Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 6:30)

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The thirtieth time “believing” occurs in the Gospel of John is John 6:30. The text reads: “They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?” (KJV). So, as we have done before in this series, we will ask and answer the questions: 1) what is the context of this passage and 2) what can we learn about faith from this passage?

So, what is the context of John 6:30? This time, since our text is literally one verse after the previous text we covered, the context will be short, but it is necessary to cover the context nonetheless. Jesus has told the multitude before Him (who are seeking Him because they liked that He provided them bread) that they should not labor for the food that perishes, but instead for the food that endures to everlasting life, which He, as the Son of Man, will give them, because He has been sealed by God the Father. The multitude then, essentially, asks Him what they can do to work for this food. Jesus’s answer is to believe on Him, the One whom God has sent. Then, the multitude asks Him what sign He will show them so that they may see and believe Him (and there’s the idea of “believing”). They clarify their request for a sign by asking Him what work He will do. This is the context of John 6:30!

Now, what can we learn about faith from John 6:30? While this point that I will bring up may seem like hair-splitting, I think it would be helpful to bring it up, since it appears to be a point of confusion among some Bible teachers. Some Bible teachers like to draw distinctions between “believing,” believing in,” “believing on,” etc. They think that adding pronouns to “believing” modifies the meaning of “believing.” However, on the basis of John 6:30, we can legitimately conclude that there is no difference between “believing on Christ” and “believing Christ.” How so? In verse 29, right before our text, Christ tells this multitude that the one “work” they have to do to find eternal life is “believe on” Him. In verse 30, the multitude responds by asking Him what sign He will perform so they will see and “believe Him.” The ideas of “believe on Christ” and “believe Christ” are synonymous, given the parallel between verses 29 and 30. So, one thing we learn about faith is that there is no difference between “believing Christ” and “believing on Christ.” A second thing we learn about faith is, as I have learned from various Bible teachers, that miracles do not necessarily produce faith in those who observe them. This multitude that is talking with Jesus had not only see Him multiply the loaves and fish, so that they had enough (indeed, more than enough) to eat, but they literally ate the fruits of His extraordinary work. And, after all that, they require Him to perform another sign for Him to be worthy of their trust. As Dr. Bruce Meyer, my Gospel of John teacher who was at Maranatha Baptist University at the time, said: what sign will you perform so that we may believe You? How about multiplying a miniscule amount of food to be more than enough to satisfy your hunger? Another thing we see about faith here, and this is yet another insight God has providentially taught me through various Bible teachers, is this: one can believe in Jesus as the Messiah but not really believe He is the Messiah, because such “believers” have a false idea of what the Messiah is. Remember this Gospel’s thesis statement: the signs in it (and we may reasonably assume everything else in the Gospel) is written so that we (the readers) may believe that Jesus is the Christ (that is, the Messiah), the Son of God, and, believing, possess life in His Name (John 20:30-31). And, as we’ll learn as we go through ch.6, the Holy Spirit is illustrating for us, through real-life examples, what superficial faith in Christ looks like. Back in John 6:14, after the multitude ate the loaves and fish, they recognize that Jesus is the Prophet (one of His Messianic roles) who should come into the world and attempt to force Him into being their King. Christ, however, perceiving their intentions, departs from them (verse 15). In other words, these people believed He was the Messiah, but they believed the Messiah would fulfill their own, carnal desires. So, they did not really believe Jesus was the Christ, in the sense of John 20:31 or 1 John 5:1 talks about. Because yes, Jesus is the Messiah, but the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, describes who the Christ is and what the Christ does. A major takeaway from this insight is this: if we are to truly believe on Jesus, we must trust Him to be the Messiah that SCRIPTURE says He is, not what our hearts say the Messiah must be, or what God must be (Jesus is both God and Messiah, but I’m sure you will understand what I mean). These are some points about faith that we can glean from John 6:30!