I love our Wednesday night Bible studies at our church. We have been studying the main themes of the books of the Bible, beginning at Genesis, and have finally arrived at the Gospel of John. I noticed, for the first time, that in John's Gospel, the word "believe" appears quite often, so I decided to compare the word's frequency in John to how often it appears in the rest of the books of the Bible.
I was amazed at the result for two reasons. The word appears seventy-seven times from Genesis to Luke, and seventy-seven times from Romans to Revelation; that, in itself, is interesting. Admittedly, these numbers most likely vary with the different translations, but their frequency in the King James Version makes me wonder if God wasn't sending a message to English speaking people.
The other reason is that it appears one hundred twenty-six times in the Gospel of John and the Book of Acts combined, and eighty-five of those in John. Eighty-five! That boggles my mind that John's Gospel has the word more times than all the books from Genesis to Luke, and from Romans to Revelation! And I think I know why.
John's Gospel focuses upon the deity of Christ, that Jesus is God. For us to accept that requires great faith; we must believe the unbelievable. After all, how could the Creator of the Universe (Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:1-2) become a single-celled embryo (Matt. 1:18-25; Jn. 1:14)? And how could the Eternal die (He is the "us" of Gen. 1:26, and the Eternal of Heb. 13:8)? Why would a Holy God be willing to exchange our sin for His righteousness (Jn. 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:21)? Or for that matter, how could He be raised from the dead (Acts 2:24)? By faith, born again Christians believe the Bible!
The Hebrew word translated "believe" is אָמַן ('aman), which is a present tense verb. The Greek word is πιστεύω (pisteuō), which is also a present tense verb. Interestingly, the root for πιστεύω is πίστις (pistis), which is translated "faith." So, one could say that "faith is believing."
The writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). Isn't it interesting that he began with the word "now?" Our faith is present tense. We believe. The unregenerate person usually says, "seeing is believing," but those who have been regenerated, that is, those who have been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, have miraculously taken the "leap of faith." In a sense, to the child of God, "faith is seeing."
Believing and faith are manifested in our lives. If we believe that Jesus is God, that He is the expression of God's love toward us, and that He is worthy of our worship and obedience, our lives will show it. Can those around you "see" that you believe?
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