Belief in the Gospel of John

Believe. The prophet John testified about the light “so that through him all might believe” (John 1:7); Jesus “gave the right to become children of God” “to those who believed in his name” (v. 12). In Chapter three, we see a similar use of “believe”: “whoever believes in [Jesus] shall ... have eternal life” (v. 16), “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (v. 18).
Believe as John uses it is different from what most of us mean when we use that word. We think of belief as a simple thought process, but for John it’s in essence an action word. You don’t just have a faith, you put it in something that is worth believing in then you live like you really believe.
In these two passages, we see what is worth believing in – the Word, the One and Only Son. This belief also has a result – “to become children of God” and to “have eternal life,” to not be condemned.
This is important to us because one of the primary purposes of John’s gospel was “... that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
Belief is used many times in the Gospel of John, almost three times as often in all the other three gospels combined. John tells us why people believed; what they believed in; about their disbelief; and the results of their belief (or disbelief).
In my next blog, I'll start exploring these areas. In the meantime, why don't you see what you can discover for yourself?