Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (Introduction)

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A while ago, I heard a pastor do a non-comprehensive study of the Gospel of John to expound on what faith is. A shorter time ago, I came across a commentary on John that attempted to do the same. So, I'm going to attempt here to do my own study of John's Gospel, giving credit as much as possible when I share insights that I glean from other sources.

But why would I do this, especially since it requires me, for a long time, to stop my Proverbs series to do a series that not only will my heart be more invested in, but which I'm also convinced will be more helpful, not only to me as I attempt to study God's Word, but to God's people throughout the world? Yes, my prayer is that God will make this series a blessing to the global church! Faith, as any Christian will know, is the key to relationship with the God of the Bible. It is how the Christian is justified in God's court (Romans 5:1). It is how the believer lives the Christian life (Galatians 2:20). So, we need to have a right concept of faith so that we 1) truly believe in Christ and 2) know that we really trust in Him. But, to do that, we can't get our ideas about faith from men, even Christian theologians. When Christian teachers explain faith in ways that are purely Biblical, then they are to be believed, not disregarded, because they are merely repeating what God says in His Word. But, if we are to have God's view of faith (and therefore, the true view of faith), we dare not seek it from men who are not only finite and fallible, but sinful. No, we need to go to God's Word to get our doctrine of faith! This is why I'm setting out on this study of faith, the Biblical doctrine of faith!

And why, out of all the books of the Bible, am I going with just John's Gospel in this series? In John 20:30-31, the Holy Spirit leads John (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21) to tell us why he's writing the signs Jesus performs in the Gospel so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, we may have life in His Name. We know that this is saving faith, or faith that truly saves, because God tells us that this "believing" leads to "life in [Christ's] name." And, throughout this Gospel, the apostle describes to us who the Lord Jesus Christ is, so we may rightly conclude that this whole Book (not just the signs recorded) are written so that we may believe in Jesus in this way. Every thing in this Gospel is written to bring us to believe in Jesus savingly. Therefore, if we want to understand what faith (again, saving faith) is, we must learn it from this Book! Not that we need to perfectly know Scripture's teaching concerning faith, because God, and therefore His Word, is inexhaustible (Romans 11:33), and finite beings (like we are) can never fully know God or His Word. But God has enabled this Gospel to be a means by which we can learn enough about faith so we can rightly understand it, believe in Christ, and know that we believe in Christ, so we know that we personally know Him.

Given this upcoming series and my passion for it, I want to inform you of two things. One, I'll be posting on days I haven't posted in the past, so I'll be publishing stuff more often, though I'm not making any promises concerning specific days. Two, as an exception to the "no promise" statement right there, I will be posting each Wednesday, and each of those posts, until I finish this series, will be posts in this series. I'm looking forward to this! May God give me the grace to rightly interpret and exposit His Word!