Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 6:40)

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John 6:40 is the thirty-third time where the idea of “believing” occurs in the Gospel of John. In it, the Lord Jesus Christ says: “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (KJV). So, as always, we will learn 1) what the immediate context of this passage is and 2) what we can learn about faith from this passage.

First, what is the context of John 6:40? In verses 35-36, Jesus says that He is the Bread of life, and that the one who comes to Him will never hunger, and that the one who believes on Him will never thirst. However, He said to the multitude before Him that they have seen Him and believe not. He then says that all whom the Father gives Him will come to Him, and that the one who comes to Him He will, in no way, cast out. Because, He goes on to explain, He came down from Heaven not to do His own will, but instead the will of the One who sent Him. And He describes what the will of the Father, who sent Him, is: that, of all that the Father gave Him, He would lose none of it, but would instead raise it up again on the last day. And He further elaborates on the will of the One who sent Him: that every one who sees the Son and believes on Him would have everlasting life, and He will raise him [i.e., the believer] up at the last day. This is the context of John 6:40!

Second, what can we learn about faith from John 6:40? One thing we learn is that one must be acquainted with Christ before he can trust in Him. This is seen when the text describes the saved person as the person who “sees” and then “believes” on the Son. In other words, one must “see” Christ before he can “believe” on Him. We find this same idea in Romans 10:14, where the apostle Paul rhetorically asks how people will believe in Christ if they have not heard of Him. And it is here where we happen upon the question: how does one “see” Christ, since He is not physically on the earth today? The answer is the Bible, the Word of God. In the same way we “see” or “hear” someone when we receive a letter from that person, so we see and hear Christ, God the Son (John 5:17-18), when we see and hear Him in the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:15-17). A second thing we learn about faith is that it is a sign that God the Father has given the believer to Christ. In verse 39, Jesus says that the will of God the Father, for which the Father sent Him to accomplish, is that He will lose nothing that the Father has given Him but instead raise it up on the last day. Verse 40 parallels verse 39, because Jesus says, in verse 40, that the will of the One who sent Him is that every person who sees Him and believes in Him would have everlasting life, and that Christ would raise him up on the last day. So, if you believe in Christ, it is the sure sign that God the Father has given you to His Son, who will raise you up on the last day to eternal life (Daniel 12:2). A third thing we learn about faith is what it means to “look to Christ.” Faith in Christ has rightly been described as “looking to Christ,” on the basis of passages like Numbers 21:4-9; Isaiah 45:22; and John 3:14-16. The idea of “looking to Christ” is implied in John 6:40 where Christ talks about the believer as one who “sees” Him. But it is not only “seeing” Christ, but believing Him, or trusting Him (Psalm 78:22). That is what it means to look to Christ: to see Him (with the eyes of the heart-Ephesians 1:18) and trust Him in your heart (Romans 10:10). These are three things we can learn about faith from John 6:40!