What Must I Do To Be Saved?

The Gospel of John is considered one of the most evangelistic books in the Bible.  Arguably, it contains the most well know passage in the whole Bible:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Many a Christian has yanked this handy verse out when trying to persuade potential converts how much loves them, and how they can "accept" Jesus by believing, trusting in, relying upon his' atoning death to make them right with God.  But John 3:16 actually falls half way through a long section discussing the means of salvation.  Seldom have I heard John 3:16 presented within the overall context of everything Jesus said in that chapter.  Before we jump straight to 3:16, lets look at the preceding verses.

The chapter opens with Nicodemus sneaking out to visit Jesus by night.  Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again [<509> anothen = from above, from a higher place], he cannot see the kingdom of God."  This Pharisee and teacher of the Law was stupefied by the statement, so Jesus continues:

John 3:5-21 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  ...The wind <4151> bloweth <4154> where it listeth <2309>, and thou hearest the sound <5456> thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.  ...For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever <3956> believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

There's a number of extraordinary statements in this short passage which relate to the topic of unconditional election and salvation.  Nicodemus wants to know how to get saved, and Jesus immediately begins telling him that a man must be born "from above" and "of the Spirit."  That doesn't sound very Arminian.  He goes on to explain that natural can only give birth to natural, but spiritual is born of the Spirit.  Get that?  The natural man (flesh) cannot get saved--it can only produce more natural man!  So how is the spiritual man born?  The "spirit" is born of [by, or from] the [Holy] "Spirit." 

The KJV follows this explanation with what appears to be an analogy of wind blowing but no one seeing it  This is a good analogy that depicts how people can see the effects of the wind blowing, but don't really know how the wind blows.  However, if you look up the key Greek words I've referenced with Strong's numbers, you'll find something very interesting.  First, the the word translated "wind" refers specifically to the Holy Spirit 221 of the 385 times it is used in the New Testament.  It's translated "wind" so few times in the New Testament that Strong's doesn't even give it a category of it's own--it's relegated to the miscellaneous category!  The primary meaning, and most common translation, means the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.

The second word, "bloweth," carries the connotation of  the Holy Ghost breathing.

The next key word, "listeth," means to will to do something.  It's a conscious act.

The final key word in this phrase is "sound"--from which we get our English transliterations phone, telephone, etc.  By far the most frequent translation of phone in the New Testament is "voice.":

So, by inserting the primary meanings of these key words back into the original sentence it come out something like the Douay Translation:

John 3:8 The Spirit breatheth where he will and thou hearest his voice: but thou knowest not whence he cometh and whither he goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Natural cannot produce spiritual--only the Holy Spirit can produce spiritual.  The Spirit breathes wherever he chooses to breath to produce spiritual life, and although you hear it you don't understand what the Holy Spirit is doing.  This is how people are born of the Holy Spirit.

Compare this to what John said in his first chapter:

John 1:12-13 But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John says "sons of God" are not born as a result of man's will ("free" or otherwise), but by God.  Wow.  This sounds so Calvinistic that many people rush right past it to get to 3:16 because that sounds more like Jesus died for every-man-without-exception like most of our pastors taught us.  But after the above discussion on the meaning of "all," "whosoever," and "world" you can see that in context John 3:16 means something entirely different. 

John began his Gospel by stating salvation does NOT originate by any act of human will (choosing God) but God doing the choosing.  Then, in the first part of chapter three Jesus tells Nicodemus that only the Holy Spirit produces the spiritual birth, and He [the Holy Spirit] wills wherever He wants to.  Now we come to the key word in verse 16--"whosoever".  This is the same word mostly translated "all" throughout the New Testament, and the scope of "all" is always determined by the context of the passage.

From the preceding context, the "whosoever" obviously cannot mean every-man-without-exception, but only "whosoever believeth."  So, who are those people that believe?  It can only be those people the Holy Spirit willed to blow on and give spiritual birth to (John 3:8)--those people God willed to be saved (John 1:13).  That's the ONLY way anyone can be saved because no man can come to Jesus unless the Father enables him to do so:

John 6:63-65 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

Now lets continue on through chapter three:

John 3:19-21 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Jesus is the "light of the world," and this is his verdict: Men love darkness rather than light.  They hate Jesus because their deeds are evil, and men DO NOT "cometh to the light."  They can't come to the light, but even if they could they don't want to because they don't want their evil deeds exposed!  However, in spite of this categorical condemnation of all mankind (total depravity) a few DO somehow come to Jesus in order that their deeds can be shown to be from God.

In chapter 8 John answers the big question why the Gospel is absolute foolishness to those under condemnation and some people just cannot understand it while others embrace it, believe it, and "accept" the things of God:

John 8:42-47 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! . . . If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

Get that?  Read it again, slowly.  Jesus says the reason men can’t hear God is BECAUSE THEY DO NOT BELONG TO GOD.  This is exactly the opposite of what we've heard in church!  Arminians have been telling us that the reason sinful men don’t belong to God is because they haven't heard, or haven't accepted the Gospel message; quite the contrary, Jesus says here that THEY CAN’T "ACCEPT" because they don’t belong to God! Belonging to God determines whether you are spiritually discerning--you can NEVER discern spiritual things until AFTER you belong to God.

Does this relieve believers of the responsibility of witnessing and sharing the Gospel?  No.  Does this mean that man does not have to accept and believe the Gospel to be saved?  No.  Remember?  The means are predestined as well as the end; it's the knowledge that somewhere "out there" are people who God is making willing to believe and accept his Gospel that should stimulate you to go find them in obedience to God's command. But now, you should realize the pressure's off you.  You don't have to sing and dance.  You don't have to talk them into it.  You don't have to "sell" them on the plan of salvation like a $250,000 term life insurance policy.  You can confidentially proclaim the Gospel knowing their salvation doesn't depend your marketing skills, and that your spiritual worth is not measured by your number of closed calls.  If the Holy Spirit has blown in their life he will produce Spiritual birth--that's HIS job..