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Gospel of John Bible Study Notes, Week 6

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life . . . John 3:36a

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith . . . Ephesians 2:8a

There is no doubt that we are saved by believing and placing our faith in Jesus. But what does believing and faith involve? This verse in John’s gospel gives us a clue:

Jesus would not entrust himself to them . . . John 2:24 [1]

The Greek word which is translated as “entrust” in this verse is the same Greek word which, in other places of the New Testament, is translated as “believe” or “have faith”. All these words are translated from the one Greek verb: pisteuō.  (The related noun is pistis.)

True faith involves entrusting our lives to Jesus and living for him.

True faith and trust in Jesus Christ will always have an evident, active expression. It is not merely an intellectual belief. Our attitudes, thoughts and our behaviour are shaped by our continual commitment to entrust our lives to Jesus.

Because real, saving faith is not just a mental acknowledgement that Jesus is the Saviour, whenever I am explaining salvation to people, I don’t just say that salvation is about believing in Jesus, I say that it involves entrusting our lives to him. This takes faith because it is faith.

Jesus is the only true Saviour. We can depend on him to rescue us from sin and judgement, and give us eternal life. We can be confident that he will always love us, and never leave us. We can be sure that he hears us when we speak to him, and that he will help us. Jesus is worthy of our complete faith and trust.


Footnote

[1] You can read this verse here in context. Jesus could see into people’s hearts so he knew who he could trust, and who he couldn’t. We can see what kind of person Jesus is when we read the Gospels, and Jesus shows us what God is like. Jesus is worthy of our trust.


« Jesus Clears the Temple – John 2:13-17
» John 3 (not published online)
» Jesus and the Samaritan Woman – John 4:1-42  

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