Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 8:46)

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In John 8:46, we find the forty-seventh occurrence of the idea of faith in John’s Gospel. In the text, the Lord Jesus Christ says: “Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?” (KJV). So, as usual, what is the context of this passage, and what are some facts about faith that we can glean from this passage?

First, what is the context? This will be one of those short looks at the context, given how we’re just one verse ahead of our previous post, but we will nevertheless look at the context. Right after Jesus tells these Jews (who were said to have “believed on him” in John 8:30) that they do not believe Him because He tells them the truth, He asks them who among them convicts Him of sin before asking them that, if He says the truth, why do they not believe Him. This is the context of John 8:46!

Second, what are some facts about faith we can learn from this passage? First, as we covered in the previous post, the truth that Jesus came to declare is the content of saving faith, or what is believed in saving faith. Second, we see this passage imply that men are obligated to believe the truth, because the Lord asks these Jews why, if He tells them the truth, they do not believe Him. [1] These are some facts about faith we can glean from John 8:46!

[1] I remember hearing, from Pastor Tim Conway of illbehonest.com (if I remember rightly), that the way we would expect to hear this is that they would believe Jesus, since He is telling them the truth. I forget where he said this though. A note added on December 12, 2023: After rewatching the 2:38-4:12 mark of the late preacher Dave Hunt's sermon "A Call For Reformation", I realized that what he said in that timespan may have influenced my thinking on the statement of Christ's that, because He told these Jews the truth, they did not believe in Him. Like with Mr. Conway, this footnote is NOT an endorsement of Dave Hunt, but only giving credit where it is due. Here is the link to Mr. Hunt's sermon: A Call For Reformation by Dave Hunt (youtube.com)