Tag: Hermeneutics

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  • Does the Gospel of John Teach Perseverance of the Saints?

    Does the Gospel of John Teach Perseverance of the Saints?

    In The Gospel According to Jesus, John MacArthur turns to John 9, the account of the man born blind. He treats it as a key text for his theology of saving faith. In particular, he uses it to support the perseverance of the saints. For this reason, his reading deserves a close look. It shows a pattern that runs throughout the book: importing a theological conclusion into a text that was never built to carry it.

    MacArthur’s Two Points

    In chapter 6, MacArthur makes two basic moves using John 9.

    First, he argues that the man’s early response to Jesus is not yet real, saving faith. This includes defending Jesus before the Pharisees and confessing Him as a prophet. For MacArthur, saving faith only arrives at the end of the chapter. At that point, the man falls before Jesus and worships Him. MacArthur calls this moment “full faith in Christ.” He defines it (p. 81) as “full surrender of the heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

    Second, MacArthur argues that salvation is a work of God, so it cannot be deficient (pp. 86, 88). A true work of God will always produce fruit and lasting change in a person’s life. Therefore, he draws a larger thesis from this. The genuine believer will persevere in faith and good works until death. In his view, a believer cannot fall away and die in an unregenerate state.

    Put together, MacArthur’s logic runs like this. Faith in Christ is not real faith unless it is full surrender. That surrender includes commitment, obedience, perseverance, and works. And since salvation is God’s work, genuine surrender cannot ultimately fail.

    The Problem: The Text Doesn’t Say That

    Here the argument runs into trouble. Look at MacArthur’s own reading. Everything admirable the blind man does happens before he is born again. He shows courage before the Pharisees. Over time, he grows in theological clarity. He even accepts expulsion from the synagogue for Jesus’ sake. Only in the final scene, when he worships Jesus, does MacArthur place the moment of regeneration and “full surrender.”

    But if that is true, John 9 tells us almost nothing about what happens after that moment. Instead, the chapter simply ends. It gives no account of the man’s later life. It records no ongoing obedience and no endurance through trial. The text simply doesn’t go far enough to show perseverance.

    So a natural question follows: how can John 9 establish the Reformed doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, when the chapter never tells us about the man’s life after his conversion?

    It can’t. The text holds no data for that conclusion. MacArthur presents it as an exegetical finding. However, on inspection, it is a theological assumption read back into a story that stops short of the question. This is eisegesis: imposing a doctrine on the text rather than drawing it out. MacArthur makes this move again and again throughout The Gospel According to Jesus.

    Why This Matters

    This isn’t a minor technicality. MacArthur’s larger argument depends on proving two things from Scripture. First, saving faith is inseparable from ongoing obedience. Second, the genuine believer cannot fail to persevere. Moreover, John 9 is his flagship text for that claim. If it lacks the evidence he needs, his argument must stand or fall on other grounds. It cannot lean on this passage.

    A careful reading of John 9 simply notes what the text does say. A man receives physical sight. Over several interrogations, he grows in his understanding of who Jesus is. In the end, he worships Him as Lord. The text says nothing about how long that faith lasted over the rest of his life. After all, it was never trying to say it. To read perseverance into that silence makes the text answer a question it was never asked.

    A Concluding Thought

    Good exegesis lets a passage say what it says. At the same time, it resists the temptation to make it say more. John 9 is a rich story about progressive spiritual sight. A man moves from ignorance, to partial understanding, to worship. It is a wonderful text on how a person comes to faith. But it is not a text about staying in the faith, because it never goes there. Whatever one believes about the perseverance of the saints, that doctrine must find its support—or its refutation—somewhere other than John 9.

  • Interpreting the Woman at the Well (John 4)

    Interpreting the Woman at the Well (John 4)

    Few passages in John’s Gospel are as rich as the story of the woman at the well. Yet few are as often misread. Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and offers her “living water.” Many have pressed this text into service for their own doctrinal agendas. For example, one of the more influential misreadings comes from John MacArthur. His treatment of the living water deserves careful scrutiny.

    MacArthur’s Reading of John 4

    MacArthur reads Jesus’ offer of living water as a call to full surrender. In his view, Jesus demands total submission and compliance as the condition for receiving the gift. In fact, this reading fits his broader Lordship Salvation framework. There, saving faith cannot be separated from an ongoing surrender of one’s whole life to Christ’s lordship.

    Of course, surrender to Christ is important. The problem is that John 4 is not about it. Look closely at the narrative flow of the passage. Nothing in the text makes the gift of living water depend on her willingness to submit. MacArthur brings that theological category to the passage from outside. In other words, he does not draw it out of the text.

    Eisegesis versus Exegesis

    This distinction matters enormously, and it has a name: the difference between eisegesis and exegesis.

    • Exegesis draws meaning out of the text. It reads the passage in its own context. It traces its own logic and lets its own words and story shape what it teaches.
    • Eisegesis reads meaning into the text. It starts with a fixed theological conclusion and then makes the passage support it.

    MacArthur’s treatment of John 4 works eisegetically. He does not derive “surrender and compliance” from the conversation between Jesus and the woman. Instead, he imports it from a prior belief about the nature of saving faith. Then he reads the “living water” metaphor through that lens. As a result, the Gospel story becomes a backdrop for his doctrine rather than its source.

    Sound interpretation works the other way around. The narrative itself must establish what “living water” means. That includes its details, its cross-references, and its stated outcomes.

    What the Text Actually Shows

    So what does John 4 itself indicate?

    The outcome of the encounter is belief, not behavioral transformation. After talking with Jesus, the woman returns to her village. However, she does not describe a moment of surrender. She testifies about who Jesus is. Then the narrative tells us the result. Many Samaritans believed in Him because of her word. Many more believed because of His own word (John 4:39–42). In short, the climax of the passage is about faith. They believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Suppose John meant “living water” to signal surrender and compliance. We would then expect the story to end with changed behavior or submission. Instead, it ends with belief.

    John’s own vocabulary links “never thirsting” with believing. Just two chapters later, Jesus says, “He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35, NKJV). Here coming and believing are parallel acts. “Never thirsting” belongs to belief, not to submission or surrender. John uses the same “thirst” language in both passages. So it is sound method to let John 6 explain John 4. Never thirsting is what happens when a person believes.

    The Correct Interpretation of “Living Water”

    Read on its own terms, John 4 teaches something simple. Read in light of John 6, it is even clearer. The living water Jesus offers is everlasting life, and He gives it to those who believe in Him. The woman at the well is not a model of total surrender. Rather, she is a model of simple faith. She hears who Jesus claims to be, and she believes.

    This is not a minor exegetical quibble. It goes to the heart of John’s stated purpose: “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31, NKJV). Clearly, John 4 fits that purpose precisely. It is a belief passage, not a surrender passage.

    Why This Matters

    When we read a text eisegetically, we can make it say almost anything a system needs. Exegesis is different. It asks what John’s narrative itself says. Next, it traces his vocabulary across chapters. Finally, it lets the outcome of the story shape our conclusions. Read this way, John 4 speaks with clarity. Jesus does not make His gift at the well depend on total surrender. A person receives it the moment he believes in Him.

    That is good news. Indeed, it is the very good news the Samaritan woman carried back to her village.