In John 20:30-31 (NIV) the apostle John gives us the purpose he had in mind for recording for us what he did of Jesus’ life. He writes, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
It could be said that all that is recorded in the New Testament is seeking this one response from us, namely, to “believe in Jesus.”
What does that mean? I suggest to you that believing in Jesus has three aspects to it.
The first is that we cease believing that we know what’s best for us. We don’t get anywhere close to believing in Jesus so long as we think we know what is best. For that matter, such faith in our perspective is the tap root of all sin. So step one is to repent of that belief — to reject it, and all that we’ve done that has flowed from it.
Secondly, to believe in Jesus is to welcome his overtures of friendship, that is, we say our “yes” to his desire to be our intimate friend. This means we begin to talk to him about everything that’s on our hearts and ask him to guide us and help us. He has been yearning to be our friend from the moment he thought of creating us so in our response of believing in him we are letting him have his way with us.
Thirdly, it is to invite him to cause his loving helpfulness to flow through us and help us be helpful to everyone we know or meet.
These three aspects of believing in Jesus center our lives on friendship with him and on being a blessing to others. In the words of the apostle John, it means we now have life in his name.
