Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 12:38)

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In John 12:38, we find the seventy-first occurrence of “belief” in the Gospel of John. The text reads: “That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (KJV). So, as always, let’s look at the immediate context and the facts about faith in this passage!

First, what is the immediate context? Right after the text tells us that, though Jesus performed so many miracles among the people, the people still did not believe on Him, the Scripture then tells us that this was so the saying of Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet would be fulfilled, which Isaiah spoke: “Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (KJV). This is the immediate context of John 12:38!

Second, what are some facts about faith? One fact is that to believe the Gospel means that the arm of the Lord has been revealed to you, because the text parallels these two ideas. A second fact is that the Gospel, consistent with its definition as “Good News,” is a Report, because the object of faith in this text is a “report.” A third fact is that to believe on Jesus is to believe the Report in Scripture concerning Him (see also Romans 1:1-3). Because this text clearly says, right after stating that the people did not believe on Jesus, has the Isaiah quote ask who has believed God’s report, thereby equating “believing on Jesus” with “believing the report.” These are some facts about faith from John 12:38!