Salvation in the Gospel of John 

As a reminder, the Gospel of John is very different from the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke). The most fundamental difference has to do with the topic of salvation. Put in the most basic terms. In the Synoptics, salvation is based on who you were—what you did—how you treated others—were you a righteous person. In John, it is believing in Jesus that will save you. 

However, there can be a difference between what each Gospel’s author told us in this regard, versus the very words of Jesus within their Gospels.  For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that you must follow the law to the last letter (the law being the whole of the Hebrew Bible, which is in the Old Testament). “Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished Matthew” (5:17–18).

You won’t find that in our oldest Gospel Mark. Mark and Matthew have in common that if you are a sinner you will go to Gehenna (the valley outside Jerusalem we translated into English as “hell”). “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to Gehenna, to the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43). This is repeated in Matthew 5:30. If you want to be saved, don’t be a sinner!

Usually when I teach Bible studies it comes as a surprise to people that Jesus only mentions an afterlife heaven twice in all of the four Gospels. There is one time in Luke, and once in the Gospel of John. It comes at the end of Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus is on the cross and with two criminals being crucified. One of the criminals mocks him, but the other rebukes that criminal, and acknowledges the divine identity of Jesus by saying, “‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’^” But that is all Jesus tells us there about heaven.  

In John, Jesus tells us a little more, although he only mentions heaven in one spot. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place I am going.” (John 14:2–4)

It is a common misconception that Jesus mentions the afterlife heaven throughout John because he often mentions believing in him for eternal life. For example, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

However, it is critically important to remember that eternal life is not the same thing as afterlife heaven. One has to study the whole of John’s Gospel to learn that the main theme of this Gospel is that whenever Jesus speaks about salvation or condemnation, he is referring to the present, not the future. Take for example what he says in John 3:18: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:18)

Jesus is speaking in the present tense. He does not refer to a future judgment and say, “Whoever believes in him will not becondemned.” He says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” He does not say, “Whoever does not believe will becondemned.” He says, “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already.”

Elsewhere he says, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Walking is something we do in life. We will have the light of life while we are alive. These are just two of over twenty examples like this we find throughout the Gospel. It is a two-step process. Step one: believe in Jesus and walk in the light of life now, rather than in the darkness of condemnation; step two: as you now have eternal life, so shall there be a place for you in heaven.

It’s an amazing thing that so many of us pledge our souls in faith of the future kingdom to come after we die and get to heaven, yet we pay little to no attention to the kingdom to find right here on earth while alive—a kingdom Jesus preaches for us to find in all four of the Gospels. This is likely due to the simplest of reasons: we just were not taught this growing up and throughout our lives. We are taught a very basic ideology: Believe in Jesus and go up there when we die; don’t believe and we go down there. The teachings of Jesus offer far richer explanations of what the kingdom of God is. He teaches us how to find the kingdom through the mysteries of his parables, for example, which I discussed in another recent blog. Remember Luke 17:22: “Nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is within you.”

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