Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 5:46-47)

Image Credit: Media from Wix

In John 5:46-47, the Lord Jesus Christ says: “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”(KJV). Here, we have another cluster of times the idea of “believing” occurs, where the concept occurs four times. So, John 5:46-47 contains the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, and twenty-eighth uses of “believe” and its cognates here. As always, we’ll do an examination of the immediate context of this passage (and the context is brief here), and then we’ll see what Biblical facts about faith we can glean from here!

As His discourse with these unbelieving Jews wraps up, the Lord indicates that they are unable to believe in Him because they seek honor from one another instead of the honor that only comes from God (which we covered in our previous post, concerning John 5:44). After rhetorically asking them how they can believe, given this fact, He tells them not to think that He will accuse them to the Father, since there is one who accuses them, namely Moses, in whom they trust. Jesus then explains that, if they had believed Moses, they would believe Him, because Moses wrote of Him. And then He asks them another rhetorical question, and it is on this question that His discourse here, as far as the Gospel records for us, ends: if they do not believe Moses’s writings, how will they believe His words? This is the context of John 5:46-47!

Now, we’ll examine each use of “believe” here to see what we can learn about faith from each verse! In the first use, Christ talks about what would happen if these unbelieving Jews believed Moses. There is an insight here that I do not recall, up to now, anyone pointing out. That insight is this: these Jews “trust” in Moses, but they do not “believe” Him. Why is this, especially since we so often equate trust and belief? Indeed, there is even Biblical precedent for such an assumption, one example being Psalm 78:22, which parallels “believing not in God” with “trusting not in His salvation.” So, what’s going on here? Well, for one thing, the word translated “trust” here in John 5:45 can be translated “hope,” meaning “to expect.” [1] Faith and hope are indeed related, but they are distinct (1 Corinthians 13:13; cf. Hebrews 11:1). So, what’s the difference? Well, let’s allow God’s Word to speak for itself: in Hebrews 11:1, faith is called the “substance of things HOPED for.” So, faith appears to be the CONTENT that is trusted, while hope is the confident expectation that that trust breeds. But it is apparently possible to expect but not believe God. I think we’ll find the answer to how that works as we consider the last usage of “believing” in this passage, which we will get to soon. Anyway, let’s move on to the second usage of “believing” in this passage! And it’s in this same sentence, wherein Christ says that, if the unbelieving Jews He is talking to believed Moses, they would believe Him. It is this second “believe” that we are now looking at! Here, we learn that, if one truly believes what Moses says, that person will also believe Christ, since Moses spoke about Him before God the Father sent Him into the world. And the same is true vice versa. Because, although one may hear of Christ before hearing of the Old Testament, once that person realizes that Christ gives His own Word that the Old Testament Scriptures are the Word of God, that person will believe the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Now, for the third usage! Christ indicates that these Jews do not believe Moses’s writings. The parallel between John 5:46 and John 5:47 shows that “believing Moses” is the same thing as “believing his [Moses’s] writings.” A brief note before going on: Moses wrote the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of both the Old Testament and the Bible as a whole. So, Jesus is saying that, if these Jews don’t believe the Pentateuch, how will they believe what He says. Now, this is the main point I take away from this passage: to believe someone is to believe their words. Or, to define “believe” without using the word “believe,” it is taking someone at their word. Acts 27:25 confirms this (and I HIGHLY encourage you to read it and think deeply on it)! Indeed, “taking God at His Word” is a definition of faith that is, first and foremost, Biblical, and, secondly, succinct and helpful, especially helpful of clarifying how faith is a focus on God, and not anything in the believer himself. So, to believe Moses’s words is to take Moses at his word. In reality, it is actually taking God at His Word (this Word being the Pentateuch, in this context), since God is the ultimate Author of all Scripture (2 Timothy 3:15-17)! And we get additional confirmation in the fourth, and final, usage of “believing” in this passage: where Jesus concludes by rhetorically asking these Jews that, if they do not believe Moses’s writings, how will they believe HIS words? Again, given the parallel between verse 46 and verse 47, we see that to believe Jesus is to believe His words, or take Him at His words. While so much can be said here, I’ll bring up this one thing to conclude, because I think it will suffice: the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ may be defined as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, because, again, Jesus makes it clear that believing Him means believing His words. Second, Acts 16:30-31 tells us that what we must do to be saved is to believe on [2] the Lord Jesus Christ. Third, Romans 1:16 says that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for every one who believes. So, since God’s Word tells us 1) that we are saved if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 2) that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes (that is, believes the Gospel-Mark 1:14-15) and 3) that believing Christ means believing His words, or taking Him at His Word, then it appears we may legitimately define the Gospel as the words of Jesus, which words are recorded in the Scriptures, both in the four Gospels and in all the other Books that comprise the New Testament, with the Old Testament being the shadow and the New Testament being the substance. And the response to Christ and His Gospel that saves is this: to repent (i.e., change one’s mind, [3] apparently from all that keeps one’s heart and mind from taking God at His Word) and believing the Gospel (again, Mark 1:14-15). These are just some things we can learn about faith from John 5:46-47!

[1] https://biblehub.com/greek/1679.htm [2] While some might nitpick by trying to posit a distinction between “believing Christ” and “believing on Christ,” we’ll see, Lord willing, later in this series why such a distinction is unbiblical, and therefore artificial. [3] https://biblehub.com/greek/3340.htm