To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

“on” = this word (eis) is not present in this verse as it was in the previous verse. This should read “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed him…” There is a potential difference between the belief levels of the two groups mentioned in these verses. In actuality, the group of “believers” addressed in this discourse are inclined to think that Jesus is speaking the truth but they are not inclined to give Him the allegiance which a full trust in His truthfullness would entail. They are making an outward profession of faith in Him, but their commitment is shallow and casual. Jesus attempts to change their view and show them what real faith and discipleship is all about.

Three small prepositions (or lack thereof), all connected with the same word, show us different levels of faith which the Lord wants us to grow in. The first is the above verse in which there is no preposition. We are to believe Christ. The second is in the previous verse. (John 8:30) As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. We are to believe “in” or “on” Him. The third is that we are to believe “into” (or unto) Him. The different levels of faith are:

  1. Believing Him
  2. Believing on Him
  3. Believing into Him
  1. Believing Him
    Christian faith always begins with believing Jesus. Now, when we believe something someone has told us, there is inherently expressed a belief in the integrity of the person who has spoken. We will not accept the words someone has said as being true unless we believe the person to be truthful. Believing what they say includes confidence in them.
    1. Believing Christ breaks up into two thoughts. The first is that the very lowest Christ expects from us, the very beginning step is to accept His words as completely and absolutely true. This is foundational. True faith in Him and relationship with Him must be built upon trust in Him and what He says. This is basic and the only smart thing a person can do, especially when you consider that Jesus doesn’t just have truth, but that He is truth. (John 14:6)

      Maclaren notes that bones without flesh are very dry, but what about flesh without bones? It is just a formless, shapeless mass. We can never have a vibrant, fulfilling Christian life if we don’t accept His words to the point of acting upon them. Believing Jesus is a requirement for beginning faith.

      John 14:11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
    2. Believing what Jesus says goes deeper than a mere acceptance of His words as being true. It must also affect you and your life. Many people today consider themselves to be Christians just because they haven’t denied anything Jesus has said. Unfortunately, they haven’t taken it to heart, either. Their acceptance of the truth holds no interest for them and is just a lukewarm approval of His message. Maclaren observes that “this rudimentary faith . . . hardens into mere formalism, or liquefies into mere careless indifference as to the very truth that it professes to believe.” As James points out in his letter (James 2:19) “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder.” The person who doesn’t believe Christ enough to at least shudder at His Word, doesn’t believe Him as much as the demons do! Believing Jesus means accepting His word as true, but it also means that it will affect you and cause changes within you.
  2. Believing on Him
    Previously in John, Jesus had said, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29) His antagonists replied with “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?” (John 6:30) Jesus demanded belief “in” or “on” Himself, but the religious leaders said that they would believe Him – not on or in Him – just believe what He said, if He would meet certain criteria that they set up for Him. They were unwilling to accept the higher level God demanded and would only accept the lower level on their terms. The fact remains, though, that there is a higher level than just believing Him. God commands us to believe on Him. There are some different ways of looking at what believing “on” Him means.
    1. One way at looking at this is as it compares to building on a sure foundation. (1 Peter 2:6) quotes Isaiah when it says, “For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’” It is, of course, speaking of Christ. He is our sure foundation, and if we build on Him, we shall not be shaken or confused. But of what is Jesus supposed to be the foundation in our lives? Just of our faith? By no means! He is to be the foundation of everything — every thought, desire, dream; everything we do should be built upon the cornerstone of Christ, our Lord. When that is true, we shall be strong, pure, and full of peace. Nothing can shake us.

      Jesus gave an illustration of a house built on the sand and one built on the rock in (Mat 7:24-27) This should remind us of the hurricanes that hit the coastal states. If our lives are built on Him, it doesn’t matter if the devil throws a level 6 spiritual hurricane at us, we will stand firm on our sure foundation. This is the result of building upon Christ. It gives us peace and security.

      Mat 7:24-27  “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
    2. Another way to look at “believing on” is leaning on or relying upon. When we get weary and need rest, we lean upon something which we know will hold our weight and not disappoint us by failing us. We can forsake all other props and rely totally upon Jesus, because He will meet our every need. In Him alone do we find rest (Mat 11:28); in Him alone do we find sufficient provision. (John 10:11) Everything else in this life – everything! – will fail us. They are all like the reed spoken of in (Isaiah 36:6) To lean on things other than Christ will result in splintering wounds from those things on which we trust.

      Mat 11:28  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

      John 10:11  “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

      Isaiah 36:6  Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.
    3. The last metaphor I will use to help us see what “believing on” means is “hanging on” which indicates dependence. We hang our coats on the pegs of coat racks at the back of our church, depending on them to hold our coats off the floor. So it is when we believe on Christ. We place our dependence solely upon Him. Charles Wesley put it this way:

      Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly,
      while the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
      Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
      safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.
      Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee;
      leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
      All my trust on thee is stayed, all my help from thee I bring;
      cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing.

      Imagine yourself as having fallen off the edge of a cliff, only to be grabbed by a strong hand. That Hand belongs to Christ and He will in no ways let go. As you swing over that precipice, there is no reason to fear, for He holds you and you are hanging upon Him, totally dependent upon Him for your safety, but totally assured in the trust of the fact that He will effortlessly raise you up to His level on the mountain to stand by His side. That is believing on Christ.
  3. Believing into Him
    The last, and most powerful, of the prepositions associated with believing Christ is “believing into Him.” When using this phrase, we are suggesting two things: first is motion towards Christ and the second is resting in Him.
    1. Motion toward Him should be an endless progress for the believing Christian. He who is not progressing towards Christ is falling away. It is like riding a bicycle up a hill. If we stop pedaling, the bike will not remain stationary; it will start coasting back down the hill. We must continue to grow and seek Him with all of our hearts, having the same desire expressed by Paul in Philippians 3:8-10 when he said, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death . . .”

      Is that the cry of your heart? Are you growing towards Him with everything in you? Believing into Him is a great and wonderful thing. If it describes you, are you pursuing Him like an eagle or like a turtle?

      This level of faith is higher than the previously mentioned ones. Maclaren says it this way: “The faith which believes Him, and that which believes on Him, both need to be crowned and perfected by that which believes towards Him, and of which the motto is, ‘Forgetting the things that are behind, I reach forward to the things that are before.’” (Php 3:13-14)
    2. Resting in Him is another side to this last stage of faith. Our pursuit of Him is at the same time a repose in Him. We who search do indeed find, but the finding does not discontinue our searching, nor does it slacken its pace, for the more we know Him, the more we want to know Him. Jesus told us in John chapter 15 to “abide” in Him. Now, abiding is more than just visiting — it is remaining. We are to dwell in Him as we do in the atmosphere. He is the source of our lives, much as the air that we breathe.

      Psalm 17 gives us another view of this in verse 8 where it says: “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” Here we are likened to baby birds being protected by the all-encompassing wings of God. When a baby bird is under its mother’s wing, there is no predator that can get to it without going first through its mom. This has to be very comforting to the Christian, but there is another thought here, too. While the baby is under its mom’s wings, it can feel the warmth of its mom’s body and feel her breathe and maybe even feel or hear her heartbeat. When we are resting in Christ; when our faith has brought us to relax in Him, we are as safe as can be and we can sense His presence in a way we never have before. We can, in a matter of speaking, hear His heartbeat.

      To Quote Maclaren, “To be in Christ is life; to be out of Him is death. In Him we have redemption; in Him we have wisdom, truth, peace, righteousness, hope, confidence. To be in Him is heaven. We enter by faith. Faith is not the acceptance merely of His Word, but is the reliance of the soul on Him, the flight of the soul towards Him, the dwelling of the soul in Him.”

What about you? Do you believe Him? Do you believe on Him? And do you believe into Him? Make Jesus the goal of your life and pursue Him with everything in you!

“hold” = meno = to abide, to stay, to remain.

“you are really . . .” = Jesus says that if they abide in His word, then they are His disciples, not that then they will become His disciples. As Morris points out, “He is not laying down a condition of discipleship, but telling them in what discipleship consists.” Genuine disciples of Jesus are those who continue in His word. This is the acid test, as it were, of discipleship.

“disciple” = mathetes = learner, pupil, disciple, follower. The term indicates “thought accompanied by endeavour”. (W.E. Vine) It denotes one who follows the teaching of another.

True Discipleship

  • begins with belief
    When a man accepts what Jesus says as being true, then discipleship begins. But true discipleship is being a follower of one’s teacher; the man who follows can always quit following. A beginning does not always result in completion.
  • involves following
    • following involves action.
      A disciple must be submitted to his teacher. (Mat 10:24) His teacher is in effect his master. The teacher tells the disciple what to do and the disciple does it. This is the pattern of Jesus in training His disciples. He gave them knowledge but He also gave them things to do. (Can you think of any examples?) The very act of following is an act of obedience. Juan Carlos Ortiz says that “Learning doesn’t come by hearing but by obeying.” (Disciple p. 111) Do our children learn better from listening to us or from obeying us? An example Ortiz gave was for us to give a lecture to our children on the effects of soap in the cleansing of our bodies. Would this train them to use soap on a consistent basis? Is this the way you were trained to wash? Or does the repeated command of a mother and the resulting obedience bring the desired results?
      Mat 10:24  “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
    • following means accepting Jesus as your Lord.
      Lordship means giving Him the number one place in your life above anything and everything else.
  1. Jesus is Lord whether we acknowledge that fact or not (Col 1:16-18). The only part of our lives we really control is our will and lordship is about giving that will over to Jesus.

    Col 1:16-18  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
  2. Some reasons we don’t want to acknowledge Him as Lord are:
    1. He may ask us to do something we don’t want to do.
    2. We think we know what is best for ourselves.
    3. We don’t trust Him to do what is best for us.
  3. What an incredible thing it is that the Lord of the universe is so interested in us that He wants to direct our lives so we can be the happiest and most fulfilled as possible! How foolish we are when we reject the Lordship of the One who is all-wise and loves us unconditionally.
  • means abiding in the word of Jesus
    • listening to the words Jesus speaks to you.
      We must be listeners. He is willing and ready to speak to you, but you must listen. We all have ears, but not all of us have ears “to hear.” Each decision we make should be a result of what Jesus told us to do.
    • constantly learning from Him.
      The meaning of disciple is learner. We must never close our minds to anything Jesus wants to tell us or any changes He wants to make in the way we look at things.
    • meditating on what He has said.
      We must re-read and re-listen to His words over and over, studying them and gleaning an increasingly larger amount of truth from them. What He says is full and deep and we will never be in complete possession of all of the truth, but our life as a disciple is to be one of constantly learning and not becoming stagnant.
    • obeying His words
      Abiding in His word involves learning for the purpose of doing. We are not to learn for mere intellectual satisfaction.
  • has a cost
    Becoming a christian has no cost for us (but a rather large one for God) (Eph 2:8). But becoming a disciple is very costly to us.

    Eph 2:8  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

    It involves our giving up the following:
    • possessions (Luke 14:33)

      Luke 14:33  In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
    • family (Luke 14:26)

      Luke 14:26  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
    • self (Luke 14:27)

      Luke 14:27  And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
  • has the purpose of becoming like the teacher
    We become like the people with whom we associate. (2 Tim 2:2) But even more so is the disciple to become like his master (Matt 10:25). It is only then that the disciple becomes “perfect” or complete. (Luke 6:40)

    2 Tim 2:2  And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

    Mat 10:25  It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!

    Luke 6:40  A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
  • involves multiplication
    The command of Jesus is to make disciples (Mat 28:19-20). As we grow in our discipleship to Jesus Christ, we are ordered by our Master to be making other disciples of Him. This is the mandate of the Christian church.

    Mat 28:19-20  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”