John's Gospel VI: Faith & Disbelief
Sermon Review
19 August 2001
John 20:24-30Introduction
If someone asked you what does it mean to ‘believe in Christ’, what would you say?
This is an important question for if Jesus Christ was correct, faith in Him is extremely important for it makes the difference between a person dying in their sins, or dying with them already forgiven; receiving eternal life, or dying under the judgment of God, or experiencing ‘abundant life’ or not etc.
As we go through the Gospel of John, we find that Jesus stimulated faith as well as disbelief. Many within the crowds came to believe in him 4:39-41, 7:30, 8:30, 10:42, 11:45, 12:11, and many didn’t 6:66,7:31, 8:43,44,59, 9:40, 12:37 etc. Some appeared to express faith that seems invalid and unacceptable to Jesus 2:23-25, and others had faith that was dubious yet not clearly rejected 12:42,43. It seems that John puts a human face on faith. In his gospel we see varying expressions of faith and disbelief representing those present amongst Jesus’ hearers. Mostly he doesn’t present these expressions as valid or authentic or inadequate and insufficient – he simply presents them. This is not particularly helpful at face value. However, because he has written this Gospel in order to stimulate belief in Christ, we need to assume that he knows what he is trying to inspire. Therefore, we need to dig a little to find what John thought ‘believing’ was all about.
Faith in John:
John never uses the noun ‘faith’, but over 90 times he uses the verb ‘to believe’. This puts a heavy emphasis on the active and dynamic nature of faith. It is not a passive thing. According to John, to believe is something that we ‘do’. This activity embraces at least 4 things: convictions, trust, simple acceptance, and obedience.
1. Convictions
John shows us that the activity of faith includes having certain convictions. Faith is not just a general belief, but convictions about specific things eg. 6:69 ‘Holy One of God’; 8:24, 11:27,20:31 ‘Messiah’ & or ‘Son of God’; that he came from the Father and that the Father sent him 11:42, 16:27,30, 17:8,21 etc. Faith is not trust in a nebulous ‘no one knows what’. J.I Packer once wrote, ’In the N.T., where faith is defined as trust in Christ, the acknowledgment of Jesus as the expected Messiah and the incarnate Son of God, is regarded as basic to it’. For faith to be faith, it requires content- particular content at that, and conviction concerning that content. This supports Paul’s belief that ‘Faith comes by hearing the Word of God’ Rom.10:14-17. The activity of faith includes effort involved in learning, understanding, and becoming convinced of specific things about Christ’s unique authority and relationship with the Father etc. On the other hand, disbelief involves either little or no conviction about right content eg. Judas, or wrong convictions eg. 2:18 miraculous signs, 2:20 misunderstandings, as well as things which neutralise conviction: 3:18 guilt & unwillingness to change, 5:44 ego stroking from peers and others, and/or fear of ridicule from peers and others etc., 6:66 inability to handle moments of incomprehension when what God wants doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to us etc. Genuine conviction about who Christ is, your relationship with God through him etc. is essential for genuine faith.
2. Trust:
One of the most characteristic constructions of John’s is ‘believing in or on (eis). In the N.T. it is used 45 times. John uses it 37 of those times eg. 3:18, 4:39, 7:31,38,39, 17:20 etc. J.I. Packer & Leon Morris see this use of believing ‘in’ as conveying the thought of a movement of trust going out to, and laying hold of, the object of its confidence. This type of believing involves deliberately trusting someone outside of yourself. It is a trust that involves a strong thoroughgoing attachment to a person because they trust them. Such trust is what ‘abiding’ means John 15:5. To abide in Christ is to trust in him implicitly, rather than ourselves. Such trust channels the benefits of his presence into our lives eg. the fruit of the Spirit and the Spirit’s activity around us and through us. Faith then requires trust, and in an active sense, to have faith in Christ is to move beyond ourselves to trust him completely. Disbelief involves a lack of trust, an unwillingness to lean on Christ for support, to attach ourselves consciously to Him, as we do to close friends or intimate partners for life. Jesus warned against this type of mistrust 15:6.
3. Simple Acceptance
John also presents ‘believing’ as simply accepting something or someone eg. ‘believe him’ (Father 5:24), ‘believe Moses’ (5:46), ‘believe the miracles’ (10:38), ‘believe me’ (8:46,14:11). It is an attitude that accepts the honesty, truthfulness and/or genuineness of Christ and what he said eg. 3:34, 4:49,50. It is believing without argument or reservation. It is probably what Jesus meant when he said people must become as a little child in order to enter the Kingdom of God Matt.18:3. Genuine and healthy faith in Christ includes simple acceptance of Christ and what he says eg. 9:36,38. Disbelief means resisting and moving away from such acceptance 9:40,41.
4. Obedience
Believing involves obedience, and disbelief is characterised by disobedience to God or lawlessness eg. 3:20,21, 5:14,29, 8:11,31, 14:21,23, 15:10 etc. To believe requires concrete evidences in the life of the believer.
Conclusion:
John seems to have had in his mind that the faith he was looking to be inspired by His Gospel, that which would bring life to a ‘believer’, was belief that actively embraced specific convictions, a trusting attachment to Christ, a simple acceptance of Him and what he says, and demonstrates obedience in one’s life. William Barclay defines this quite aptly when he writes that ‘to believe means to be quite certain of Christ’s unique relationship to God, to accept as binding all his commands, and (hold as) certain beyond doubt his promises. Whereas disbelief has different convictions or none at all, little or no trust, avoids simple acceptance, and includes disobedience in ones life.
As disbelief in Christ will not save or bring ‘life’ to a person, it seems to me that having the right kind of faith in Christ is not very important, but perhaps even more so than having a great faith. Your faith may not be great, and at times doubts might assail it, but genuine faith, even if small, works towards conviction; trust might waver, but effort will be expended to keep trusting; and effort is made to simply accept what Christ says and requires, even if reason can’t put all the pieces together; and valid faith never forgets the importance of practical obedience in day to day living. This type of ‘believing’ is what John was trying to inspire. Having such a faith is far more important than having a great faith. imagine for a moment that you have before you a wide chasm to cross, and there are two planks you can use. One is sturdy and sound, the other is weak, faulty, split and fractured. Would a person with great faith pass safely over the weak and dangerous plank? Would a person of small faith pass safely over the sturdy plank? I assure you that little faith in a sturdy plank is far safer than great faith in a rotten one. This seems to be the stance John takes, for he does not deal with ‘quantity’, but the basic qualities of faith that ‘brings life’ to a believer. To John, conviction, trust, acceptance & obedience define ‘believing in Christ’. What does ‘believing in Christ’ mean to you?
Blessings