what I know of Scripture, it is a risk
not worth taking given what is at stake! This view is wrong on so many fronts it
is not worth addressing. You can’t fix stupid.
Realistically speaking, if you have the mistaken idea as a believer to live as close
to hell as possible to keep from losing heaven, you are not saved (cf. 1 Jn. 1:6; 3:10)!! The
thief on the cross was an exception, not the rule, given his unique situation. If
anything, the thief coming to Christ while on the cross illustrates that
salvation is not of works but purely of grace. It is unwise to cite this
criminal’s life as a proof-text that one can have a do-nothing faith and get
saved while dying (cf. Lk 23:39-43; 1 Cor 3:15). Think of how rare this thief’s
situation was. Jesus was a missionary to His last breath!
How about those who claimed to have been saved when they were a kid but lived like the devil ever since their so-called conversion? If
this is you or somebody you know; this is what I would say to you or to anyone
else, “It is very unwise to bank your eternal destiny on an experience that never
changed your life.” I say that with a heart of compassion; for it is a heartbreaker
to see people you care about live their life in this manner. Their “experience”
never aligns with the exercise of their life. This claim to be a new creation
as a child, but a life lived and such a life continuing to revolve around the world
is delusory.
Most of us do not know when our appointment
with death is coming (Heb 9:27), and we certainly cannot use reverse psychology on the All-knowing!
Going beyond intellectual assent reveals an active, vibrant faith. The question I ask of you is this. Whom are you now
believing (or entrusting) for your eternal life? If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity? Allow me to offer some very
powerful verses for your consideration.
(1Jn
5:11) And
this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in
His Son.
(1Jn
5:12) He
who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have
life.
(1Jn
5:13) These
things I have written to you who believe [pisteuo] in the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue
to believe [pisteuo] in the name of the Son of God.
(Joh
8:24) Therefore
I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe [pisteuo] that I am He,
you will die in your sins.
(Jas 2:19) You believe
[pisteuo] that there is one God. You
do well. Even the demons believe [pisteuo]
– and tremble!
You
can believe in orthodox doctrine, like monotheism, for instance, and still fear
and tremble, but saving faith is not about mere mental assent of right beliefs or
fear and trembling. Receiving God's offer of salvation by faith is (Eph 2:8-9).
We know that every demon is heading for the lake of fire, but it doesn’t stop
there!
And
anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:15).
Faith without works is dead, declared James, the half-brother of Jesus (Jas 2:20); James
was speaking to fools, by the way. How important is believing to having a fruitful faith? This
verb is as vital as breath is to life. <><
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1. There is actually a total of 109
occurrences of pisteuo in the Greek concordance in John. These 9
occurrences are the result of the translator attaching one or more English
words in order to make sense of pisteuo in its English context; these
are also counted in some searches which creates inaccuracies. So, I did not include these additional words used in translation in
tabulating the total occurrences, only the one Greek verb pisteuo with
each occurrence.
If you should consult a translation
incorporating Strong’s numbering system, in this instance, G4100 (00), the
double zeroes in parenthesis alert the reader what the translator had done. The
Blue Letter Bible search on G4100, for instance, will indicate pisteuo
occurs 109 times in the book of John, but in each of these 9 occurrences, the
Greek verb itself is used only once which is part of the 100-count. Tallying
this stuff manually is nerdy, indeed, but also tedious, but sometimes, it
yields precious insight.
