I. Introduction

At the beginning of John’s Gospel, we’re told that Jesus came to His own (meaning the Jews), but they didn’t receive Him—that is, believe in Him (John 1:11). What was the nature of their unbelief?

Christians draw the line between belief and disbelief in different places. And the location has changed and developed over the centuries. For example, the early Trinitarian controversies taught us to draw the line between people who affirmed increasingly precise understandings of how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to each other, and how the divine and human relate in Christ. The Reformation taught us to draw the line between Roman Catholics and Protestants, and even between Calvinists and Arminians. The Revivalist tradition in America further taught us to draw the line between people who have the right conversion experience and those who don’t. And in Free Grace circles, the line has been drawn over doctrines such as assurance, eternal security, and truths about the death and resurrection of Christ. We all have theological baggage and assumptions about where to draw the line. And there must be a line drawn somewhere, but where?

In a previous article, I began to answer that question by exploring the confessions of faith in John’s Gospel (see here). We saw that those confessions consistently focused on who Jesus is. John depicts people confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the King of Israel, and other expressions of faith in Jesus’ Messianic identity. It would be natural to conclude, then, that John draws the line between unbelief and belief at that point.

But we want to move slowly before coming to firm conclusions. There’s more evidence to consider. In addition to confessions of faith, John also records statements of doubt and disbelief. What do those statements focus on? Will the evidence confirm or deny our conclusions from John’s confessions of faith?

Here again, let’s be Bereans. As difficult as it is—and I have found this to be very difficult—let’s put aside our assumptions, prejudices, and theological baggage, and read the texts for what they say. Let’s commit to submitting our minds to Scripture, even if, and especially if, Scripture contradicts what we currently believe.

II. John’s Examples of Doubt and Disbelief

After opening with a profound revelation of Christ’s deity, John’s Gospel continues with John the Baptist’s ministry in the wilderness. Given the attention he was receiving, the religious authorities came to him with questions about who he was:

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ” (John 1:19-20).

These are questions about his identity. Was John the Messiah? The Baptist strongly denied it. He was the forerunner of the Messiah, not the Messiah himself. But from that encounter on, the question of “Who is the Messiah?” permeates the Fourth Gospel.

For example, when we encounter Nicodemus, he intends to find out more about who Jesus is. He opens with a statement of Jesus’ identity:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him” (John 3:2).

Nicodemus believed that Jesus was a Rabbi and teacher. Apparently, that does not yet count as being a believer. As the Lord implies in the next verses (vv 3-15), Nicodemus still needed to “believe in Him” to be born from above.

Later, in John 4, when Jesus speaks to the woman in Samaria, the entire conversation illustrates someone working through Jesus’ identity until coming to believe that He is the Messiah. She starts off thinking Jesus was merely an odd Jewish man. But the more she talks to Him, the more she wonders who He really is:

“You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You…?” (John 4:12).

At this point in the conversation, she is thinking through Jesus’ identity and considering the different options. When she later says she perceives Jesus is “a prophet” (John 4:19), she still hasn’t come to faith in the Johannine sense. But then her mind turns towards the coming Messiah:

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us” (John 4:25).

Since Jesus’ statements suggest the woman had not fulfilled the condition to receive the living water, we can conclude that simply believing that a Messiah was coming does not count as saving faith. But she’s close. When Jesus finally reveals that He is the Christ, she goes running to her village and asks the question:

“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” (John 4:29).

Is this man the Christ? Although her question appears to express some uncertainty about Jesus’ identity, I take it as a rhetorical question. She came to believe in Jesus, but she’s inviting her fellow villagers to decide for themselves if He is the Messiah. In any case, this is clearly an invitation to discover something about Jesus’ identity, a truth the villagers don’t yet believe. Of course, the Samaritans come to confess that Jesus is “the Savior of the world.”

After Jesus heals the man at the Pool of Siloam, the religious leaders ask:

 “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” (John 5:12).

Who is the man? An identity question. When the Jews discover that Jesus was responsible for the healing, they not only disbelieve His identity claims, but also want to kill Him for making them:

For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:18).

Their unbelief lies in their denial of Jesus’ identity (in this case, His divine identity). They wanted to kill Him for making those identity claims.

Later, John depicts the different reactions in the crowds over who Jesus is:

They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” (John 6:42)

The crowds knew Jesus’ family and considered Him to be a normal man. They didn’t believe Him when He claimed to be the bread from heaven.

Instead of simmering down, the controversy about who Jesus is only intensified. John focuses on the variety of opinions expressed by the crowds:

There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray” (John 7:12).

Conflicting claims swirled about Jesus’ identity.

Some among the crowd not only didn’t believe He was the Messiah, but they thought He was demon-possessed!

The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?” (John 7:20).

Their unbelief consisted in attributing to Him a false identity.

Again and again, when John records people’s doubts about Jesus, the doubt focuses on who they think Jesus is:

So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? Look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they? However, we know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where He is from” (John 7:25-27).

Apparently, these people didn’t believe Jesus was the Christ because they knew where He was from, and they had inherited a tradition that no one would know where the Messiah was from. Therefore, Jesus couldn’t be the Messiah.

The fact that Jesus came from Galilee proved to be a stumbling block for other people to believe He was the Messiah:

Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?” (John 7:41).

Clearly, their doubts centered on His identity.

Some stubbornly refused to believe what Jesus claimed about Himself:

So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true” (John 8:13).

The Jews’ disbelief is expressed in terms of labeling Him with a false identity as a demonized Samaritan, certainly not the Messiah:

The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (John 8:48).

Jesus claimed to be greater than Abraham, leading the people to question who exactly He was claiming to be:

“Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” (John 8:53)

What identity is Jesus claiming for Himself? That’s the issue. Not whether someone has believed in Jesus “for” the right benefit or are assured of their eternal security. Those questions are not raised by the statements of disbelief at all.

Some of the Pharisees denied that Jesus came from God:

Some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath” (John 9:16).

Instead, they identified Him as a sinner:

So a second time they called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner” (John 9:24).

Their unbelief is expressed in terms of attributing a false identity to Him.

But even that late in Jesus’ ministry, other people were simply undecided or skeptical about where Jesus was “from”:

“We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from” (John 9:29).

They were unsure about Jesus’ identity.

Again and again, John depicts the nature of unbelief as being unsure of Jesus’ Messianic identity or denying it outright:

“He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” (John 10:20).

All through John’s Gospel, the key question is whether Jesus is the Christ, and what people believe about that:

The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly” (John 10:24).

Some were unsure of who Jesus was, while others definitely rejected what Jesus implied about His (in this case, divine) identity:

The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God” (John 10:33).

They thought His identity claims amounted to blasphemy! Clearly, they strongly disbelieved them.

Still, others were merely doubtful or were undecided about who Jesus is:

The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” (John 12:34).

Who is this Son of Man? That’s the question. That’s where John draws the line.

In the end, the Lord’s persecutors were motivated to kill Him due to His identity claims, which they rejected:

The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God” (John 19:7)

Forgive me for being repetitive, but I hope you see the point that John was getting across to his readers.

III. Conclusion

Where does John draw the line between unbelief and belief? The evidence from the expressions of doubt and disbelief in John’s Gospel is clear. John depicts unbelief as uncertainty, confusion, or denial of Jesus’ Messianic identity.

That was not the conclusion that I was expecting. That is not where I was taught to draw the line. That may not be where you have drawn the line. I trust that honest readers will concede that John doesn’t focus on the issues we would debate today. He does not depict unbelievers as those who have believed in Jesus for the “wrong” benefit, lack assurance, are ignorant of eternal security, have a mistaken view of baptism, or repentance, or the hypostatic union, or who have missed out on some essential stage of the conversion experience. As much as we have inherited theological traditions that urge those questions upon us, John doesn’t address them. Instead, he clearly and consistently portrays unbelievers as those who either doubt or deny that Jesus is the Messiah. It’s as simple as that.

That conclusion is perfectly consistent with the previous study that John’s examples of faith consistently depict people confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man, etc.

Where, exactly, does John draw the boundary between faith and unbelief? His narratives of confession and his reports of doubt ultimately converge on the same point: the decisive line is whether a person believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

There are still a few more studies that I need to do to grasp John’s teaching on this topic. I expect the most important one will be on the many ways that John presents the condition of salvation. In all these studies, I’m deliberately trying not to fall into “apologetics mode,” where I become more concerned with defending a favorite teacher or tradition rather than discovering what Scripture teaches, no matter what. I guarantee you that I am asking the same questions and raising the same objections in my head that you must be. I wish John answered questions that arose later in Christian history, but it appears he did not. And it’s more important to hear what he does teach than to force him to answer questions he has not addressed. By God’s grace, let’s keep studying God’s word with a humble and teachable spirit.

Read the other blogs in this Rethinking John series:
https://freegrace.in/is-believe-in-jesus-for-eternal-life-the-saving-message/
https://freegrace.in/is-johns-gospel-exclusively-evangelistic/
https://freegrace.in/all-that-jesus-gives-the-benefits-of-salvation-in-john/
https://freegrace.in/when-does-someone-become-a-believer-in-johns-gospel-the-evidence-of-the-confessions/
https://freegrace.in/who-counts-as-an-unbeliever-statements-of-doubt-and-unbelief-in-johns-gospel/

________________________________________________

Shawn Lazar (DPT, McMaster Divinity College) is the pastor of Gateway United Baptist Church in Denton, TX. Purchase his book One-Point Preaching here and his latest book Once Saved Always Saved? here.