Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 8:31)

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John 8:31 says: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (KJV). It is the forty-fifth occurrence of the idea of faith, or belief, in the Gospel of John. So, as always, what is the context of this passage, as well as the facts about faith in this passage?

First, what is the context? Jesus is speaking to the Jews and, as He does so, many believe on Him. Then, Jesus tells those Jews who are believing in Him that, if they continue in His Word, then they are truly His disciples. Though it is short, this is the context of John 8:31!

Second, what are some truths about faith we can glean from this passage? The first fact we can see here is that true faith in Christ leads the believer to abide [1] in His Word, since abiding in Christ’s Word is what Christ Himself says here is a mark of being a true disciple of His (i.e., a true Christian-cf. Acts 11:26). In other words, the true Christian, in his heart (1 Peter 3:4), lives in Christ’s Word like one lives in a house. A second fact about faith is that faith leads to a salvific knowledge of God’s truth. We see this in verse 32 of chapter 8, where Jesus, right after explaining that mark of a true Christian, tells these believing Jews that, if this characteristic is true of them, they will know the truth, and the truth will make them free. This freedom is liberty from sin, because, two verses later, the Lord explains that whoever commits sin is the slave of sin. This is exactly the truth that, by the Holy Spirit, Paul the apostle expounds on in Romans 6. While this fact doesn’t mean true Christians will be sinless this side of eternity, it means that, when Christians sin, they confess and, in their hearts, turn away from their sins, and thereby live lives of habitual righteousness (1 John 1:5-2:6, 3:1-10). These are some facts about faith we can draw from John 8:31!

[1] https://biblehub.com/greek/3306.htm