Who is the Believer in John 3:16?

Sometimes things that are the most obvious are also the easiest to overlook. No
passage in the Bible is better known nor been memorized more than Jesus'
statement in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."
(NKJV) This was part of a conversation that Jesus was having with a man named
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus by night confessing that Jesus had
to be a teacher from God because of the miracles he had been doing. "No one can
do these signs that you do unless God is with him." (John 3:2 NKJV) The reader
would do well to open his Bible to John 3 and if you have a red letter edition all the
better. You can readily see this conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus runs
from John 3:1-21.

John 3:16 has given comfort to many, self included, as it should. It clearly teaches,
for it clearly states, that the believer in Jesus will have eternal life. But,
unfortunately, this a verse that has been isolated not only from the rest of the
teaching of the New Testament but even ripped from its immediate context and
thus made to mean what men desire it to mean versus what it teaches when taken
in context.

Who is this person who will have everlasting life? Who is this believer? Is it not the
same person that will see the kingdom of heaven if he is "born again" in verse 3 and
who will enter the kingdom of God if he is "born of water and the Spirit" in verse 5?
Most certainly! It is all the same conversation directed at the same man, the man
Nicodemus.

The believer of John 3:16 is the man who is born again (verse 3), is the man who is
born of water and the Spirit (verse 5). If this is not the same man, the man of John
3:16 and the man of John 3:3,5, then we have Jesus contradicting himself and
teaching one man is going to be saved one way in the earlier passages and another
way in the later passage. Surely, all can see Jesus is talking about the same
individual.

Unfortunately, for the faith only crowd, this makes the believer of John 3:16 who will
be saved a baptized person. The person who is born again, born of water and the
Spirit, is the person who led by the Spirit came to a belief so strong as to lead him
to be baptized (which is the water of John 3:5). As Jesus taught elsewhere, "He who
believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be
condemned." (Mark 16:16 NKJV) Who is the person who does not believe? It is the
person who is not baptized. He is the person who does not believe Jesus when he
said, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." He is the person who does
not believe one must be born again of water and the Spirit. Of the Spirit, yes, he
believes that, but does not believe the water part.
One cannot be a believer in Jesus while not believing Jesus. You do not believe
Jesus if part of his word is no good to you and you reject it. The believer in Jesus is
the man who takes Jesus at his word – yes, all his word. In this very same chapter
there is another verse confirming this very thing. Note John 3:36, "He who believes
in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abides on him." (NKJV) The phrase "does not believe the
Son" means just that – does not believe what Jesus says. That man shall not be
saved. That man does not believe in Jesus even though he may proclaim his faith
day and night.

The phrase "does not believe the Son" is in some translations translated differently,
by the words "does not obey the Son" (NAS, ESV). Why? The Greek behind both
translations is the word "apeitheo." Thayer, famous for his Greek-English Lexicon of
the New Testament, says this word means "to not allow one's self to be persuaded."
Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says it means, "to refuse to
be persuaded, to refuse belief, to be disobedient." (page 311) Adam Clarke, the
well known Bible commentator, says the person being spoken of in this verse is,
"The person who will not be persuaded, in consequence, does not believe; and, not
having believed, he cannot obey." This seems to be the consensus meaning of the
Greek. It is a person who does not believe and thus cannot obey because of his
unbelief. One can see then how either translation would be acceptable, "does not
believe" as in the NKJV or "does not obey" as in the NAS and ESV. The NAS
reference edition admits as much for in its side margin notes it has "Or, believe"
even though it translates in the text itself "does not obey."

So, what do we learn from John 3:36? Simple! To believe in the Son for salvation
(as per John 3:16) means one believes the Son enough to be persuaded by him to
obey what he says. So we see again, looking at it from the perspective of another
verse in the same chapter, that it is he who is "born of water and the Spirit" (John
3:5 NKJV) who will "enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5 NKJV) for that is the man
who is persuaded enough by the words of Jesus to obey him because he believes
him. This is the man who believes in Him so that he should not perish but have
everlasting life.