Do you have eternal life? John 3:36 says the who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.
What does it mean to believe in the Son?
Let us first see what it does not mean. It does not mean we are to believe in Him the way we believe snow is cold; heat is warm, water is wet. How do we know this is not the way we are to believe in Him? Jacob 2:19 says the demons believe He is the Son of God, but they are not saved even though they believe.
So if it was, as someone claims, we dont have to do anything believe then the demons are saved. But the Bible clearly says, demons will never be saved, even though they have faith in Jesus.
Second of all, if we were to believe in Jesus and we dont have to do anything, then God sends people who have never heard about Jesus to hell for eternity. People who have never read the Bible never heard the name Jesus and have never been given the opportunity to believe will burn for all eternity in hell. Does that sound like a good loving, just, and righteous God? No, that sounds more like a monster, and nobody in their right mind would want to serve a god like that.
So what does it mean to believe in the Son?
John 3, and Rom 9:33, 10:11, 1 Pet 2:6 quotes Isaiah 28:16. So to understand these New Testament verses, we first have to understand, appreciate, and read the Old Testament. If we see the Old Testament as being not applicable for us today or have no relevance, our faith in the Son will resemble the faith of demons, and we will hear “depart from Me you who are without Torah” when we die (Matt 7:21-23)
The Hebrew word used for one who believes in Isaiah 28:16 is ma`amin
Ma`amin has a root meaning of training, loyalty, and faithfulness.
This coincides with John 14, Matt 23:2, Ex 19:5, Deut 30:11, James 2:10-26, 1. John 2:6, which all say faith in the cross or belief in the Son, has to show itself in repentance.
No repentance = no salvation and a dead faith (James 2:10-26)
So now we understand John 3:16-36; if we believe in the Son, we will repent. If we dont repent, our faith is dead and can not save us.
What do we repent from? And what do we repent to?
Rom 6 says we can not continue to sin when we are saved. 1. John 3:4 defines sin as breaking the Torah (the law of Moses). So if faith in the cross / in the Son means we have to repent from sin, it means we stop breaking the law of Moses, and we start obeying it.
This is why we know that if we reject Moses, we have no eternal life. But if we reject the cross and Yeshua, but not Moses, we have no eternal life. We have to have both repentance back to Moses, which will show us the need for a sacrifice given to us in Yeshua.
Do you have eternal life? Or do you believe as the demons do?