Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 6:47)

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John 6:47 is the thirty-fourth time the idea of faith occurs in the Gospel of John. It reads, with Jesus saying: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (KJV). So, what is the context of this passage, and what can we learn about faith from this passage?

First, let’s examine the context! Christ has just said, in verse 40 of chapter 6, that the will of God the Father is 1) that He would lose none of what the Father has given Him but raise it up on the last day and 2) that all who see the Son and believe in Him would have eternal life and be raised by Him on the last day. After that, this group of Jews, who are following Him because of His miracle of multiplying the loaves and fishes, murmur at Him because of His saying that He is the Bread which came down from heaven. They then ask if the One talking to them isn’t Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother they know. They then ask how it is that He is saying that He came down from heaven. Therefore, Jesus answers them and tells them to not murmur among themselves, before telling them that no man can come to Him, except the Father, who has sent Him, draws the man, and He [Jesus] will raise him up at the last day. Christ then says that it is written in the prophets: “And they shall be all taught of God.” The Lord then asserts that, therefore, every man who has heard and has learned from the Father comes to Him. Christ clarifies though by saying that it’s not that any man has seen the Father, except He who is of God, who has indeed seen the Father. Jesus then strongly assures these Jews that he who believes on Him has eternal life. This is the context of John 6:47!

Second, let’s see what we can learn about faith! One thing, which was alluded to in the context-analysis paragraph, is that Jesus is EMPHATIC about the fact that the person who believes in Him has eternal life. Jesus introduces this truth by saying “Verily, verily” or “Truly, truly.” [1] The Lord does not say “Truly” once here, but twice. In Hebrew culture in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, people emphasized things by repeating them, similar to how we emphasize things today by putting them in bold, all-caps, etc. [2] So, to wrap up, not the whole post so far but just this one point, I’ll repeat that Jesus is emphatic about the truth that whoever believes on Him possesses eternal life. A second thing is that saving faith in Christ keeps believing Christ, not departing from Him (see also Colossians 1:21-23). The verb “believeth” in John 6:47 is in the present participle, meaning that the faith here is continuous and repeated. [3] This is why those teach error who teach that saving faith in Christ is faith that believes Him for a temporary period but then gives way to permanent unbelief. And 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 further proves this as a fact about saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, because Paul there says that the Corinthian Christians are saved by the Gospel if they hold fast [4] to what he preached to them, unless they have believed in vain. A third thing, which we have previously noted here, is that saving faith in Christ does not only guarantee that believers will have eternal life in the future, although there is that future sense of eternal life for believers (Matthew 19:29). No, but believers have eternal life RIGHT NOW, since Jesus here says that the only who believes (again, present tense) on Him has (not “will have”) eternal life. If you believe in Jesus, you have life. If you do not believe in Him, you lack life (cf. 1 John 5:12). These are some things about faith we can glean from John 6:47!

[1] https://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/6-47.htm [2] https://illbehonest.com/the-holiness-of-god-paul-washer [3] Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible: Key Insights Into God’s Word (KJV), Second Revised Edition; Executive Editor Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bibles: Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D.; Managing Editor, KJV edition: Warren Baker, D.R.E.; Publisher: AMG Publishers; Town: Chattanooga, TN; Pg. Numbers: 1326, 1584, 1588. [4] Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible: Key Insights Into God’s Word (KJV), Second Revised Edition; Executive Editor Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bibles: Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D.; Managing Editor, KJV edition: Warren Baker, D.R.E.; Publisher: AMG Publishers; Town: Chattanooga, TN; Pg. Number: 1439