The one who believes…
I am currently reading through the Gospel of John and thinking about the Christian & Missionary’s two distinctives - Mission and The Deeper Life. In the following refection on John 7:37-39 I will relate these verses to both.
In the following verses Jesus gives us a conditional promise: “The one who believes in me…”
“On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” - John 7:37–39 (CSB)
So what does mean to believe in Jesus? Believe what in particular? Well the context makes it clear - believe that Jesus is the Messiah (see John 7:41-42). The Messiah was the person promised in the Old Testament that would come and rescue God’s people and set up God’s rule, I.e. the Messiah would become the King. However, the expectation of the Jews was that the Messiah would come and set up a ‘worldly’ rule and overthrow the existing (illegitimate and oppressive) ruler. In the 1st century this was the Roman Empire. However when Jesus came as Messiah, it became clear he was not setting up a earthly rulership (at least not yet). The ministry of Jesus revealed his rulership would at first be to overthrow the existing ‘spiritual’ rule. Why? God needed to deal with humanity’s root problem first - the spiritual problem. So the first task for Jesus was to confront and overcome the evil spiritual forces overpowering humanity (Matt 8:29, Col 2:15, 1 John 3:8, Acts 8:7). Therefore when Jesus says “The one who believes in me…” it is not believing Jesus was a historical figure, or even a prophet, and also not merely believing Jesus was a saviour, but importantly also believing Jesus has come as the ruler-King. The Messiah-King who has arrived into the world to set up his Kingdom of rulership. This is divinely revealed to Peter in response to Jesus asking him who he believes he is, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” - Matt 16:16. Christ means Messiah, the one who has come to rule not just to save.
What is our response to the spiritual reality that Jesus is now ‘the King’? The world doesn’t seem to be taking any notice! Yep that’s right, the world is happy to rule itself. A distinctive of Jesus’ kingship is that he doesn’t enforce his rulership on us, but rather it is to be voluntarily received. In other words, Jesus rulership (his Kingdom) is revealed in our life when we allow Jesus to rule over us. Jesus rulership, his Kingdom, is present and revealed when we obey him and seek to do his will. In contrast, when we disobey Jesus, God’s kingdom is not present or revealed in our lives. It’s important to note, the Scriptures make clear Jesus voluntary rulership wont last forever, but it will last until he returns (too much to talk about this here!).
Therefore, “believing” in Jesus in the verse above is not really about what we think about Jesus, but rather about what we do with Jesus. You could reword the verse like this: Those who bow their knee in allegiance to King Jesus and are loyal to him…”the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him”. Believing in Jesus is to recognise who he is and respond accordingly. Therefore the Gospel of Jesus and his Kingdom is about humanity voluntarily coming under the rulership of Jesus. The mission of the church is not to merely convince people God exists or that Jesus was a historical person, or even believe that he forgives people (he does if they repent), but most importantly, the mission is to declare Jesus is now King and to pray for people to recognise and receive his rulership and to become loyal subjects in his Kingdom.
Next: How to be Christian on mission for Jesus.
