John 6

Chapter 6. Faith in the Gospel of JohnThis is one of the keynotes of the gospel as stated by the author himself. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). The Touchstone

1. We see it in the very beginning of the gospel, as the touchstone that separates between His friends and foes and divides all men into two great irreconcilable classes. Of the one it is said, “his own did not receive him” (John 1:11), of the other, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Faith lifts us into the very family of God and becomes the gate of heaven, and unbelief excludes even the chosen people from any share in their inheritance. The First Disciples
2. We see the faith of the first disciples resting on the message of John the Baptist, and afterwards on the personal testimony of individual disciples. Andrew and John believe on the word of their master, the Baptist; Simon believes on the testimony of Andrew, and Philip and Nathaniel believe on the direct words of Jesus Himself. The First Miracle
3. We see next the still bolder faith of His disciples in His divine character in consequence of His first miracle and the manifestation of His glory. “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him” (John 2:11). The Effect of His Miracles
4. We see the faith of the common people of Jerusalem in consequence of His supernatural works at the feast (John 2:23). Jesus however, perceived the shallowness of a faith that merely rested upon the evidence of miracles. Therefore He did not place any permanent dependence upon these people, for He knew what was in man. We see the same kind of faith in Nicodemus himself when he first came to Jesus and was faithfully taught the necessity of a deeper life than that of mere intellectual conviction. Saving Faith
5. The Lord Jesus unfolds the deeper meaning of faith in His conversation with Nicodemus as the condition of everlasting life, through which we receive Christ and spiritual life through Him. Here faith is presented with the most solemn emphasis as the sole and imperative condition of salvation, and unbelief as the cause of condemnation and eternal ruin (John 3:15, John 3:18). The Result of Knowledge
6. We see the faith of the Samaritans, founded upon their own personal acquaintance with the Lord and His heart-searching revelation of their souls, and His own grace and love (John 4:29, John 4:41-42). The woman of Samaria believed because she felt in her inmost soul that He had searched her heart and was no other than her Lord and Maker, and therefore abundantly able to become her Savior. Her neighbors gave their own independent testimony. They, too, had believed Him, not through her word merely, but through their own personal acquaintance with Him. True faith must ever rest upon our own knowledge of the Savior and be able to say, “now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). Faith in His Word
7. We see the faith of the nobleman of Capernaum, resting on the naked word of Christ (John 4:48-50). Jesus had felt that much of the faith hitherto manifested had been based only on His miraculous power. He therefore determined to lead this soul to the higher place of naked faith in His own simple word. Therefore He refuses any sign and complains that the people are abusing His very miracles by resting on them rather than on His word. Then, testing this man’s faith by a bold promise, He bids him go forth without any other token of His child’s healing than His own simple word. The man rises to meet his test and dares to believe the simple promise of the Savior, and he goes his way to find it literally fulfilled, teaching us through all time, the simplicity of faith and the instantaneous results which it will ever bring. Claiming Eternal Life
8. Faith delivers from condemnation and claims eternal life (John 5:24). This mighty word has power to cancel the very curse of the law, to turn back the fiery sword of judgment, and to open the portals of immortal life to the soul that dares to claim it. Hindrances to Faith
9. These, He shows them, are mainly a spirit of worldliness and a subserviency to the opinions of men (John 5:44). This is fatal ever to true faith in God, and indeed any unholy condition must always be fatal to true faith. In a previous verse He intimates that their own willfulness was the cause of their rejecting Him. “You refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40). Living by Faith
10. Faith receives Jesus as the Bread of Life for our souls and bodies (John 6:35). Not only does faith secure our future salvation, but it enters into the fullness of Jesus for our present needs. This the Galileans could not and would not receive; and this, today, is equally incomprehensible and offensive to the majority of professing Christians. A life of faith upon the Son of God, and the habit of trustful dependence upon Him for the nourishment of our spirits and the health of our bodies is regarded as the foolishness of mysticism and sentimentalism; but to those who thus know Him, it is the very balm of life, the bane of care and sorrow and the secret of the Most High. Faith Testifying
11. Faith testifies to Christ (John 6:68-69). As we have already seen, this testimony was called forth by the withdrawal of the great majority of Christ’s Galilean followers. Peter and his brethren did not yet fully understand all that the Master’s profound teachings had meant, but they believed and received as far as they could, and their own experience in its true form, expresses more than one beautiful truth, “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:69). These are the two stages of faith: first we believe, and then we know by actual consciousness and heart-satisfying experience the truth of these precious promises. Receiving the Holy Spirit
12. Faith brings us into the fullness of the Spirit (John 7:38). We have already referred to this promise of the overflowing fullness of the Holy Spirit. Here it is connected with believing. Thus only can we ever receive the Holy Spirit. We must expect to accept Him, trust Him, and treat Him as having fully come. Moses was commanded to speak to the rock and it would flow forth, but not to strike it in any doubt or uncertainty; so, still, the whisper of trust ever brings the fullness of blessing. The Life of Faith
13. It is a life of believing and continuing (John 7:30-32). Here we find the Lord encouraging the disciples who had taken the first steps of faith, to continue in His word and pass on into all the fullness of spiritual freedom and conscious experience of the truth. So faith must ever be rooted and grounded and built up in Him, for “we have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first” (Hebrews 3:14). The Blind Man
14. We have in the story of the blind man (John 9:5-38) a beautiful example of the beginning of faith. This man had followed all the light he had, and had fully confessed it as he received it. Healed by the Lord, he had briefly and constantly borne witness to Him in the face of persecution, until at last he had been excommunicated from the synagogue for Christ’s sake. Then the Lord met him and led him into fuller light, as He ever does the soul that uses all the light it has. And as the new light came, he accepted it without reserve, believing and worshiping his Lord. He became a monument of that simplicity which has often put to shame the pride and unbelief of the world’s boasted wisdom. The Faith of Martha
15. We have here a very remarkable example of faith. Martha’s heart had sunk when she saw her brother die and the Master fail to come, and for a moment she reproached Him with the neglect; but then there rises in her heart a sudden gleam of hopeful expectation that even yet it is not too late for His almighty power to remedy the disaster. “I know,” she says, “that even now God will give you whatever you ask” (John 11:22). This was undoubtedly a literal intimation that even Lazarus could be raised from the dead. The Lord encourages it and reveals Himself as the One who possesses in Himself all the powers of resurrection life, and more than hints His consent to her amazing request, “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). For a little while Martha does what we all do at such times, she drops down her faith a little and slips it forward into the future. “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). Jesus meets her retort by holding her to the present moment and to His own sufficiency. “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), He replies. Poor Martha does not quite meet the issue with definite present assurance, but she rolls her burden over upon Him and rests in Himself as the Almighty Son of God and the promised Messiah. “Yes, Lord… I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world” (John 11:27). He must have read in her words a deeper faith than she expressed, and He evidently felt it essential that she should stand fast in this faith. This is one of the conditions of the miracle that He is about to perform, for He adds a little later, when she expressed concern and doubt about removing the stone because Lazarus was so long buried, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). Therefore the resurrection of Lazarus was, in some measure, connected with the faith of Martha. But there was a mightier faith than Martha’s. He is still the faith as well as the power in all His works of omnipotence through His trusting children. How calm and lofty is the confidence of that marvelous prayer, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me…” (John 11:41-42). So, still, He waits to work and believe in us. The Faith of Mary
16. Next we see the faith of Mary (John 12:3-7). This, at first, looks like an act of love, but deeper than love was the root of faith from which it sprang. This is revealed in the seventh verse by the testimony of Jesus concerning her. It was because she knew that He was about to die as her suffering Savior, that Mary had kept this costly ointment, and now she comes with hands of loving faith to set Him apart for the altar of sacrifice, with an intelligent appreciation of His character and work which perhaps no other of His disciples in any such measure shared. So, still, the faith which best understands the cross of Calvary will most effectually work by love, and lay the richest and costliest offerings at His feet. Timid Believers
17. We also see a faith that fears to confess Jesus (John 12:42-43). In contrast with Mary we see here another kind of faith which has plenty of counterparts in the Church today; a faith which has no doubt of Christ’s divinity and Messiahship, but dares to go only as far as is consistent with worldly interest and reputation, for it loves the praise of men more than the praise of God. Jesus challenges all such cowardly hearts to the bar of God, and appeals to the hour when they shall stand in the judgment and find that to have confessed Jesus amid reproach and shame was to have stood for God and won His acknowledgment when all other faces shall be covered and one smile from Him will be worth a thousand worlds. Believe Also in Me
18. We see faith in Jesus Himself as a divine person, equal with the Father, and as the very expression and image of the Father (John 14:1, John 14:10-11). The Lord Jesus seeks here to link their faith in Him with all that had been sacred in their conceptions of God, and to assume to Himself as the object of their confidence, all the majesty and fullness of all previous revelations of the Father. “Trust in God; trust also in me” (John 14:1). What a softened light this sheds upon the name of God and the glory of His majesty, and what a majesty it sheds upon the name of Jesus. They had learned to trust His love, they must now add to this the conception of His transcendent, infinite power and Godhead.. So our faith in Him must recognize His divine glory. Faith and Power
19. Faith in Christ is the secret power for our Christian work (John 14:12). Not only must they believe in His union with the Father, but they must likewise believe as fully in their union with Him. The works they are to do are not to be their works, but His works in them. And as He is now entering upon a high stage of His mediatorial work, they must expect to be the channels and instruments of even greater power than they have yet witnessed, even in His ministry. But the vital link of this power must ever be a living faith, a faith that receives Him constantly to work His own works in them, and dares to expect Him to do even greater works than in the days of His flesh. Do we thus believe in Him, does He thus work in us, are our works His work, and does He work the greater works in our lives? Faith and Prayer
20. Faith is the condition of effectual prayer (John 15:7-16, John 15:23-27). Faith is expressed in these passages by abiding in Him and asking in His name, that is, His very character, as if He Himself were asking. This is true faith, to identify ourselves with Jesus and pray with His rights and claims. Such prayer will ever be in accordance with His will and must prevail. Faith in the Risen Savior
21. The first to believe in the resurrection was John (John 20:8-16). The beauty of his faith was that it was immediate, implicit and without waiting for visible evidence other than what God had already given. He saw and believed. He saw not yet the Lord, but he saw enough to rest his faith upon and to recall to his mind the previous words of his Master which he, with the others, had forgotten. No doubt, his faith now rested on the recollection of the simple promise which Jesus had made before His death, and which he refers to in the next verse. Mary’s faith was different—it was the result of a personal manifestation of Christ, inspired by His own living voice; and thus, in both these cases, faith rested on the Savior’s words. Thomas
22. We see the unbelief of Thomas and the lesson it teaches us of the highest faith (John 20:29). The other disciples all believed on the testimony of those who had seen the Lord. Thomas refused to be satisfied with less than a complete series of tests. He was a regular materialist, and wanted signs and evidences to rest his faith upon. The Lord condescended to give him what he demanded; but when it came, there came also the higher witness of Christ’s own presence, and His searching revelation of Thomas’ unbelieving heart, so that he did not now need the visible sign, but threw himself at the Master’s feet, exclaiming in the language of irresistible conviction and unconditional submission, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Jesus takes occasion from this to teach the great truth which He had hinted at in the beginning of the gospel, in connection with the healing of the nobleman’s son, that the true resting place of faith is not material signs, but the word of Jesus Himself. He pronounced the lasting benediction which it is possible for every one of us to obtain. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Faith in the Word
23. We see faith resting on the written Word. It is the record which the Holy Spirit has written—“these are written that you may believe” (John 20:31). This is the great truth which John unfolds so simply in his epistle: We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God… Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar… And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son…. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:9-11, 1 John 5:13) By believing the record, therefore, which God has given of His Son, we know that we have eternal life. And then we receive the second witness in ourselves, His Holy Spirit, and the peace and joy He brings into the believing soul. Development of Faith It is interesting to trace the development of faith and unbelief in the Gospel of John, on the part of His friends on the one side, and His adversaries on the other. In the first four chapters we trace the gradual development of faith. First we have the inquiries the priests and Levites made of John the Baptist (John 1:19), showing considerable interest. Next we see the open adherence of some of John’s disciples, as they leave him to follow Jesus (John 1:37). Next we find Philip and Nathaniel, two typical Galileans, joining the little band of new disciples (John 1:43-49). In the second chapter the manifestation of Jesus becomes more marked and the faith of His disciples more pronounced. “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him” (John 2:11). From Galilee the scene is changed to Jerusalem, and there we see the steady development of faith in Him. First, we see it among many of the common people (John 2:23). Next, we see it in the spirit of earnest inquiry in Nicodemus (chapter 3). And then we see it in the wide extension of His Judean ministry in the country, where many became His disciples. And His ministry grows larger and wider even than John’s (John 4:1-2). The development still goes on, removing from Judea to Samaria, where we see the remarkable faith of the Samaritans, and finally culminates in the strong faith of the royal official of Capernaum (John 4:45-54). Development of Unbelief We now come to the second series in this development, namely, the manifestation of unbelief on the part of His enemies in connection with the healing of the invalid man (chapter 5); and its issue is summed up in the Lord’s words, “you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40). In the sixth chapter, the conflict changes to Galilee and speedily terminates in the close of that chapter by His rejection, on the part of the Galileans, on account of His deeper spiritual teachings and His refusal to enter into their ambitious project—to establish an earthly kingdom (John 6:66). The Galilean contest is now over, and the scene again changes to Jerusalem in the seventh and eighth chapters. We have His disputations with them at the Feast of Tabernacles, ending in their attempt to stone Him (John 8:59). The next conflict is at the Feast of Dedication three months later, and it is closed with a similar attempt (John 10:39) and his retirement to Perea. His Glory Manifested and Believed The series closes with His supreme manifestation of His power and glory in the resurrection of Lazarus, and the final and determined plot of the entire Sanhedrin to destroy Him, which led soon after to His crucifixion. Each of these stages of unbelief and hostility on the part of His enemies is characterized by corresponding faith on the part of His friends. Over against their rejection in chapter 5 is the faith of the invalid man at Bethesda’s pool. In contrast with the rejection of the Galileans is the confession of Peter and the disciples (John 6:68-69). The unbelief of the rulers at the Feast of Tabernacles is met and confounded by the faith of the poor blind beggar (chapter 9), and the mad and reckless opposition aroused by the resurrection of Lazarus stands out in bolder relief from the faith and love of Mary and Martha (John 12:9-11) and the enthusiasm of the common people (chapter 12) as they publicly hail Him as the Son of David and the King of Jerusalem. The final stage in this process of development of faith, we see in the closing chapter of John on the part of His disciples. Their perplexities and questionings come out most truthfully in the discourses at the table (John 13:36; John 14:6, John 14:8, John 14:22; John 16:18). They enter into clearer light as He closes His address. “Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God” (John 16:30). Then comes the dark shadow of Peter’s fall (John 18:27), followed and counterbalanced by the devotion of John and the brave women who still lingered around the cross (John 19:25-26), also the courage of Nicodemus and Joseph (John 19:38-40). With the morning of the resurrection comes the faith of John himself (John 20:8), the joyful recognition of Mary (John 20:16), the confession of Thomas (John 20:28) and the restoration of Peter (John 21:15, John 21:19)—all summed up by the final testimony of John himself, as the foundation of our unfaltering faith through the coming generations.