Believe Into Christ

A meme went around claiming that no Scripture says we "believe into Christ," only that we are "baptized into Christ." It is wrong in the Greek, and the way it is wrong turns out to be one of the most useful facts in the New Testament. John's ordinary phrase for saving faith is pisteuō eis: believe into. Not believe that, not believe about. Into. It occurs about forty times, and once you see it you cannot unsee it, because it answers three arguments at once: the devils who believe, the faith that has no works, and the man who says his "yes" saved him.

The phrase

"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." (John 3:16). "Believeth in him" is pisteuōn eis auton, believing into Him. Two verses later: "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." (John 3:18), eis again, and eis the name. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36). "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29). "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (John 11:25-26). "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." (John 14:1). Paul uses it: "we have believed in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 2:16), eis. So does Peter at Cornelius' house: "whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43). And Paul in Romans: "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" (Romans 10:14). Believing into a Person is simply what the New Testament means by faith.

The meme's verse says the same thing about baptism: "so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ" (Romans 6:3); "as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). Same preposition. Both are true. The meme picked the rarer phrase and denied the common one.

Believe that, and believe into

Here is why the preposition matters. James says the devils believe: "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." (James 2:19). The Greek is pisteuousin hoti, they believe that, that God is one. It is belief about a fact, and it leaves them exactly where they were; no devil in Scripture ever believed into anything. That is the whole difference between the faith that saves and the faith James calls dead. Both are called faith, because faith and believe are one word family in Greek, pistis the noun and pisteuō the verb; English split them because we have no verb "to faith." The Bible never contrasts faith with belief. It contrasts two kinds of believing and marks them with a preposition: belief that stays at a distance and agrees, and belief that moves toward a Person and rests on Him.

And believing into Him keeps going. Some of the Jews in John 8 "believed on him," eis, and Jesus tested it in the next breath: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;" (John 8:31). By verse 44 the ones who did not continue are called children of the devil. So "believe into" is not a one-time motion; it is a direction you keep facing. That is why John, in the same Gospel, uses the word abide for the same thing (see The Vine).

What it settles

Faith and works. Belief that agrees can have no works, because it has not moved. Belief into a Person cannot help having them, because it has. "Faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6) is just believe-into, described from the outside (see Faith Is a Verb).

Faith and baptism. Believe into Christ, and be baptized into Christ: the same preposition, in that order. The water is where believing-into goes first and is buried and raised with Him. Faith is the hand; baptism is where the hand takes hold (see Baptism in the Early Church).

Faith and the man who is sure. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12), eis the name. Receiving is the one act that by its nature cannot be boasted of, and it is also the one act that cannot be finished, because you go on receiving. The man who says "I believed once" has described believe-that. The man who says "I believe" has described believe-into.

Where this lands

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). The command is a direction, not an opinion. Face Him, move toward Him, rest on Him, and keep doing it, and the works and the water and the abiding follow the way a river follows the ground. That is what the little word means, forty times over. The meme was right that we are baptized into Christ. It only forgot that we believe into Him first, and go on believing.

Words That Carry the Freight gathers this letter's word, pisteuō eis, with seven others. Related: The Thief Did More Than Believe, Who Walked Away in John 6, Faith Is a Verb, Baptism in the Early Church, The Vine, The Security of Salvation, and When Grace Becomes a License. Scripture from the King James Version, linked to BibleHub; the words of Christ are marked in purple. Greek forms are given in transliteration; any interlinear will show the preposition.