- Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
This is an important verse in regards to the question of salvation. I have talked about this in my previous post that we must guard ourselves against antinomianism while shunning legalism.
In this verse in John’s gospel, Jesus first mentions that we must believe in the Son to have eternal life. There is no question about how we are saved. We are saved by believing in Jesus. Now, faith in Greek is pistis. It means “to be persuaded.” Therefore, faith for us is God’s work. It is God’s divine persuasion for us. God inbirths faith in us through his persuasion.
Now, what are we persuaded of? We are persuaded of Jesus’ saving work on the cross for our sins and His lordship over us.
On the other hand, “whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
In this verse, the phrase translated as “does not obey” in Greek is apeitheó which means “refuse to be persuaded.”
Therefore, whoever refuses to be persuaded by God will not see life but the wrath of God remains on them. The wrath of God refers to his constant, fixed disposition against someone or something considered by God as unjust, and evil.
We, sometimes, think that evil means being someone like “Hitler” or someone who commits a heinous crime. However, the Bible’s definition of evil is much more broad. Unbelief itself is sin, therefore evil. Romans 14:23 says, “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” This means anything we do that does not proceed from His persuasion(faith) is sin. Consequently, this also means if we are not careful to listen to God’s voice, or hear from God’s word, we may be doing things in our own ways which, of course, is sin and evil.
Therefore, faith and obedience are very closely linked. Faith inevitably leads to obedience. This is why you cannot be a believer and antinomian at the same time because a true believer will obey the commandments of the Lord.
Believers are people who have been divinely persuaded (therefore through the Bible or God’s word) to follow God’s commandments. Therefore, pistis (faith, God’s persuasion) leads to obedience. Inversely, if we see someone who pays careful attention to God’s word and follows His teaching as written in the Bible, we can see that that person is divinely persuaded by God or has faith.
Faith can only come from hearing (therefore, being persuaded by God).
- “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
On the other hand, someone who does not read the word of God nor pays any careful attention to His teaching, therefore does things according to what they think is right rather than what God says is right but claim to believe in Jesus, what are we to say about this? They refuse to be persuaded by God because they refuse to read or hear from God’s word. As we learned above, those who refuse to be persuaded by God will not see life but the wrath of God remains on them.
We must remember Jesus’ words in the sermon on the mount. Matthew 7:16-23:
- You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
- “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’