The Lord and the Faith Which Receives Him (John 20:31a)

 (John 6:22-35)
When the people sought Jesus after He had fed the multitude He said to them, “Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled” (v. 26).
Jesus did not rebuke the people for seeking for a sign, but rather He said to them, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life” (v. 27). When they asked, “What shall we do?” (v. 28), He replied, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (v. 29).
So then they said, “What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee?” (v. 30), using as an example the bread of manna which was given to their fathers in the wilderness. Instead of rebuking them for asking for a sign in order that they might see and believe, Jesus gave them a sign. It was the sign of the “true bread from heaven…, he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world” (vv. 32, 33).

When the Jews specifically asked the Lord for a sign to document His authority for “doing these things” He pointed directly to the resurrection. “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What SIGN shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up… When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said” (John 2:18-22).

a. Intransitive
      Thayer says, “To think to be true: to be persuaded of; to credit, place confidence in.”
       (1). Universally – “the thing believed being evident from the preceding context” (Mt. 24:23; Mk. 13:21; I Co. 11:18).

       (2) Specially – “in a moral and religious reference, PISTEUEIN is used in the New Testament of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of his soul:
           (a). absolutely, to trust in Jesus or in God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something (Mt. 8:18, Mk. 5:36);
           (b). of the credence given God’s messengers & their words.
           (c). used especially of the faith by which a man embraces Jesus, i.e., A CONVICTION, FULL OF JOYFUL TRUST, THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH – THE DIVINELY APPOINTED AUTHOR OF ETERNAL SALVATION IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD, CONJOINED WITH  OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST” (Thayer, pp. 511-512).

b. Transitively
      “To entrust a thing to one, i.e., to his fidelity (Lk. 16:11; Jn. 2:24). Passively, to be entrusted with a thing” (Rom. 3:2).

 PISTEUO is used to simply acknowledge that God exists. “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19).
       However, this acknowledgement of God must also be joined with trust. “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not” (Jude 5).
      With this trust in God we then are to trust His promises. “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). This is further explained by Paul.

      Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all; (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though there were.
      Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be (Romans 4:16-18).

Thayer says, “PISTEUO is applied also to the faith by which one is persuaded that Jesus was raised from the dead, inasmuch as by that fact God declared him to be His Son and the Messiah.”
      For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

      But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

      For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10:4-13).

      John 11:14, 15 – “Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.”
      John 13:18, 19 – “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am (he).”
      John 14:28, 29 – “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.”
      John 19:34, 35 – “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.”

 John 20:31, 31 – “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”