Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 16:30)

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We find the eighty-eighth time “believing” occurs in John’s Gospel in John 16:30. The text says: “Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God” (KJV). As we near our way to the end of this series (and I checked, so I know we are moving closer toward the end), we will continue our tradition of examining the context and attempting to glean facts about faith from this Gospel, of which belief is a vital part.

First, what is the context? Right after Jesus tells His disciples that God the Father Himself loves them, because they have loved Him and have believed that He came out from God, He says that He came forth from the Father and has come into the world, before saying that He leaves the world and goes to the Father. In response, His disciples say that He is now speaking plainly and not in an allegory [1], before declaring that they now are sure that He knows all things and does not need any man to ask Him. By this, the disciples say, they believe that He came forth from God. This is the context of John 16:30!

Second, what are some facts about faith? First, like we covered in the previous post of this series, belief in Jesus includes believing that He came forth from God. Because His disciples here confess this as the content of their faith. Second, belief in Jesus includes belief in His omniscience. Because the disciples plainly state here that it is by the fact that Christ knows all things and does not need any man to ask Him that they believe Him to have come from God. These are some facts about faith from John 16:30!

[1] https://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/16-29.htm