READING TIME: 3-5 MINUTES
John 2:23-25, Part 2
“Believe” a keyword in John’s Gospel
The Gospel of John is known as the Gospel of belief since the word “believe” occurs nearly 100 times. Thus, John’s Gospel provides ample opportunity for the Lord to demonstrate the claim that belief must endure to the end of one’s life to obtain final salvation. Yet as one reads all twenty-one chapters, one is struck by the complete absence of statements requiring ongoing belief for eternal life.
The viewpoint that John’s Gospel is focusing on a special kind or quality of faith
While many perseverance advocates agree that the purpose of John is evangelistic, they also see the book as being evangelistic in the sense of testing the genuineness of people’s profession of faith—that John is concerned with a special kind or quality of faith, a committed, enduring, fruitful, and working faith.
Examples of this thinking are the following writers:
James Montgomery Boice, D. A. Carson, Gerald F. Hawthorne, Phillip Hook, Craig A. Keener, Andreas J. Köstenberger, J. Carl Laney, Leon Morris, Merrill C. Tenney, George Allen Turner, and Julius R. Mantey.
Problems with this viewpoint
The major problem with this view, however, is that although the faith of the disciples needed development, it was not spurious or non-saving in terms of its nature.
Though the disciples believed in Jesus as the Christ, their concept of the Messiah or Christ was deficient and needed development.
Dr./Pastor Tom Stegall appropriately explains that in “John 2:23 says that the object of their faith was ‘His name,’ not the sign itself of turning water into wine . . . Furthermore, to claim that those who believed in Christ’s name in 2:23–25 did not have “real” faith begs the question, why does John say they ‘believed’ or had ‘faith’? Why not simply say they ‘did not believe,’ or they ‘did not truly believe,’ or they had ‘false faith,’ or a ‘nonsaving faith’ so as not to mislead the reader into thinking they did ‘believe’?” (Dissertation 131).
The progression of faith in John’s Gospel
For this reason, we see throughout the progression of John’s Gospel that the disciples’ faith developed in proportion to the progress of revelation about Jesus being the Christ.
Certain signs in the Gospel of John not only elicit faith within unbelievers, but they also lead to the development of faith among Christ’s believing disciples. This can be observed in several passages.
John 6:5-6 — This demonstrates that Jesus was testing the faith of His disciples and that the original historical occurrence of this sign was for their developing faith.
John had recorded earlier in his Gospel, in John 1:12, that belief in Christ’s name would result in new birth or becoming a child of God.
John 2:23 is effectively sandwiched between two declarations that belief in Christ’s name is sufficient for eternal salvation.
Why didn’t the writer of Scripture just plainly say that they “didn’t believe,” or they had “false faith,” or “non-saving faith” so as not to mislead the reader into thinking they did “believe”?
What Jesus promises
The simple truth behind John 2:23-25 is that the more we commit ourselves to Jesus, the more He is willing to commit Himself to us. The message of the Upper Room Discourse in John 13-17 is that an intimate, abiding, and obedient relationship with Jesus bears spiritual fruit and shows we are true disciples. John 14:21 says it best: “He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Of course, God and His Son love and have revealed themselves to everyone. But in this private discourse to his eleven disciples, Jesus promises that loving and obedient believers can enjoy a more intimate familial love and the manifestation of His character. These are rewards for the committed believer, the true disciple, but probably not for the new believer. The new believer must learn what the Lord teaches so that he can learn to obey from the heart as a response to grace. Those who respond well to truth receive more truth as Jesus’s “friends” (see also John 15:14-15).
Conclusion
We could say that even though the Jews believed in Him, Jesus did not yet believe in them because he knew what was in them. They were new believers who were unproven and for some reason known only to Jesus, not ready for Him to share more of Himself with them. It is a principle we see taught later in John that those who respond well to truth are granted more truth (John 14:21; 15:14-15). Jesus’s refusal to commit Himself says absolutely nothing explicit about the genuineness of these Jews’ faith and their salvation. The clear statement is that they believed, which in John can be shown to result always in eternal life.
Sources Consulted
Anderson, David R. Free Grace Soteriology: 3rd Edition. Grace Theology Press, 181.
________. “The Nature of Faith.” Chafer Theological Seminary Journal Volume 5 5.4 (1999): 2-26.
Bing, Charles C. “The Condition for Salvation in John’s Gospel.” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society Volume 9 9.16 (Spring 1996): 25-36.
________. Grace, Salvation, and Discipleship: How to Understand Some Difficult Bible Passages. Grace Theology Press, 117.
________. “GraceNote #81. < https://gracelife.org/resources/gracenotes/?id=81&lang=eng>.
Bryant, Bob. “The Secret Believer in the Gospel of John.” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 27.53 (Autumn 2014): 61-75.
Hixson, Whitmire, Zuck. Freely by His Grace: Classical Grace Theology. Gospel Press, chapter 7.
Hixson, J. B. Getting the Gospel Wrong: The Evangelical Crisis No One Is Talking About. Grace Gospel Press, 99.
Hodges, Zane C. “Untrustworthy Believers—John 2:23–25: Part 2: Problem Passages in the Gospel of John.” Bibliotheca Sacra 135 (April-June 1978): 139-152.
Stegall, Thomas. L. “That You May Believe: The Evangelistic Purpose and Message of John’s Gospel in Relation to Free Grace Theology.” Th.D. dissertation, Grace Biblical Seminary, 2017, 131-132.
________. Must Faith Endure for Salvation to Be Sure?: A Biblical Study of the Perseverance versus Preservation of the Saints. Grace Gospel Press, chapter 9.
Wilkin, Robert N. “A Response to Thomas R. Schreiner’s Objection to My Presentation in Four Views on the Role of Works at the Final Judgment.” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 27.52 (Spring 2014): 17-32.
