Blessings,
Andrew

Just wanted you to know that I tried to e-mail you, but it wouldn’t go through. It said….. “No matches found.”

Are you sure that your e-mail is printed correctly?

I’m going out of town for a week. I’ll check back later to see if there is anymore good comments on the blog.

Have a great week enjoying the Lord.

Thanks again for your kind words. Feel free to email me at andrew.r.mcneill@googlemail.com.

God bless,
Andrew.

What a joy to read your latest post. Nothing thrills me more than to see God open the eyes of one who is diligently seeking Him.

I would love to communicate more with you, but I can’t improve upon what you just said. You’ve made my day!!!

I’m going to ask Jeremy to give you my e-mail address IF you’re interested in more communication with me. I do have a couple things I would like to share with you, but I don’t think this format is the best way of doing that.

You have been so gracious in your writings. I have truly enjoyed it.

Thank you also Jeremy and Antonio for the insight that you’ve given. EXCELLENT!

Rejoicing in Jesus,
Grace (blog name)

I emailed Antonio with this:

“I know you’re really busy most of the time but I was wondering if you could help me with a tricky problem (for me anyway!) with regards to saving faith and believing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Basically my question is this: Numerous times in John’s gospel certain individuals such as Andrew, Nathanael, and the man born blind (9:35) come to confess that Jesus is the Messiah but in the context there is nothing to indicate that they believe in Christ for eternal life. However, do those individuals believe that Jesus guarantees them eternal life? Was the guarantee of eternal life something that Jews of that time realised the Messiah would offer? It seems to me that they didn’t believe in Christ for eternal life (but that is an argument from silence so I’m not 100% sure) but nonetheless believed him to be the Messiah. It’s really confusing me at the minute but maybe I’m making some false assumptions. If you know of resources that would help or if you have any ideas yourself I would be very grateful.”

Shortly after, Antonio replied to me:

“Great question. Let me answer this way.

John’s purpose is rock-solid, and his terms by which one receives eternal life are clear. He everywhere states it. Jesus is clear throughout the gospel of John what the specific content of faith is. We only have a minute and miniscule portion of his engagements and discourses with the players in John’s gospel. They can be read in a matter of minutes! Surely they were much longer than is what is recorded for us by John.

The saving proposition for John is that anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ (and/or the Son of God) has eternal life. John is clear in identifying what specific import of those terms are soteric. Apart from John’s importation, there are many elements already present in those titles/designations. Yet what makes faith that Jesus is the Christ soteric is the important and specific identity that John gives to them.

As you have read me state, in Jesus’ discourse with Martha, a strict identification is made between the terms ‘Christ’ and ‘Son of God’ with ‘the One who guarantees eternal life and resurrection to the believer’. Now what ever import those terms have apart from the equation that has been made in John 11:25-27, apart from these specific imports, belief that Jesus is the Christ is not salvific. It must be understood that to believe that Jesus is the Christ means that as the Christ He guarantees eternal life to the believer. This is the Johannine sense of these terms.

The stories that we have of Nathaniel, Nicodemus, and the man born blind, can be read within a minute. It must be obvious that these are mere fractions of what the discourses were. They are major condensations of what actually occurred. From the emphasis of the book of John alone, it should be apparent that the soteric import of the Christ, the Son of God, was implied or that such information was explicitely stated in the discourses.

Jesus is clear in the gospel of John that He promises eternal life to all who believe in Him. This is the soteric function of the Christ. To repeat these things with every discourse would be redundant. Redundancy is a cheif error in good writing skills. John wrote a masterful treatise on how one can receive eternal life. He is clear and makes identifications and equations. Jesus makes plain statements.”

I think what Antonio says makes a lot of sense - it’s the only option I can see! So in light of many of the posts here, reading and listening to some FG material and the discussion here especially with Grace, I think that it makes most sense to see the essential element of believing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, to be his guarantee of eternal life.

So in response to Jeremy’s question at the start, Yes, the person is saved and has eternal life. She’s just a bit confused and if she logically applied her orthodox beliefs, she would have to abandon her unorthodox beliefs. Still, she has eternal life.

To Grace: Thank you for your help with this! God bless you!

To others who helped me here: Thanks you and blessings to you!

To Jeremy: You’ve stimulated my thinking by this post and set me straight with regard to saving faith! God bless you and keep up the challenging blog posts!

Blessings,
Andrew.

Thanks for being so gracious toward each other and providing such thoughtful, gracious questions. This is the way theological debate should be carried out!

I commend you both and am being taught and challenged by what both of you write. Thank you, and keep it up!

You raise some very good questions. My answer would be…… I DON’T KNOW?
BUT one thing I DO KNOW FOR SURE….. IF they understood that Messiah was the giver of eternal life and they had faith in Him alone for eternal life, then YES, they had eternal life. But I’m not smart enough to answer your question as to whether or not they understood Messiah to be the giver of eternal life AT THAT POINT.

The Woman at the well believed that Messiah would come and tell all things, but she hadn’t yet believed in the Messiah as the giver of eternal life. She must not have fully understood what it meant to believe in the Messiah at that point. Later she did come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah….. giver of eternal life. Maybe Jeremy, or Antonio can jump in here and help us out….. or someone else. I know those guys are extremely busy. Just whenever!

Thanks for making me think, too.

Grace

I’m very close to being convinced having read through you own posts and the previous posts. However, there are a few nagging questions in my mind. Take for example John 1:41 where Andrew tells Peter that he has found the Messiah. Did Andrew believe that Jesus guaranteed him eternal life? Again in John 9:38 did the healed man believe that he had eternal life? Cases such as these hinder me from holding you’re view yet Grace, but I’m being convinced!

God bless and thank you for helping me,
Andrew.