Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 10:38)

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John 10:38 contains the fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth, and fifty-seventh times that the idea of belief occurs in the Gospel of John. In the passage, the Lord Jesus Christ says: "But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him" (KJV). Here, we have another cluster, where we find three uses of the term, and we will see what truths about faith we can glean from each use. Before we do that though, we must do a brief context analysis.

So, what is the immediate context? After Jesus tells the Jews to not believe Him if He doesn't do the works of His Father, He says that, if He does do His Father's works, though they do not believe Him, they should believe the works, so that they may know and believe that the Father is in Him and He in the Father. This is the immediate context of John 10:38!

Now, what are some truths about faith that we see in this passage? First, if one is doubtful about whether he should trust Jesus or not, he should observe His deeds, because they are sufficient to prove that Christ is all He claimed Himself to be. We find ourselves again covering a fact we learned earlier in this series: the miracles of Christ, when interpreted rightly, are aids to faith (John 20:30-31; cf. John 2:23-3:3 and John 6:26-27). Second, belief in the works of Christ is a gateway to belief in the Person of Christ. Because Jesus encourages these Jews to believe in His works if they do not believe in Him. Third, faith in Christ's Person includes believing that He and the Father mutually indwelling each other. Because Jesus calls on these Jews to believe His works so they may know and believe that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father. These are some facts about faith from John 10:38!