Identifying a Distinguishing Feature of Salvific Knowledge of God

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In John 17:3, Jesus says that eternal life is knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ, whom the former sent into the world. Related to that, many Christians talk about "knowing God" vs. "knowing about God." John 17:3 is obviously talking about knowing God, which is, also clearly, a salvific knowledge of God.

So, how may we distinguish between knowing God and knowing about God, or a saving knowledge of God and a non-saving knowledge of God? God's Word gives us many evidences of salvation with which we may identify a saving knowledge of God and distinguish it from a non-saving knowledge of God. But, here, I want to focus on, not a mere evidence of salvation, but the means through which Christ's salvation is received: faith in the Gospel. Romans 1:16-17 says: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (KJV). As John 3:16 famously says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (KJV). So, a saving knowledge of God is characterized by belief in Jesus Christ, as He is revealed in the Gospel, as one's own Lord and Savior. In other words, a salvific knowledge of God may be called a "believing knowledge of God," as long as the content of that belief is the content of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which Gospel is communicated by the Holy Spirit via the Bible, the Anthology of the 66 Books of the Old and New Testaments.