Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 11:15)

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John 11:15 contains the fifty-ninth use of “believing” in John’s Gospel. Here, the Lord Jesus Christ says: “And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him” (KJV). As always, let us examine the context and extract some truths about faith!

First, what is the context? After a multitude finds Jesus and believes on Him there, the text tells us that a man named Lazarus is sick, the man being from Bethany, the town of the sisters Mary and Martha. We then see a parenthetical comment that informs us 1) that this Mary is the one who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair and 2) that Lazarus is her brother. So, Mary and Martha send to Jesus, saying that the one whom He loves is sick. When Jesus hears this, He says that this sickness is not to death but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God might thereby be glorified. The narrative slightly pauses again to tell us that Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, before saying that when He therefore heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed in the same place where He was two days. After this time, He tells His disciples that they are going into Judea again, which prompts them to remind Him that, lately, the Jews sought to stone Him before asking Him if He is going there again. Jesu answers by rhetorically asking them if there are not twelve hours in the day before stating that, if any man walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. However, He goes on to say, if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him. After saying these things, He tells them that their friend, Lazarus, sleeps, but He is going to awake him out of his slumber. Not knowing that their Master is speaking metaphorically here, the disciples say that, if he sleeps, he will do well. The text then takes another brief pause to inform us of both the true meaning of Jesus’s statement and the disciples’ misunderstanding, in case we are in any doubt that Jesus was using “sleep” as a metaphor. When the narrative resumes, the Lord plainly tells His disciples that Lazarus is dead, before saying that He is glad for their sakes that He was not there, so that they may believe. Nevertheless, He says, they will go to Lazarus. This is the context of John 11:15!

Second, what are some facts about faith here? Right now, I can only think of one new insight about faith that I can talk about here. And that is this: Christ works all things in the life of the Christian to build up his confidence in Him! Because, as Christ Himself says in the text, He stayed away and refrained from healing Lazarus so that they would believe, and He was glad that He did so. That this refusal strengthened His disciples’ faith, plus the fact that stronger faith in God means a closer relationship with God, we can reasonably conclude that Jesus’s joy was in the greater, and ultimate, good of His people. If you trust in Christ alone, you can rest with absolute certainty in the fact that, even in something as tragic as death (whether that of yourself or of loved ones), Christ is working it for you good and is doing it out of love for you. Indeed, verses 5-6 of this 11th chapter show us that Christ’s love caused Him to remain where He was staying. This is a fact about faith from John 11:15!