The Seriousness of Disbelief

In the last blog, we looked at what the Gospel of John said about the disbelief of the people, what they didn’t believe in, why they didn’t believe and what would happen because of their disbelief. Why is this important to understanding our subject passage? First, theologians generally accept that in spite of translators’ quotation marks or red lettering (ancient Greek didn’t use quotation marks), John 3:16-21 was not said to Nicodemus by Jesus. (For an easy check on this, see the newest NIV, 2011.) Linguistically 16-21 doesn’t fit with the rest of Jesus’ statement. In vv. 10-15, Jesus was speaking of the present or the future (“you people do not accept our testimony” v. 11; “I have spoken ... and you do not believe” v. 12; “the Son of Man must be lifted up” v. 14.) In verse 16, the tense becomes past: “For God ... gave his ... Son”; “whoever does not believe stands condemned already” v. 18; “Light has come into the world” v. 19. (A deeper study will reveal even more evidence. See for yourself how it doesn’t fit. In fact, remember how much it's like the prologue? I recommend a good commentary to understand this fully.) This passage is the gospel writer’s comment on what has already happened – Jesus has already died and brought eternal life to believers. When the gospel writer says “they have not believed” (3:18), all the things I mentioned before, the author has already seen happen. He is stating a foundational truth about faith that he will prove in the course of the gospel. We love to quote John 3:16, but we generally ignore John 3:18 even though it has a very powerful message too. It tells us that if you do not believe in Jesus, if you ignore his life, his works, his teaching; if you cling to the religion you know instead of seeking the truth – you will be condemned! You will not receive eternal life. That’s pretty serious stuff! But it doesn’t have to happen that way. Next time we’ll explore some of the evidence for belief.

Disbelief in the Gospel of John

In my previous blog, I said that in the fourth gospel, John tells us why people believed; what they believed in; about their disbelief; and the results of their belief (or disbelief). Let’s look first at the passages about their disbelief. In the two passages we are comparing, John 1:1-18 and John 3:16-21, the only time disbelief is mentioned is in v. 18. It tells us both what happens to those who do not believe (they are condemned) but it also tells us what it is that they have chosen to not believe in – the name of God’s one and only Son. In 7:5, 28 and 16:9, we also see that what the doubters do not believe in is Jesus. So, what had Jesus done to encourage their belief? (Warning: You’ll need to have your bible handy to get the most out of this discussion. I’m not always going to quote the passages, just briefly say what I saw in them. Of course, it’s always a good thing to check any preacher/teacher’s use of the Word. We can make mistakes!) In John 6:30 they want to see a sign (even though Jesus already gave them signs [even more so in 12:37]). They refused to believe even though Jesus’ works testified about him (10:25); they have seen him act as a prophet but still don’t believe him (6:36); they have heard him (3:12); he has spoken the truth (8:45). So why don’t they believe this evidence? Because they seek earthly glory not God’s glory (5:44). This leads them to not accept the teaching of their own revered prophet, Moses (vv. 45-47). They are too focused on their religion and what their religious leaders teach to care about finding the truth (7:47-49). Disbelief is serious business – as we already saw, it condemns (3:18); disbelievers “will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them” (5:38); they will die in their sins (8:24). (To fully understand what Jesus means when he says they will die in their sins, you need to go back to Ezekiel 3:16-21 and 33:1-20.) So how does all this impact our understanding of our subject passage? I’ll address that question in my next blog. (I have to apologize for the huge paragraph. For some reason my paragraph breaks are no longer showing up. It can be a bit confusing. Since I'm not computer savy enough, I don't know why that's happened.)