Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

The Simplicity of an Equal Sign!

Meditation for the week of May 12, 2013

John 3:36  He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Mother’s produce children that they love.  The child that a mother brings into the world has physical life that only lasts for a period of time.  That life that fits us for life on planet earth.  There is a life that is more important, however.  It is everlasting or eternal life.  This life is spiritual and is produced through the Word of God  (1 Peter 1:23).  The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to convict and convert those who only have physical life.  A saved mother will rejoice when she gives birth to a child, but she will rejoice more when that child obtains the spiritual life that comes from eternity and that fits us for eternity.  That life is obtained by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many times people have asked me what it means to believe in the Son as it says in John 3:36.  Many of us were raised to believe in the truth of the Bible and from our earliest recollections we believed that God had prepared  heaven for those who were saved sinners and hell for those who were not.  We believed that Christ had died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins and that He was buried and was raised again the third day.  We believed He ascended to heaven and promised the world that He would come again.  We believed these facts, but did we believe in Him?  The answer is no we did not.   It is impossible for someone to believe in the Son without believing the facts of the Gospel, but believing the facts is not the same as believing in or trusting the Son.  Those who have believed in the Son know that they have eternal life, they don’t wonder or hope that they do.

Our verse has two parts to it.  There are those who have everlasting life and those who will not see life.  The people in the first group are saved or born again.  The people in the latter group are lost.  I often ask people, “What part of the verse describes you?”  Many will hesitate.  Some will say  that they don’t know.  But the truth is we are either saved or lost.  We either believe in (or trust) the Son or we do not.  So I ask those I am trying to help, “Do you have eternal life?”  That is, would you go go heaven if you died?  Most say, “I hope so.”  Some say, “I don’t know.”   Then I ask them if they know what an equal sign is because believing in the Son equals having everlasting life in the verse.  If we have or possess something, we should know that we have or possess it.  If a person cannot say for sure that they have everlasting life, they can not say that they have believed in the Son whatever that means according to this verse.  The verse says that if a person has believed in the Son, they HAVE everlasting or eternal life.  They don’t have it because of the quality or the fervency of their believing, they have it because God says that they have it.  Our believing doesn’t make the Gospel true.  It is true whether we believe it or not.  But we make the Gospel effective in our lives by believing in or trusting the Son.

Sometimes I take people to Romans 5:6 and show them that God says that while we were without strength or unsaved, Christ died for the ungodly.  I ask them if they are ungodly (not like God).  If they say yes, I take them to John 3:36 and read it this way, “He who believes that Christ died for the ungodly has everlasting or eternal life.”  Believing in the truth that Christ died for the ungodly is the same as believing in the Son if the person reading these verses can see that they are ungodly.  Many times those who were confused as to which part of the verse they are in say at this point, “Why I am in the first part of the verse.”  I ask them how they know and they tell me that they know because God says so.  Usually at that point they can truthfully and for the first time, thank the Lord for saving them.  Now instead of believing about the truth, they are trusting in the truth.  Once a person who accepts the Biblical truth  that they are ungodly finds out that it is TRUE that Christ died for the ungodly, they don’t usually have any trouble trusting in that truth. 

Are you thankful on this Mother’s day for the life that your mother gave you?  I am sure that you are.  But more importantly, do you have and are you thankful for the spiritual life that comes from eternity and fits you for eternity?  If you can’t say that you have eternal life, then you can’t be sure that you have believed in the Son.   However, instead of trying to believe harder or more fervently, just take God at His Word when he says that Christ died for the ungodly.  After all, that is the truth!

He that believes on the Son has everlasting life.  Please believe that!  The Gospel is just as simple as that.

Bruce Collins

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>