Note: these are devotional posts based on John Piper’s new book What Jesus Demands from the World.
Demand #4 — Believe
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God….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. (John 3:16-18, 36)
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me (John 14:1)
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. (John 14:11)
While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. (John 12:36a)
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20:27)
Why must we believe?
We are to believe in Jesus, because only he can rescue us. Only he can save us from the danger of perishing under God’s wrath forever in Hell. Let me quote Piper’s illustration here.
Jesus is the only one who can save us from this danger….It is as though a fireman finds you almost unconscious in a burning building that is about to collapse, throws his insulated tarp over you, picks you up, and says, “Hold still as I carry you. Don’t move. Don’t try to help me. I will get you out. You must let me do it. Trust me.”
Just like the fireman, Jesus has done everything to save us. He does not demand “heroic acts of penance but [rather] that we trust him.” Jesus has purchased us through his Cross-work on our behalf. And on that basis He calls us to believe in Him.
What is it to believe?
There are three indispensable elements to belief. Saving faith includes all three points.
- We must believe that the facts about Jesus and the Gospel are true. (Jn. 20:27)
- We must trust Jesus as a “living person for who he really is”. We need to believe “in him”. (Jn. 14:1)
- We must be satisfied with All God is for us in Jesus. (Jn. 6:35)
The “1-2-3 repeat after me” approach to evangelism hones in on the first aspect of belief. They try to get people to pray a quick prayer upon assenting to a short Gospel fact list. But saving faith is much more than that.
We must trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But not merely our Lord and Savior, but as our Supreme Treasure. Piper loses people at this point, but regardless God’s Word clearly teaches that saving faith is the kind of faith that savors Jesus and enjoys Him. Let me showcase the Scriptural proof that Piper offers here.
- “Jesus offers himself to us not merely as a rescuer to be trusted but as living water to be drunk….” And as a Shepherd (Matt. 26:31), Bridegroom (Matt. 9:15), Treasure (Matt. 13:44), King (John 18:36), and more.
- John 6:35 shows the relationship between belief and drinking or coming to Jesus: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst“. To believe is to drink deeply from the “wells of salvation” (Is. 12:3).
So Piper rightly argues that believing that water gives life doesn’t cut it. You must drink the water. “Jesus gives life by being trusted. Trusting Jesus as water, therefore, means drinking the water.” It means “receiving” Jesus and all the “life-giving grace of God that comes to us in him”.
You don’t have to receive a fireman, just his aid. Jesus is not like that:
[The fireman] doesn’t ask you to believe in him for all that he is, or to receive him, or to savor his life. But Jesus does. He is so much more than a rescuer. Therefore, believing in him is more than trusting in his rescue skills.
In thinking through these thoughts, I couldn’t help but wondering how much I really am presently savoring Christ. I mean, most of my readers, like myself, have already believed. But are we truly continuing to believe? Is Jesus giving us true life? Are we entranced with the glory of Jesus as so much MORE than merely our Delivering Fireman? Are we daily growing in our love for and appreciation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Is He truly our Supreme Treasure?
We’ll consider more along this line of thinking in the next post on Demand #5, Love.
—See all posts on, the Demands of Jesus
∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7