What does "belief" really mean according to the apostle John?

This is an awesome article by one of my professors on what "belief" means in John (and the New Testament), and how the apostles used and understood that word. This article gets at what it means to have belief and saving faith in Jesus. 

BELIEF IN GOSPEL OF JOHN

John is the Gospel of belief. The word "believe" (pisteuo) occurs 98 times in the Gospel and essentially means "to trust."

Definition of Belief

Several texts in John provide insight into what it means to believe. Belief is seen to be the equivalent of "receiving" Him (1:12), "obeying" the Son (Jn. 3:36), and "abiding" in Christ (Jn. 15:1-10, 1 Jn. 4:15). Belief never refers to a mere intellectual ascent to a proposition. Pisteuo always involves a personal response and commitment. Believing in Christ means that we acknowledge Him as God's Son and Messiah and trust His Person and work in securing our personal salvation. Believing in Christ means that we rely upon Jesus alone to bring us safely through life to heaven.

Progress of Belief

A prayer to pray when facing a trial

Dear Lord, would you comfort me right now:

2 Corinthians 1:3-11:

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

⁸ We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. ⁹ Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, ¹¹ as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

God, would you give me peace beyond understanding, the ability to rejoice through your Spirit, and would you fill my mind with your truth and an eternal perspective:  
Philippians 4:4-9:

9 day devotional: discipleship and spiritual formation packet

Discipleship and Spiritual Formation Devotionals

DAY 1: Does God’s presence in me really change anything?

In the midst of busy, scattered, exhausted and hurting lives we want to experience a great love with God….but how does that actually happen and what does that even look like?

           

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.”  (Matt 11:28-30 – The Message)

Transformation happens as you keep company with Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Unforced rhythms of grace depend on something more than self-mastery and self-effort.  The simple truth is that wanting to keep company with Jesus has a staying power that “shoulds” and “oughts” seldom have. 

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. 

He’s the food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.”  (Matt 5:6 – The Message)

The very first thing Jesus asked his soon-to-be disciples was, “What do you want?” (John 1:37)  He knew human desire to be an incurable black hole of opportunity.   Accompany him and watch him welcome people who want something more…Look at Mark 1:40, Matt 8:34, Matt 8:25, Matt 20:21, John 4:15, Mark 9:22, and Mark 5:18

The Inner Ring: CS Lewis

This article is very insightful into human nature, and just good old fashioned advice from the wise old CS Lewis. This article is very relevant to community and the Body of Christ, for we should model an entirely different social unit that is not characterized by these inner rings, lusts to be on the inside, and delicious satisfactions from being on the inside while others are on the outside. We should be a bunch of nobodies who love one another as much as we love ourselves. Most of us love ourselves way too much and think way too highly of ourselves, while we most certainly don't love others like we love ourselves. Since God's plan A (with no plan B) is to spread his Kingdom through His Church, his Body, and we will only be used if we are usable and useful, the question is, what makes us useful? I think the key is unity, which comes from everyone being genuinely connected to, submitted to, and in love with the head of the body: Jesus Christ. When we are connected to Him, he will be shaping us into his image, and we will all fit together in harmony and ready to be fulled to all fullness with his presence. I think the world has yet to see just how mightily God would use his Body to reach the world if we were clothed with the character of Christ, connected to the Head, and thus totally unified in spirit and purpose. Perhaps our grumblings with one another, our gossip and jealousy, our quarrels and lack of care for one another, and our dis-unity is far more serious than we can possibly imagine. Perhaps far more is at stake for our lack of unity and Christ-likeness. Let us step back and evaluate our lives and our communities with great fear and trembling, ready to repent of the ways we dishonor God.


The Inner Ring
C.S. Lewis
May I read you a few lines from Tolstoy's War and Peace?:

"When Boris entered the room, Prince Andrey was listening to an old general, wearing his decorations, who was reporting something to Prince Andrey, with an expression of soldierly servility on his purple face. "Alright. Please wait!" he said to the general, speaking in Russian with the French accent, which he used when he spoke with contempt. The moment he noticed Boris he stopped listening to the general who trotted imploringly after him and begged to be heard, while Prince Andrey turned to Boris with a cheerful smile and a nod of the head. Boris now clearly understood-what he had already guessed-that side by side with the system of discipline and subordination which were laid down in the Army Regulations, there existed a different and a more real system- the system which compelled a tightly laced general with a purple face to wait respectfully for his turn while a mere captain like Prince Andrey chatted with a mere second lieutenant like Boris, Boris decided at once that he would be guided not by the official system but by this other unwritten system."

When you invite a middle-aged moralist to address you, I suppose I must conclude, however unlikely the conclusion seems, that you have a taste for middle-aged moralizing. I shall do my best to gratify it. I shall in fact give you advice about the world in which you are going to live. I do not mean by this that I am going to attempt to talk on what are called current affairs. You probably know quite as much about them as I do. I am not going to tell you- except in a form so general that you will hardly recognize it-what part you ought to play in post- war reconstruction. It is not, in fact, very likely that any of you will be able, in the next ten years, to make any direct contribution to the peace or prosperity of Europe. You will be busy finding jobs, getting married, acquiring facts. I am going to do something more old- fashioned than you perhaps expected. I am going to give advice. I am going to issue warnings. Advice and warnings about things which are so perennial that no one calls them "current affairs." 

Bible study series: week 6: Identity and Prayer/Meditation

Identity and Prayer/Meditation

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn how to live freely and lightly. (Matthew 11:28-30 Message)”

Bible study series: week 5: Money and Materialism; Frugality and Sacrifice

Money and Materialism: Frugality and Sacrifice

 

1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Bible study series: week 4: Gossip and Silence

Gossip and Silence

Ephesians 4:29: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Bible study series: week 3: The Heart and Solitude

The Heart and Solitude

Verses about the Heart:

Proverbs 4:20-24 reminds us to keep the words of God's wisdom "in the midst of your heart," and that from there "they are life to those who find them, and health to all their whole body." (vs. 21-22 NAS) Then comes the exhortation, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." (vs. 23).

Bible study series: week 2: Pride and Secrecy

Pride and Secrecy

We all know that Pride is a deep issue of the heart that we all struggle with. Here are some verses about pride and humility, followed by a description of the spiritual discipline of secrecy from the book: Spirit of the Disciplines, by Dallas Willard. Then there are some thought questions to think about.

Bible study series: week 1: Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplines

A few years ago, I did a bible study series with one of my small groups addressing different issues of the heart and a relevant spiritual discipline to help "train" that issue of the heart. We started with a vision for our small group and an article by Dallas Willard called: How the disciple lives naturally comes out of who the disciple is. It was an awesome and fruitful series, so here is week number one and the following posts will be weeks 2-6.

Goals/ things to think about for Bible study this year:

What does it mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to be a Christian? On one hand, there are some simple and basic answers. But on the other hand, there are some profound, complex aspects to the internal and external outworking of what it means to be a Christian (as an individual and community/church). In a sense, it takes a lifetime to increasingly live into and come to an experiential knowledge of what it means to be a Christian--a believer in and follower of Jesus. Here are a few thoughts on what it means to be a Christian.

A few months ago Tom came to see that things were not quite right in his life. In his honest, quiet moments, he felt alone, lost, broken, superficial, and empty inside. He did not know what was truly real about God, himself, reality, and life after death, and he did not know what a truly good, significant life looked like.

What am I to do with the Bible?

What to do with the Bible

by rev. w. h. pike

THE Bible is wonderful because it gives us a knowledge of God, of men, of the Universe, and of Redemption. No other book can be compared to it in this respect, but it not only informs us about these important truths, but it also tells us what we are to do with it. We have within the Bible itself instruction as to our attitude toward it

We are exhorted to:

How shall I Study My Bible?

How Shall I Study My Bible?

by frederic w. farr, d. d.

PEOPLE are always asking, how shall I study the Bible? What is the best method? There is no short cut, no royal road, no magic method. Say to such an inquirer, “Read the Bible over and over again—not once, nor twice, nor thrice, but many, many times.” And that is all any one can do. Read it until you become familiar, cognizant of its contents, until you are so familiar with your Bible, be it Bagster or Oxford, that you can close your eyes and visualize the passage by locating it upon a particular page just where it belongs.

In riding upon a railroad train, you hear the trainmen call out the stations, and you refer to your time card to verify the call as each station is passed, and you wonder at the trained memory of the man who can repeat that long list of way stations without a mistake, and you ask him how he ever does it, and he smiles and replies that he has done it so long it is automatic, done without thought and without effort; and so the best product of Bible study becomes spontaneous and involuntary. You have read the Bible so frequently, so thoughtfully, so earnestly, so prayerfully that it comes to you without direct effort on your part where to locate a passage and you label it instinctively. And when the facts of Scripture are all in your head and heart, you can safely trust the Holy Spirit to interpret those facts, and you need not that any man teach you, and therefore the only thing to seek and to secure is to become familiar with the contents of the Word—thoroughly cognizant of all the facts of Scripture, and read them so often that you see them on the page where they occur, even with closed eyes. In that way, a man with one book, if that book be the Bible, has a large and liberal culture and an education that will serve manifold purposes in solving the problems and bearing the burdens and discharging the duties of daily life.

The Kingdom of God and one of the strongest apologetics for the Christian faith: the fact that Christianity even started

I have been dramatically impacted by learning about what the Kingdom of Heaven actually means, and our ultimate hope of what heaven is according to Scripture. So without further adieu, let us dive in to unpacking four questions: 1. What does the "Kingdom of Heaven," mean, (a frequently used term by Jesus and his followers)? 2. What was the first century Jewish expectation for the anticipated Messiah, and what did they think His Kingdom coming to earth would look like? 3. What really happened to Jesus and why did Christianity start? 4. What is our hope and mission as Christians right now? (Now there are volumes and volumes of books written on each of these questions, so I am merely trying to touch the surface of these questions).

I. What is the Kingdom of Heaven?

The Kingdom of Heaven is the real place where God is King, where He reigns, and where His will is always done--his people, in his place, under his benevolent rule. The Kingdom of Heaven is the place where God's subjects obey the laws, statutes, and principles of the government established by Him. It is a real place right alongside the physical reality, but is hidden by a veil from our sight at the present time. Even though we cannot presently see this dimension of reality, it is the more real reality of the two, for it is the dimension where God and all that is eternal dwells. As CS Lewis says, "we are not physical bodies with a soul, we are souls with a physical body." The intangible essence of our personality and personhood that fills our body is the more real and primary part of us than our bodies, just as the heavenly reality is more real than the physical reality, even now. The heavenly dimension precedes and will outlast the physical.

Test yourself in your regard for the Word of God

This post piggy backs off of a previous post titled submission. I am concerned on how we view and approach the Word of God. Here I have given a few verses and questions to test ourselves in.

Joshua 1:7-8: "Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

Questions: Are you careful to obey the Word? Do you believe that the Bible has the best and wisest things to say about the most important topics of human existence? Do you believe that aligning yourself to the teachings of Scripture bring life, peace, a life that flourishes, and success (not success in a worldly sense but success in God's eyes: being conformed to his image, growing in faith, and growing to love Him and others more)?

On knowing and discerning God's will

I wanted to compile two helpful things I have read on this question, because it is a very common question, especially amongst college students! So here it goes:

Blog post by John Ortberg:

I was at commencement at a Christian college this weekend, and it reminded me of the question millions of young people are asking this time of year.
We never grow out of that question: Who is operating out of a wisdom surplus?
But the vast majority of people start at the wrong place.
When I finished college, I desperately wanted to know what I should do next. Find a job? Go to grad school? Where? In what field?
I prayed until I was exhausted (and God was probably a little tired of it too). I was ready to do whatever. Just send me a postcard. Put it in sky writing. But I would have gotten more clarity with a Magic 8 ball.
For a good reason.
Which I did not understand for many years. And its this:
God’s main purpose for you is not what you do. Its who you become.
If I always told my kids what do to–wear these clothes, take this job, marry this person–they might do what I say. Their circumstances might even turn out OK.
But they would not grow into excellent persons.
To grow into an excellent person, you have to make choices,

A short thought: Reading the Word afresh

What if we had never grown up learning about Christianity from other people, and the first introduction we had to Christianity and to the person of Jesus was reading through the entire New Testament in one sitting. What would be the overall sentiment and impressions we would come away with? What would be the main topics and themes that would emerge the strongest? I want to think about this question more and try reading the Bible with this fresh perspective and (as best I can) without presuppositions or biases, and with an open mind and heart. I think I might be surprised.

Submission

I have been thinking a lot lately about the theme of submission in several different ways. First and foremost, submission to God. I find that one of my favorite things to meditate on and realize is that God is God and I am not. His ways are so much higher than my ways, and His thoughts are so much higher than my thoughts. For me to say, "God would not do this or that (even when it is clearly in His Word) because that is unfair or unequal" is basically me judging God, putting myself in the place of Him, subjecting God to my opinions, belittling him, and saying my ways are higher than his ways. How utterly wicked this is!

Some good news of the good news

I recently went through an unnecessary dry season in my walk with Christ. The reason I say unnecessary is because I could have come to Him in brokenness and need way sooner, begging Him for the power of His Spirit to overcome my sin and defeated life. He would have met me in an instant. But instead, I wallowed in my defeat and discouragement, buying into the lies of the enemy that I was unworthy and unfit to even come to God, and that I was doomed to a life of mediocrity in my faith. I am glad to say that God provided me with the right reminders at the right time on the baptism (immersion, filling) of the Holy Spirit and the prerequisites to receive Him. He also opened my eyes to so many verses of the New Testament that I have known on a head level, but now feel like I am coming to know in a deep way in my heart.

A new look at suffering and the hope we can have in the midst of it

I was reading in Philippians 3 the other day, and a phrase in verse 10 caught my eye in a really fresh, new way. Verse 10-11 reads: "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

The whole verse was really powerful to me, but particularly what I highlighted jumped out to me and made me ponder it. Anytime I see the word suffering in the New Testament I usually immediately think of physical pain or losing my loved ones. The New Testament writers really embraced suffering in a way that I really desire to be able to, but usually feel so far from, and even a little bit afraid of. For the relatively small amount of suffering I have experienced, I have seen God's goodness, faithfulness, presence, and sovereignty so clearly! I know His grace is sufficient for everything we go through, and this helps me in thinking about suffering.