Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 1:50)

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The third time the idea of “believing” occurs in John’s Gospel is John 1:50, which reads: “Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.”

What is the context here? Philip, a new disciple of Jesus, goes and finds a man named Nathanael, to whom he says that they (i.e., Philip and his fellow disciples) found the One whom Moses and the prophets wrote about in the Old Testament. Earlier, starting in John 1:40-41, another disciple of Jesus named Andrew goes to his brother, Simon Peter, and tells him that they found the Messiah, or Christ (both words meaning the “Anointed One,” anointed by God [1]). So, the One whom Moses and the prophets wrote of in the OT Scriptures is the Messiah. Nathanael retorts to Philip’s news by asking if anything good can come out of Nazareth, to which Philip responds by telling him to “come and see.” Afterwards, Jesus sees Nathanael coming to Him and, in stark contrast to Nathanael’s low expectations of Him, says of the approaching, soon-to-be disciple that he is truly [2] an Israelite, in whom is no deceit [3]. Nathanael asks Jesus from where He knows him, to which the Lord responds by saying that He saw Nathanael under the fig tree before Philip called for him. Nathanael then exclaims that Christ is the Son of God and the King of Israel. Jesus asks Philip if he believes because He told him He saw him under the fig tree, then saying that Philip will see greater things than that. This conversation wraps up with Christ referencing Genesis 28:10-17, assuring Nathanael that he will see heaven open, as well as God’s angels ascending and descending on Him, the Son of Man. This is the context of John 1:50.

So, from this text, what can we learn about what it means to “believe” on Jesus? Christ rhetorically asks Nathanael if he believes because the Lord revealed His Divine knowledge of him. Christ describes Nathanael’s reaction to Him as “believing.” How did Nathanael react to the God-Man’s knowledge of him? By realizing who He is, in this case as the Son of God and the King of Israel. So, we can Biblically define “faith” or “believing” as “seeing Jesus for who He is” [4]. Other texts that confirm this definition as Biblical (and therefore true) are John 20:30-31, Hebrews 11:6, and 1 John 5:1, 4-5.

So, this is what we learn about the Biblical definition of faith: faith is believing that Christ is who He reveals Himself to be. And where does He reveal Himself? He, as God (John 1:1-18), reveals Himself in the Word of God, which is the Bible (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

[1] https://biblehub.com/greek/3323.htm and https://biblehub.com/greek/5547.htm [2] https://biblehub.com/greek/230.htm [3] https://biblehub.com/greek/1388.htm [4] The pastor whom I referenced in this series’s introductory post inspired this insight on faith as he was expounding John 1:50.