9. “That You May Believe”
THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK TELLS US THAT HIS WHOLE Gospel was written “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (20:31).1 It accords with this that, as we have seen in earlier chapters, there is a great concentration on the figure of Jesus. John takes pains to show that he is indeed the Christ, the Son of God. But he has not done this out of some historical or antiquarian interest. His aim is to bring people to believe, and in believing to have life. This means that believing is very important for him, and in fact he makes the idea ring through his whole book. He uses the verb “to believe” 98 times, far and away the most in any New Testament book. We generally think of Paul as a teacher who put great emphasis on faith, and of course he did this. But the most frequent use of the verb in any one of his letters is 21 (in Romans), and in the entire Pauline corpus it occurs only 54 times (he has the noun “faith” 142 times, but John far surpasses him in the use of the verb). Interestingly, the book that has the most occurrences after John is Acts, which is probably accounted for by the fact that that book records some very effective preaching of the gospel, with the result that many people believed.
A fact that has never been satisfactorily explained is John’s concentration on the verb “to believe” coupled with his total neglect (in the Gospel) of the noun “faith”. This term does not occur even once in this Gospel (and only once in all three Johannine epistles; Revelation has it four times). John never gives a hint as to why he has avoided the word. It may be that he preferred the verb as more dynamic, but this is simply speculation.2
The verb can denote a belief that is lightly held and with little in the way of valid reason (e.g., Luke 8:13). But in the characteristic usage of the New Testament writers it points to a firm trust, solidly based, and affecting the entire life of the believer. It points to “relig. belief in a special sense, as faith in the Divinity that lays special emphasis on trust in his power and his nearness to help, in addition to being convinced that he exists and that his revelations or disclosures are true” (BAGD). This is so throughout the New Testament, and specifically in the Fourth Gospel. For John it is a concept of central importance.
He uses the concept in a variety of ways, some of which are very occasional. Thus once he has the accusative after the verb when Jesus asks, “Do you believe this?” (11:26). When he wants to express this meaning he more usually employs the dative (e.g., 2:22), but this passage shows something of his flexibility. Again, he once uses the verb in the sense “entrust”: “Jesus did not entrust himself to them” (2:24; cf. Luke 16:11; Gal. 2:7, etc.). On occasion he can use the preposition peri, “about”, as when he says that the Jews did not believe “about” the man before them that he had been born blind and been given sight by Jesus (9:18). John can speak of believing “through” someone (1:7) or something (17:20), or again of believing “on account of” the word (4:41–42) or the deeds (14:11). Such constructions show something of John’s versatility in handling this verb, but they represent no more than occasional uses.
More significant is the fact that we may sum up most of John’s usage under four headings corresponding to the Greek constructions he employs: (1) the simple dative, (2) following the verb with “that” (hoti) which indicates the content of the belief, (3) following it with “in” (more exactly “into”) which points out the person trusted, and (4) the absolute use. We shall look at these in turn.
The Simple Dative
The use of the simple dative3 conveys the idea of giving credence to someone or something, of accepting a statement as true. A good example of this early in the Gospel is when John says that the disciples “believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus spoke” (2:22). The words of Jesus in question were “Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19). John records them early in Jesus’ ministry when the disciples knew little about him and when they could not be expected to fathom such an enigmatic statement. But after the resurrection, John says, they came to believe. He does not identify the particular passage of Scripture, and it is possible that he means the general tenor of our Old Testament rather than any one specific passage (it is notoriously hard to pin down passages predicting the resurrection, but the New Testament writers were clear that this took place “according to the Scriptures”, 1 Cor. 15:4). What is clear is that the verb pisteuō is here used in the sense of giving credence, first to Scripture and then to Jesus’ saying which is linked with Scripture. There is a not dissimilar use of the construction when we read that Jesus said to some opponents, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for that man wrote about me” (5:46). In both clauses the meaning is “accept as true”. This is the case also when the royal officer “believed the word that Jesus spoke to him” (4:50); he accepted it as true and acted on it.
John reports a number of times that people believed Jesus, or did not believe him, or were urged to believe him. Thus Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Believe me, woman, that an hour is coming …” (4:21), where the construction points to an invitation to the woman to accept as true a prophecy that Jesus was making. A similar use of the construction occurs when we find some hearers of Jesus asking, “What sign do you do so that we may see and believe you?” (6:30).4 They were not sure of his teaching. If he were to do a sign, they reason, they would see it and it would accredit him. They would then believe him. Whether they would is, of course, doubtful, but that is what they are suggesting.
Again, John refers to some Jews who “had believed him” (8:31). Since this follows a statement that “many believed in him” (8:30), some students hold that the same people are referred to and that the two constructions are accordingly being used more or less synonymously. Others take the opposite position; for example, J. H. Moulton holds that “the variation from the previous p. eis cannot be merely accidental”. He later says, “The really important matter [i.e., in the New Testament, not merely in John] is the recognition of a clear distinction between believe on or in and believe with the dative simply.”5 It is certainly important to recognize that there is a significant difference between accepting that what someone says at a given moment is true and trusting that person, but it is not so clear that John always stresses the difference. It seems probable that we should not make a hard and fast distinction between the two constructions as they are used in John, but that here the construction with the dative points to people who had not really committed themselves wholeheartedly to Jesus (as their subsequent conduct shows). They accepted as true what he had said, but did not act on it as they should. So a little later Jesus asks, “If I speak truth, why do you not believe me?” (8:46).
The Father and the Son are very close throughout this Gospel, so it is not surprising that sometimes the thought of believing the Father is linked in some way with the Son. In a notable saying, Jesus declares, “he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has life eternal” (5:24).6 The thought of his having been sent by the Father is linked with believing Jesus in another saying, “You do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he sent” (5:38). And in a reference to his “works”, combining the miraculous with the nonmiraculous, Jesus said, “If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may come to know and keep on knowing that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father” (10:37–38). Running through such sayings is the thought that the Father is at work in and through the Son. He has sent the Son on a mission to this world, and the works the Son does are evidence that the Father is accomplishing his purpose. The reference to hearing Jesus’ word and believing the Father is instructive: the two are not to be separated. And Jesus’ word is not so very different from the Father’s word; their failure to believe Jesus leads to a failure to take the Father’s word into themselves.
In these passages “believing” and “believing in” are not so very far apart. The two concepts are distinct, and on occasion John can make effective use of the difference, as we have seen. But in the end, if we really believe Jesus and his Father, we will trust, trust them both.
Believing That—
Several times John speaks of believing that (hoti) something that follows is true. Indeed, his whole Gospel is written “in order that you may believe that (hoti) Jesus is the Christ …” (20:31). The construction is important, for it underlines the truth that for John faith has content. He is not writing in order that his readers may somehow become trustful people, that and no more. He wants them to be trustful, but in such a way that their trust is directed to the Christ. So it is that throughout his Gospel we keep coming across statements that emphasize the importance of a right content in faith.7
Such statements refer in one way or another to Christ. An interesting example occurs at the end of the “bread of life” discourse. Some of Jesus’ hearers, who were scandalized at what he had said, “went away backwards, and no longer walked with him” (6:66). Jesus asked the Twelve whether they, too, would go away, to which Peter made the firm retort: “We (emph., ‘we over against others’) have believed and have known that you are the Holy One of God” (6:69). Both verbs are in the perfect tense and indicate a continuing state. Peter is saying not only that he and his companions have come to believe in Jesus but that they continue in that state, not only that they had a passing glimpse of knowledge about him but a continuing certainty. “The Holy One of God” is a rare expression in Scripture. In the New Testament it is used elsewhere only of the demoniac who cried out to Jesus in the synagogue, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34).8 It is rare also in the Old Testament (though it is used of Aaron in Ps. 106:16). We should understand it to point to Jesus’ consecration by the Father (cf. 10:36) and see this as an important ingredient in believing as John understands it. The link with knowledge is also important. Faith is not concerned with pious fancies, but with a real knowledge of Christ and his relationship to the Father.
This is brought into the content of believing in other ways. Thus Jesus addresses a series of questions to Philip in the upper room when that disciple has said it will be enough for them if Jesus simply shows them the Father: “Have I been with you for such a long time and you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” Then, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?” (14:8–10). Part of believing, as John understands it, is acknowledging that the relationship between Jesus and the heavenly Father is so close that to have seen one is to have seen the other. We should also notice that people like Philip who had been so close physically to Jesus throughout his ministry still know his essential being only through faith.9
The closeness of the Father and the Son comes out later in the same discourse. Jesus assures his followers there gathered together that the Father loves them “because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God” (16:27). The divine origin of Jesus is important, and as we have seen believing linked earlier with knowledge, now it is joined with love. There is a warmth about believing that finds expression in love.10 A little later we find the disciples saying that they are aware that Jesus “knows all things”, so that there is no need for him to ask them questions. “In this,” they go on, “we believe that you came out from God” (16:30). Now we may well say that the disciples’ faith was inadequate (R. H. Lightfoot points out that they had not advanced beyond Nathanael at the beginning or the woman at the well [1:47–50; 4:29], both of whom had faith resting on knowledge, whereas “a faith which has now seen greater things than these [150] should have a deeper basis”11). But at least they had come to see something important about Christ’s person, and as they went on in his service this knowledge and this faith would deepen and grow.
Essentially the same point is made in connection with the Father’s “sending” of Jesus. Jesus concludes his prayer at the tomb of Lazarus with the petition that the bystanders “may believe that you sent me” (11:42). The theme is found in another prayer when, as he prays on the eve of the crucifixion, Jesus includes the words, “they have known truly that I came out from you, and they have believed that you sent me” (17:8). He later prays for the world, “that it may believe that you sent me” (17:21). In earlier chapters we have seen that the divine mission, the fact that it was the Father who sent Jesus, is important. This is brought out in Jesus’ prayers. It is interesting that in most of the instances his you is emphatic: “it was none less than you, the Father, who sent me” is the force of it. For John it is important that believing include the profound conviction that in Jesus we see more than simply another Galilean. He had come into the world on a mission. He had been sent by God.12
Twice Jesus speaks of the importance of believing “that I AM”, where he uses the very language of deity. In the first of these passages the alternative to the faith of which he speaks is to die in one’s sins, so that the believing in question has soteriological significance (8:24).13 To believe in Jesus as “I AM” means salvation; not to believe means loss. In the second passage Jesus points out that his prophecy of the betrayal would, when it came to fulfilment, lead his followers to believe “that I AM” (13:19). It would convince them that what he was doing showed conclusively that he could not be explained on purely human premises.
Then we should notice Martha’s great confession: “I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who comes into the world” (11:27). This certainly gives a rich and full content to faith, with its threefold acknowledgment of who Jesus is.14 We may well say that Martha seems not to have understood fully all that her words meant, for a little later she was found protesting when Jesus asked that Lazarus’s tomb be opened. But it can scarcely be denied that she had made significant progress in understanding what believing means and that John’s inclusion of her affirmation is meant, among other things, to draw attention to a very significant part of the way his readers should understand believing.
We should add that the connection of knowledge and believing is sometimes brought out with other constructions. Thus Jesus told some Jews who “had believed him” (dative) that if they abode in his word they would know the truth, and the truth would set them free (8:31–32). The same construction is used in the passage which speaks of believing the works, so that “you may come to know and keep on knowing” that the Father is in Christ, and he in the Father (10:38). So, too, the father of the boy Jesus healed at a distance came to believe (the absolute use) when he knew that the healing took place at the time Jesus spoke the words of power (4:53). Believing is connected with testimony (an important concept in John) in 19:35. Such passages underline the truth that John is not advocating faith in faith, so to speak. The belief for which he looks is grounded on fact, specifically on the fact of what God has done in sending his Son to be the Savior of the world.15
Believing and knowing are closely connected in John, but the manner of the connection is not easy to work out. We can say that believing sometimes seems to come before knowledge and to lead to it (e.g., 6:69; 8:31–32). This makes an important sequence: first we put our trust in Christ and then we are led further and further in the way of knowledge of Christ and of the Father and of our fellows. But it is also possible to say that knowledge often precedes believing (e.g., 16:30; 17:8). This, too, is an important sequence, for faith is not groundless: first the knowledge of God or of Christ is revealed to us, and that leads us to trust him. We should not try to separate the two too sharply; in Johannine thought they go together.16
Believing “In” or “On”
A very important construction and one that John uses often is that in which he follows the verb “believe” with the preposition eis, which normally means “into”. It is interesting that John uses this preposition rather than en, “in”. In English we normally speak of believing “in” Jesus rather than believing “into” him, but John prefers the more dynamic expression. There is a possible exception in 3:15,17 but against this John never elsewhere uses “in” (en) with “believe” (whereas he uses “into” [eis] very often) and, further, the absolute use of “believe” is common in this Gospel. The passage should surely be understood in the sense, “in order that everyone who believes may have in him life eternal.”
J. H. Moulton pays attention to the importance of the construction “to believe in” (eis) in the New Testament generally. He points out that in classical Greek there is not a great deal of difference between “believing” and “believing in”, and he cites Liddell and Scott for the view that in the classical writings these two notions “run into each other”. But this was not the case with the Christians: “To be unable to distinguish ideas so vitally different in the scheme of Christianity would certainly have been a serious matter for the NT writers.”18 Outside John the construction pisteuein epi is more common than that with eis, but Moulton finds little difference between them: “we may freely admit that it is not safe to refine too much: the difference may amount to little more than that between our own believe on and believe in.” He goes on, “The really important matter is the recognition of a clear distinction between believe on or in and believe with the dative simply.”19 It is possible that as far as Johannine usage is concerned Moulton makes the distinction too sharp, but his main point is incontestable. For the New Testament writers it was important to be able to distinguish between simply accepting a statement as true, and trusting a person. There cannot be the slightest doubt that when John uses the expression pisteuein eis, he is conveying the idea of wholehearted trust in Jesus Christ.20
The object of the faith in mind when John uses this construction is almost invariably Jesus. We do have “Believe in God” (14:1), though we should notice that it is immediately followed by “believe also in me.” But since faith in Christ is unthinkable apart from trust in the Father, we should not make too much of this.21 In several passages Jesus says things like “he who believes in me …” (6:35), but in the Gospel as a whole the most frequent construction uses the third person and refers to believing “in him”. Thus after the first miracle in Cana of Galilee John tells us that his disciples “believed in him” (2:11). It is not easy to see the precise meaning in this early passage. That the disciples exercised some form of faith is clear, and since it is not said that anyone else believed in Jesus at this time, they certainly committed themselves to him in a way that nobody else did. But because they were at the beginning of their walk with Jesus, their faith must have been somewhat undeveloped at this time. Perhaps we would not be unfair in saying that their faith indicates some understanding of who Jesus was and some element of commitment, though both were capable of development and growth and both did develop and grow in later times.
John further tells us that God loved the world, and that he “gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have life eternal” (3:16). This is the heart of the Christian gospel. John is saying that God was active in the death of Jesus on Calvary’s cross, and that because of what that death accomplished anyone who believes in him will be the possessor of eternal life.22 The negative side of this comes out a verse or two later: “He who believes in him is not condemned”, and that this is serious is made clear with the addition, “He who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (3:18). Believing in Jesus is the critical thing.
A variety of people are said to have believed in Jesus. Early we find that the “signs” that he did caused many in Jerusalem to believe in his name (2:23), and at other times “many” came to believe (e.g., 7:31; 8:30; 10:42). In this Gospel “the Jews” generally means the opponents of Jesus, but on occasion “many of the Jews” believed (11:45; 12:11), even “many of the rulers” (12:42). Indeed, there was an occasion when the enemies of Jesus feared that unless they took action “all men” would believe in him (11:48; they mean a large number of Jews, for they express the fear that the Romans will come and take away their “place” and their nation). Samaritans are also numbered among those who believed in Jesus (4:39). By contrast, Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him (7:5), and there was an occasion when the Pharisees asked, “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?” (7:48), using a form of question that expects a negative answer. Those who do believe have life eternal (6:40). In an unusual and very interesting passage John speaks of the Holy Spirit, “whom those who believed in him (i.e., in Jesus) would receive” (7:39). Believers are not meant to live out the life of Christian service in their own strength; thus the gift of the Spirit is very important. And this passage says that believers as such, that is, all who believe, receive the Holy Spirit. The thought is not developed in this Gospel, and indeed it scarcely could be, for the Spirit could not be given in this sense until after Jesus had been “glorified”. The crucifixion must take place before the Spirit could be given in all his fulness.23
Believing may be connected with Jesus’ mission, as when he said that “the work of God” is “that you believe in him whom he sent” (6:29), or even more strikingly when he equates believing in him with believing in him who sent him (12:44). There is probably not a great deal of difference when he speaks of believing in “the Son of man” (9:35), for this is the title by which he chose to refer to himself in the exercise of his mission. We could say the same about believing “in the light” (12:36), for Jesus is “the light of the world” (8:12). Or he may speak of believing in “the Son” (3:36). On one occasion people were so impressed by the raising of Lazarus that “many of the Jews went off and believed in Jesus” (12:11). A number of times John refers to believing “in the name” of Jesus, and this will be another way of referring to all that Jesus is and stands for (1:12; 2:23; 3:18).24 So important is believing of this kind that not to believe in Jesus is sin (16:9; cf. 12:37). But to believe in him means the supply of all that is needed, for the believer will “certainly not thirst, ever” (12:35).
We saw earlier that Jesus sometimes says things like “he who believes in me …” (6:35; 7:38; 11:25, 26; 12:44, 46; 14:1, 12). In one such passage he refers to people who believe in him “through the word” of his followers (17:20). We notice accordingly that people did not have to see Jesus of Nazareth in order to believe in him. It was possible for them to come to a place of faith on the basis of the word preached. It would seem that by the time John wrote his Gospel this was the way the majority of believers had come to exercise faith.
The Absolute Use
Sometimes there are questions which employ the absolute use of the verb. Thus when Nathanael affirmed that Jesus was “the Son of God” and “the King of Israel”, Jesus replied, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree’, do you believe?” (1:50). Jesus does not say what it was that Nathanael believed, but in the context we may fairly say that it was what he had just said that indicates the content of his belief. Nathanael found himself attracted to the person of Jesus, and he had come under the conviction that he was no ordinary man. Rather, he was “the Son of God” and “the King of Israel”.
On other occasions the use of questions brings out the failure of people to believe. We see this at the end of the conversation with Nicodemus when Jesus asked, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” (3:12). The question points to a wrong attitude, and one that was inhibiting belief. It is not quite the same with the disciples in the upper room, for they affirmed their belief: “we believe that you came out from God”.25 But Jesus responded to this with, “Do you now believe? Look, an hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered …” (16:30–31). The disciples thought they trusted Jesus, and to be sure in some measure they did. But their trust was not such that it would sustain them in the time of trial they were about to face. The belief for which Jesus was looking was something more than the facile words that the disciples uttered so easily. Still this was better than the complete rejection of Jesus that we find in an earlier question addressed to some opponents, “How can you (the pronoun is emphatic) believe, receiving as you do glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the only God” (5:44). It is possible to be so preoccupied with what other people say and think that we cut ourselves off from a right relationship with God. These people not only did not, but could not, believe.
The importance of right belief is that this is the way into real life. Jesus puts this very simply: “He who believes has life eternal” (6:47). There is nothing that we can bring to the quest for life; it comes as God’s good gift. All that we do is receive it trustingly. To believe is to have life. We should see this in the case of the nobleman whose boy Jesus healed in distant Capernaum while he was in Cana, and of whom we are told that he himself believed, and so did his whole household (4:53). Trust in Jesus brought the wonderful cure. But it did more. It brought the nobleman into a fuller faith which he shared with his household, and it brought both him and his household into that life which is life indeed.26 Faith like this is in mind when Jesus stands at the tomb of Lazarus and says to Martha, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (11:40). A wonderful miracle is about to be performed, one that will be seen by all those present. But those with faith will see more: they will see the glory of God.27 It is probably this of which Jesus speaks when he says to the disciples at the time he was told of Lazarus’s illness, “Lazarus has died, and I rejoice for your sake, so that you may believe …” (11:14–15). What was about to happen would be a stimulus to real faith on the part of the disciples. Perhaps we should add at this point a reference to the gathering in the upper room when Jesus’ predicted his “departure” from them and said, “And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe” (14:29). In all these cases what is looked for is a firm trust in Jesus, even though there is nothing outward to justify it. It is a trust in Jesus, not in favorable circumstances.
There are several references to believing in the resurrection narratives. The first comes when the Beloved Disciple ran to the tomb. At first he did no more than peep into it, but after Peter came and entered, so did this Disciple, “and he saw and believed” (20:8). It is not easy to determine what he believed. At first sight we are inclined to say, “believed that Jesus had risen”. That may possibly be the meaning, but we should bear in mind that John does not say so much. In the next verse we find that they did not yet know the Scripture that he must rise from the dead, which does not look very much like an affirmation of belief in the resurrection. But certainly the Beloved Disciple’s faith was deepened in some way. At the very least he recognized that something wonderful had happened.28
Then we should notice the story of Thomas (20:24–29). That disciple was absent when Jesus first appeared to the group. His response to the news that Jesus was alive was the affirmation that unless he saw the nail prints and put his hand into the wound in Jesus’ side, he would not believe. In the context “believe” evidently means “believe that Jesus has risen from the dead”. Then a week after the first appearance Jesus came again, showed that he knew what Thomas had said, and exhorted him, “Don’t be faithless (apistos) but believing (pistos).” Thomas reacted with the exclamation, “My Lord and my God!”29 No one has given expression to such a high view of Christ’s person up till this point (or for that matter after it in this Gospel). Jesus responds with, “Because you have seen me, you have believed? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Here believing is clearly connected not only with accepting the fact of the resurrection, but also with a high view of Jesus’ person. Belief is belief in one who came from God and who is God.
Perhaps we should notice here that the writer of the Gospel puts special emphasis on the actual death of Jesus. He tells us that someone who was there saw the piercing of Jesus’ side and the coming out of water and blood, “and he who has seen has borne witness, and true is his testimony; and that one knows that he speaks truth, so that you also may believe” (19:35). There are several problems relating to this passage, but for our present purpose it is important to notice that believing is connected with a knowledge of the fact of Jesus’ death. Without that death there could, of course, be no resurrection. Believing, as John understands it, certainly includes a recognition of the significance of Jesus’ rising from the dead.
In many passages in this Gospel notice is taken of people who did not believe. We have seen that a benediction is pronounced on Thomas because he saw and believed, but earlier Jesus spoke of people who had seen and had not believed (6:36). There is the problem that exactly what they did not believe is not said. But they had been spectators of what Jesus had done in the early part of his ministry, and they had heard his teaching. They could have responded to that by believing as far as they were able, but they did not. They did not respond to Jesus; they rejected him. They may have had something of the same attitude as that of those who were castigated because they would not believe unless they saw “signs and wonders” (4:48).
Unbelief is serious. “He who does not believe”, we read, “has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (3:18). Here “does not believe” is explained as “has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” As we have seen before, faith has content: those who believe, believe in God’s Son, and their trust is placed in One who is the highest of all. Failure to believe in such a one must inevitably result in condemnation. The fact that what this means is not spelt out does not mean that it should not be viewed with the utmost seriousness.30
Sometimes John’s predestinarian strain is connected with believing. Thus on the occasion of the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus pointed out that there were some of his hearers “who do not believe” (6:64). John goes on to point out that Jesus knew from the beginning who would not believe and who would betray him. He then reports Jesus’ words: “For this reason I told you that no one can come to me unless it were given him by my Father” (6:65). Not dissimilar is the passage wherein people complain to Jesus in an expression of uncertain meaning, which most translate as RSV, “How long will you keep us in suspense?” (10:24).31 Jesus replies, “I told you, and you do not believe”, and refers his questioners to the deeds he has done. Then he says, “But you (emphatic) do not believe, because you are not of my sheep” (10:26). In line with such passages John tells us, towards the end of Jesus’ public ministry, that there were people who “could not believe”, and he proceeds to cite a prophecy of Isaiah to support this (12:39–40). John does not gloss over the truth that those who do not accept Jesus are blameworthy, but neither does he gloss over the complementary truth that God is active in the process whereby people believe and come into salvation. Believers do not congratulate themselves on their spiritual perspicacity in that they succeeded in believing where others do not. They recognize that apart from the miracle of grace within them they would never have believed. But that grace is a reality, and those who do not believe seem not to have it.
Now and then reasons are assigned for believing, though this is not common. But after Jesus had talked with the woman at the well, she went into her village and brought the men out to meet him. John tells us that many of them “believed” on account of what the woman told them (4:39). But when they had come to know Jesus for themselves, they no longer believed on account of her words but because “we ourselves have heard, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world” (4:42). A specific reason is not assigned, but it is worth noticing that the man born blind made his confession, “I believe, Lord” (9:38), after he had spoken with Jesus.
A Basic Unity
It is important to look at the constructions John uses and to try to discover what may be learned from each of them. But it is important also to understand that John does not press the distinctions hard. It is clear that his use of the “believe” terminology includes quite a range of meaning, but it is also clear that when he uses a particular construction he may not mean to exclude what may be conveyed by other constructions. For example, in the case of the man born blind at which we were just looking, Jesus asks, “Do you believe in (eis) the Son of man?” The formerly blind man asks, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in (eis) him?” Finding that it is the one to whom he is talking, he says, “I believe, Lord” (9:35–38). It is not easy to think that the meaning has changed dramatically from the beginning to the end of this short conversation.
We should make a similar remark about some earlier words. John tells us that “He who believes in (eis) him is not condemned, but he who does not believe has been condemned already” (3:18). It is the same with John’s statement of the purpose of his Gospel. “These have been written,” he says, “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). It is impossible to find a good reason for differentiating between the two uses of the verb in passages like these.
Or we might notice that “believing in” is the distinctive construction, and one that is often connected with the gift of life. But we should not overlook Jesus’ words, “He who hears my teaching, and believes him who sent me, has life eternal” (5:24). Here it is plainly faith that matters and is the means of entering into eternal life, but the verb is followed by the simple dative and refers to the Father rather than to the Son.
We may say that God has acted in the mission of his Son, and that people receive this salvation when they believe in the Son. We may say that the construction with eis expresses this most adequately. But in the end we cannot differentiate this too sharply from other ways of looking at the process. If we believe God or Christ (the use of the dative), if we really believe him, then we will further believe “that” he has acted for salvation and we will believe “in” him. And so fundamental will faith be to us that we will quite easily refer simply to “believing”. In the end what is meant by all these constructions is joined together in one satisfying spiritual experience.
1. H.-J. Hermisson and E. Lohse link this passage with that which tells us that the Baptist was sent by God to bear witness to the light “so that all might believe through him” (1:7), and draw the conclusion that “Jesus’ effect is thus represented from the beginning to the end as a proclamation which calls one to faith” (Faith, Nashville, 1981, p. 160).
2. W. A. Whitehouse comments, “The efficacy of faith for salvation and for right relationship with God is not to be sought in the act itself, but rather in that to which a man holds firm by believing. The Fourth Gospel, by the very fact of not using the noun, makes this plain” (A. Richardson, ed., A Theological Word Book of the Bible, London, 1950, pp. 75–76). It is sometimes suggested that John avoided the noun because of its Gnostic associations, and it is pointed out that he similarly avoided gnōsis. But there is no real evidence for the existence of Gnosticism as early as this Gospel, and in any case W. F. Howard finds “no reason to suppose that it (i.e. pistis) had acquired a meaning in contemporary Hellenistic mysticism which put the word under the ban” (Christianity according to St. John, London, 1943, p. 155).
3. E. C. Blackman comments, “The Johannine usage is very distinctive. It is clearly rooted in the primitive usage of the church, as is seen from the reappearance of the use of the verb followed by the dative, with a hoti clause, and from the absolute use” (IDB, II, p. 224).
4. C. K. Barrett comments, “hina is not incorrectly used: the sign is to be done in order that we may see it.” He cites a passage from The Gospel of Thomas that reads, “Tell us who thou art so that (hina) we may believe (pisteuein) in thee” (The Gospel according to St. John, Philadelphia, 1978, p. 288).
5. A Grammar of New Testament Greek, I, Prolegomena (Edinburgh, 1906), pp. 67, 68.
6. This passage heads the list of those of which W. F. Howard says, “Faith in the sense of credence, that is, accepting someone’s word without the waverings of doubt, is given a high place where the authority is self evident, or where spiritual insight should discern the self-authentication of the message” (Christianity according to St. John, p. 157).
7. “John does not think of faith as a vague trust, but as something with content.… Faith means believing that—” (Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, Grand Rapids, 1971, p. 856).
8. C. E. B. Cranfield points out that the expression “is not a known messianic title.… It is as the divine Son of God rather than as Messiah that the demoniacs address Jesus.” In John 6:69 he thinks the title is used “to designate Jesus as from beyond this world and belonging to God” (The Gospel according to Saint Mark, Cambridge, 1959, p. 77).
9. Cf. Walther Lüthi, “So fundamental is faith where the Lord is concerned that even these men who have seen everything with their own eyes, heard everything with their own ears, touched Him with their own hands, and have eaten and walked with Him, can conceive who Christ is only through faith. Hence the question to Philip, ‘Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?’ And the words to all the disciples, ‘Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me’ ” (St John’s Gospel, Edinburgh and London, 1960, p. 190).
10. Cf. Hermisson and Lohse, “that faith which trusts in Jesus’ words in full confidence shows its overcoming power in love. Thus one can recognize Jesus’ disciples by the fact that there is love among them (13:35)” (Faith, p. 167).
11. St. John’s Gospel (Oxford, 1956), p. 290. B. F. Westcott points out that in this confession the disciples had not advanced as far as John the Baptist (The Gospel according to St. John, II, Grand Rapids, 1954, p. 236).
12. Keith W. Clements understands faith as “a personal trust in the gracious God known in Jesus. It is reliance upon the God who moves in love towards us” (Faith, London, 1981, p. 25). Cf. also n. 22 below.
13. R. Schnackenburg points out that the I AM “is the Old Testament revelation formula which the Johannine Jesus, as the revealer of the New Testament, claims for himself. In him, he is saying, God is present to reveal his eschatological salvation and offer it to men” (The Gospel according to St John, II, New York, 1982, p. 200).
14. Cf. John Marsh, “Martha’s reply seems at first sight to be off the mark; but a closer examination shows that it is not. Martha has perceived that what Jesus has said is not a series of two propositions about living and dead men, but rather a statement about himself as the real life of all who love and believe in him. So her answer when it comes is not in the form of assent to the propositions stated, but a confession of her belief in the Lord’s special relationship to the Father” (The Gospel of St John, Harmondsworth, 1968, p. 428).
15. H. L. Jackson says that faith and knowledge are “interchangeable ideas” in this Gospel, “or rather they express the same truth looked at from different sides. ‘To know’ (gignōskein) in the Johannine language expresses the perception of eternal truth; ‘to believe,’ its temporal discovery and appropriation” (James Hastings, ed., A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, I, Edinburgh, 1906, p. 570).
16. R. Bultmann well remarks, “it is apparent that knowledge can never take us beyond faith or leave faith behind. As all knowledge begins with faith, so it abides in faith. Similarly, all faith is to become knowledge. If all knowledge can only be a knowledge of faith, faith comes to itself in knowledge. Knowledge is thus a constitutive element in genuine faith” (TDNT, VI, p. 227).
17. The passage reads hina pas ho pisteuōn en autōi echēi zōēn aiōnion. It is quite possible grammatically to take en autōi with the preceding ho pisteuōn, but this would be unexampled in John despite the frequency of his use of the verb. On the other hand there is good reason for taking it with what follows, for John has the concept of abiding “in” Christ (6:56; 15:4, etc.; cf. also 12:46), and sometimes the concept of “life in—” (5:39). Nigel Turner here rejects the meaning “everyone who believes in him”; he finds the passage to mean “every believer whose life is hid in Christ possesses eternal life” (Grammatical Insights into the New Testament, Edinburgh, 1965, p. 121).
18. Prolegomena, p. 67. Cf. also O. Michel, “The frequency of pisteuō eis, believe in … in the vocabulary of mission, is a striking departure from ordinary Gk. and the LXX” (NIDNTT, I, p. 599).
19. Ibid., p. 68.
20. Of this construction E. C. Blackman says, “This usage is as prominent in John as it is rare elsewhere in the NT, and seems to have no parallel in the LXX or nonbiblical Greek” (IDB, II, p. 225). It is a Johannine distinctive.
21. Cf. D. M. Baillie, “To believe in Christ, according to the Fourth Gospel also, is to find God revealed in Him” (Faith in God and its Christian Consummation, London, 1964, p. 260).
22. R. Bultmann points out that this produces love in the believer. “Faith sees in Jesus the Revealer of the divine love (3:16). Hence it is itself the reception of this love, and from the reception of this love there springs forth love in believers” (TDNT, VI, p. 228).
23. John Marsh points out that the gift of the Spirit “is a gift which includes all the benefits of the incarnation of the Son, and requires that his work on earth be complete and full. That the Spirit cannot come until Jesus be glorified is a theological, not a chronological fact. John is as aware of the activity of the divine nature in the lives of the disciples during the incarnation as are the synoptists” (The Gospel of St John, pp. 342–43).
24. “For those ‘who received him,’ who ‘believed in his name’ in this complete sense, faith acquired an entirely new scope; it signified the unique attachment which gathered around the Person of Jesus” (DB, p. 289).
25. B. A. Mastin holds that this “is belief in only a part of what Jesus was declaring at verse 28, though their faith is sincere and as far as it goes it is correct. It is perhaps also defective in that the word God is used instead of the more expressive term ‘Father’ …” (J. N. Sanders, A Commentary on the Gospel according to St John, edited and completed by B. A. Mastin, London, 1968, p. 363). That their faith was as yet defective I agree, but the use of ‘God’ does not indicate this. They are simply repeating the word Jesus has used in verse 27.
26. G. H. C. MacGregor comments, “Again we are reminded that in our Gospel the word ‘believe’ covers many gradations of faith. In this man’s case faith had been present even before the certification of the miracle (50); now that faith is confirmed. Previously he had trusted in a promise; now he believes in the absolute sense, that is, that Jesus is the Christ” (The Gospel of John, London, 1928, pp. 122–23).
27. “The real meaning of what He (i.e. Jesus) would do is accessible only to faith. All there, believing or not, would see the miracle. But Jesus is promising Martha a sight of the glory. The crowd would see the miracle, but only believers would see its real significance, the glory” (Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, p. 560).
28. John Marsh comments, “This can hardly be read save in the light of what John has to say about the word of the Lord to Thomas later in the chapter. The beloved disciple saw the empty tomb and the abandoned cloth lying in it. On that sight, he believed. So does the evangelist begin to make it clear that it is not by seeing the earthly Jesus that one ‘sees’ the Lord. He can be ‘seen’ in this profounder sense through the witness of an empty grave” (The Gospel of St John, p. 634).
29. Barnabas Lindars interprets the passage in the light of Jesus’ statements “I and the Father are one” (10:30) and “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9). He goes on, “It is in this sense that ‘my God!’ is an appropriate expression of faith in Jesus as the exalted Lord. The act of belief not only puts Thomas into relation with the risen Lord, but also with the Father himself” (The Gospel of John, London, 1972, p. 615). He further sees Thomas’s words as “a summary of the Gospel as a whole” (p. 616).
30. A. M. Hunter remarks, “John declares that the man who personally trusts Christ is lifted out of the realm of God’s judgement. But there is another and dark side to the medal. Face to face with Christ, we cannot be neutrals, balanced between belief and unbelief; and so, the unbeliever has already been judged in that he has not given his allegiance to God’s only Son. If a man refuses to trust in the Son of God, no further verdict is needed, for his own conduct finds him guilty” (The Gospel according to John, Cambridge, 1965, p. 41).
31. The words might mean “How long do you plague us?” or “Why are you taking our life away?” The former is supported by modern Greek usage, the latter by the fact that the verb is used in the sense “take (life) away” no farther back than verse 18. See further pp. 85–86 above.