Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 10:25)

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John 10:25 says: “Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me” (KJV). Here, we have the fifty-second occurrence of the idea of believing in John’s Gospel. So, as we usually do, we will examine the context of this passage as well as what this passage indicates about the nature of faith.

First, the context. Right after the formerly blind man affirms his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and worships Him, He says that He came into the world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and so those who see may become blind. We are then told that some of the Pharisees were with Him, and that they hear this and ask Him if they are also blind, to which the Lord responds that, if they were blind, they would have no sin, but, since they claim that they see, their sin therefore remains. Jesus then begins His discourse on Himself as the Good Shepherd, strongly assuring them that the person who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold but instead climbs up some other way is a thief and robber. However, the one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep, to whom the porter opens, and the sheep hear his voice. The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out and, when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. Furthermore, the sheep will flee from, and not follow, a stranger, since they do not know the voice of strangers. The text then clarifies for us that Christ is speaking in a parable here, but the Pharisees did not understand what the things He was speaking to them were. Jesus Himself clarifies by emphatically declaring Himself to be the Door of the sheep, and that all who ever came before Him are thieves and robbers, but the sheep heard them not. He repeats His declaration to be the Door, elaborating that, if any man enters in by Him, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture. The thief, on the other hand, only comes to steal and kill and destroy, while Christ has come so that man might have life and have it more abundantly. He further announces Himself to be the Good Shepherd and that the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. By contrast, the one who is a hireling and not the shepherd, for whom the sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming and flees, leaving the sheep behind, whom the wolf catches and scatters. As if He wasn’t clear on a hireling’s nature already, Christ says that the hireling flees for the very reason that he is a hireling and does not care for the sheep. Jesus repeats His declaration that He is the Good Shepherd before stating that He knows His sheep and that He is known of His. As the Father knows Him, even so He knows the Father, and He lays down His life for the sheep. He goes on to say that He has other sheep, which are not of this fold, whom He must also bring, and also that they will hear His voice and that there will be one fold and one Shepherd. Therefore His Father loves Him, because He lays down His life that He might take it again. No man takes it from Him, but He lays it down of His own accord. [1] He has the power to both lay it down and to take it again and, He goes on to tell, He has received this commandment from His Father. Consequently, a division arises among the Jews for these words of His, with many of them claiming that He is mad and has a devil and incredulously asking why others are listening to Him, while others are saying that these are not the words of a man with a devil before asking if a devil can open the eyes of the blind. Next, the text tells us that it is winter and the feast of the dedication was at Jerusalem, before informing us that Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. We are then told that the Jews came round about Him, asked Him how long He would make them doubt, and challenged Him to tell them plainly if He was the Christ. In response, the Lord Jesus Christ says that He told them and they believed not, after which He tells them that the works He does in His Father’s name bear witness of Him. This is the context of John 10:25!

Second, the facts about faith. In this passage, we see one fact about faith that we have covered often in this series: faith is receiving what Christ says and unbelief is rejecting what Christ says (John 3:31-34). Because, in John 10:25, Christ tells the unbelieving Jews here that He told them that He was the Christ and they didn’t believe. So, they didn’t receive, but instead rejected, His testimony that He was the Christ. Also in this passage, we see another aspect of faith we have touched on in this series: saving faith in Jesus includes accepting the fact that He is the Christ, or Messiah (John 20:30-31; cf. John 1:41). Because, again, Jesus clearly implies in John 10:25 that the unbelief of these Jews in Him was their refusal to accept the fact that He is the Messiah, even though He told them that He is the Christ. A third fact about faith we can observe in this text is that Jesus’s works are confirmations of the Christian’s faith, because the Lord says here that the works He does in His Father’s Name testify about Him. These are some facts about faith from John 10:25!

[1] I remember hearing this phrase in John 10:18 translated this way in a non-KJV Bible translation, but I forget the specific translation. Or maybe I’ve heard it translated this way from multiple versions.