Being With Jesus:
John 2:22 (NLT)
Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” … (the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
If you were a spiritual seeker exploring what the Christian faith was all about, and John’s Gospel was your only source, it wouldn’t take you very long to discover the key component to Christianity. It can be boiled down to just one word—a very simple word that is repeated throughout the book; a single, simple word, yet a word that carries with in it the most profound implications. That word is “believe”.
That is Christianity at its purest and simplest: To believe in Jesus Christ.
Now this is belief that is more than mere intellectual acknowledgement in the historical Jesus. It is more than just acknowledging that he was a good man, a wonderful religious leader or even to say that he was God come in the flesh.
Rather, the kind of belief John is describing—the kind that brings us into an experience of the abundant life of God now and eternal life after we die, is to believe that Jesus Christ is both Savior and Lord. It is to be fully persuaded of whom Jesus is and convinced that what Jesus said is true. It is to have complete confidence that the claims and demands Jesus made are credible beyond any shadow of a doubt. It is the kind of belief that entrusts one’s life and stakes one’s eternity upon the veracity of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is to be so radically won over that all of one’s life will be placed under the guidance, pleasure and worship of Jesus.
In the twenty-one chapters of John’s Gospel, all but three use the word “believe” to describe either people’s response to Jesus or Jesus’s call to those who would be his followers.
In John 1:7 John the Baptist is introduced as the one whose entire purpose is to prepare people to believe in Jesus, the coming Messiah.
In John 1:12, the Apostle John explains of Jesus, “all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gives the right to become the children of God.”
In John 3:14-18, which includes the most famous verse in the entire Bible—the Bible summed up in just one verse—John 3:16, we learn that Jesus will ultimately die on the cross so that people might believe and thereby live forever:
“‘The Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’ Jesus said. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Now in this present chapter, John 2:11 tells us that after Jesus performed his first miracle, his disciples believed in him. Toward the end of the chapter, the Jewish leaders ask Jesus for a miraculous sign to prove his authority for driving the merchants from the temple. Jesus only offers them the sign that will come after they destroy the temple, which he will raise up in three days (a veiled reference to his own death and resurrection). Speaking of that in John 2:22, the Apostle John writes, “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled that he had said this, then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”
When you get to the end of the Gospel, John reveals to the readers of his Gospel account why he has recorded the stories and teachings of Jesus:
“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)
Believe! That is Christianity pure and simple. And as you read the Gospel of John nearly 2,000 years after John wrote it as an eyewitness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that same purpose is still in effect: That you might believe—place totally, radical, life-altering trust—in Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord!
Do you believe?
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
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