Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 3:12)

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The seventh time the idea of “believing” occurs in the Gospel of John is John 3:12, which says: “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (KJV). So, 1) what is the context of this passage and 2) what can we learn about faith (that is, belief) from this passage?

Right after John 2:23-25, where we hear about many “believers” whom Jesus did not commit Himself to (or, to put it another way, He did not believe in) because He knew what was in them, we heard about a man named Nicodemus, whom the Holy Spirit tells us in the text is “of the Pharisees” and “a ruler of the Jews.” This Nicodemus comes to Jesus during the night and, addressing Him as “Rabbi,” tells Him that they know that He is a Teacher from God, because no man can do the miracles He is doing unless God is with Him. But who is the “they” (the text says “we” in John 3:2) Nicodemus is talking about here? Well, this is a group who is seeing the miracles that Jesus is performing and consequently concluding that He is from God. And it’s obvious, given his use of “we,” that Nicodemus is including himself in this group. But what miracles? Well, when is the last time we heard about Jesus doing miracles? In John 2:23! So, since the last time we heard about people seeing Jesus’s miracles is John 2:23-25, it appears that the group Nicodemus is referring to, and in which he includes himself by saying “we,” are the “believers” who are explicitly said to believe in Christ’s Name when they see His miracles. And we also see the content of Nicodemus’s, and these other “believers’, faith: that Jesus is a Teacher sent by God. Again, we must keep in mind the Gospel’s thesis statement: so that the readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ (or, Messiah), the Son of God, and that, believing, the readers may have life in His Name (John 20:30-31). We know therefore from John 20:30-31 that this kind of faith is saving faith. And it is apparently not the faith that Nicodemus and these other “believers” had in Christ, because the Lord responds to Nicodemus’s confession by saying that, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus asks Him how a man can be born when he is old, followed by a question about if a man can enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born. Jesus responds by slightly rephrasing His previous statement, saying that, unless man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Christ goes on to say that that which is born of the flesh is flesh, while that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. He then tells Nicodemus not to marvel that He told him that he must be born again. He then reminds him of how the wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you can’t tell where it comes from and where it goes, and that it is the same way with every man who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus asks Him how these things can be. Christ answers by asking him if he is a master (or, instructor [1]) of Israel and doesn’t know these things. He goes on to tell Nicodemus that they say what they know and testify of what they have seen, but Nicodemus does not receive their testimony. Like when Nicodemus talked about “we,” who is the “we” that Jesus is talking about in John 3:11? Using the same approach we did to answer the previous question, how does Jesus characterize this group? They are people who 1) say what they know and 2) testify to what they have seen, and 3) Nicodemus receives not their testimony, or the things they testify to. Like Nicodemus with his group, the Lord includes Himself in this group. In John 12:49, Jesus says that He does not speak from Himself, but the Father, who sent Him, commanded Him to say what He said. Since Jesus, along with the rest in this group, testified to what they have seen, and since Jesus spoke only what the Father told Him to say, no more and no less, then this group includes both God the Father and God the Son. John 16:13 tells us that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, would guide the apostles into all truth and that He would not speak from Himself. In John 18:37 tells us what Christ testified to: the truth. So, the group that Jesus is referring to in John 3:11 includes the Trinity, and all the three Divine Persons who fully, co-eternally, and co-equally possess the Divine Nature (that is, all that which makes God God). However, Christians can be included in this group too, because 1) they know Jesus’s testimony and confess what they know, 2) testify to what they have seen (through the eyes of faith-Hebrews 11:13), and 3) Nicodemus, at least at this point in Scripture, received not the testimony that Christians hold to. So, this group is the Triune God of the Bible, under Him being all His true worshippers, who trust, love, and obey Him [2]. Moving on then, Christ elaborates by asking Nicodemus that, if He has told him earthly things and Nicodemus believes not (there's our word: "believes"), how will Nicodemus believe if Christ tells him heavenly things? A last thing to note about the group Jesus was referring to with “we”: that Jesus equates this group’s testimony with “heavenly things” is a proof that the “we” is the Trinity (with believers being included in this group only by their God-given faith-Philippians 1:29).

Now, to what we’re primarily concerned with here: what we can learn about faith from John 3:12. In verse 11, Jesus says that Nicodemus “doesn’t receive” His testimony. In verse 12, He specifies what it means for Nicodemus to “not receive” His witness: he “believes not” the “things” Jesus says. Nicodemus isn’t believing “earthly things” Jesus is saying, so why would he believe “heavenly things” that Christ would say? So, to believe means to “receive” what Jesus says. The converse is also true: to “believe” is to “receive” what Jesus said. It also means “receiving” Jesus in His entire Person, as John 1:11-13 says. So, to sum up what we’ve learned about faith here: belief is “receiving” the things that Jesus says.

[1] https://biblehub.com/greek/1320.htm

[2] I think I heard the idea that the "we" here is, if not the entire Trinity, at least the Father and the Son. I think I also heard the opinion that the "we" here is Jesus and His followers. Whether I heard a commentator say that it's both or not, I don't know, but I hope my exegesis is right here.