What saves, Faith or Believing?
Now that we have read through the Gospels, some interesting questions come up. This last week I was asked, "What is the difference between ‘faith' and ‘believe' as they are used in the Gospels?" This came up because the Gospel of John never uses the word "faith" but states in 20:31, "but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."
The other Gospels frequently use the term faith, as Jesus comments on his disciples "little faith" or a Centurion's faith, yet John doesn't use it at all. John was written later, and apparently in response to misperceptions about Jesus in the developing Church. John stresses that Jesus is and always was God, not just a man, or a man that God favored. He is the God-man. Then he explains His purpose statement above, and it implies that some of his readers (in the church) had not yet come to believe in the Divine nature of Jesus.
I didn't have a ready answer about the difference between the terms, but we should all understand it. The first thing noticed in the Greek is that both terms have a root to the concept of "trust." Then the obvious hit me: "faith" is a noun meaning trust. In the other Gospels Jesus comments on the trust that people have (or don't have) in Him. "Believe" is a verb, an action that must be taken. It is a decision to trust.
When the scriptural Gospel reveals to us the true biblical person of Jesus, and His sacrifice on our behalf, we must have a reaction to that. People have different reactions: some dismiss it, choosing not to believe. Some consider it and are interested, and seek more information. Some accept God's word and choose to believe. The "believing" that results in salvation is not a tentative, "sounds good to me" reaction. It is a one time, irrevocable decision to trust only in the person and work of Jesus, God the Son.
That action of believing gives the unshakable faith that we must have. Remember, in Genesis 15 it says first that "Then he believed in the Lord" and the resulting faith (or trust) was then the basis on which Abraham was considered righteous. The decisive act of believing always precedes true faith.
So after presenting this purpose, John proceeds to show us the example of Peter, and How Jesus brought him from someone trying to trust, to one who made the decision to trust. John 21 shows the disciples at the lake in Galilee, waiting for Jesus as the women from the grave had told them to do. It appears that at this time they don't know what to expect. This is where Jesus found them, where they had been commercial fishermen. They travelled with Him, expecting Him to bring about the promised Kingdom in Israel. Instead He told them that He was going somewhere that they could not follow, then He died, was resurrected, and told Mary that He would ascend to the Father.
Peter suddenly said he was going fishing, and they proceeded to do commercial-style fishing again. I think this indicates that Peter believed it was time to go back to his previous life, that since Jesus was "going back" to His Father, it was time for them to go back to their lives.
When they recognized Jesus from their boat, Peter's actions seem to make no sense. He was stripped for work, but he put on his cloak before "throwing himself into the sea." If he was excited and about to swim to Jesus, why encumber himself first? But the text isn't clear that he swam to Jesus. It contrasts that the other disciples "came" to land.
Perhaps Peter saw his returning to fishing for fish (rather than for men) as another failure on his part. Perhaps covering his "work uniform" was a reaction like Adam and Eve trying to hide their sin. Perhaps weighting himself with clothing he was "throwing himself" to the sea either to hide on the other side of the boat, or to dramatically end it all there. In any case, when Jesus asked for some of their fish, Peter came "up" from the lake dragging the net of fish.
After breakfast Jesus addressed Peter as "Simon, son of John" - which was how Peter was known in his earlier life as a fisherman. He asked him "Do you love (agape) me...?" Agape is a love of the will; a decisive, irrevocable, one-time decision to love until death. Peter did not answer that he had made that decision. So John shows Jesus repeating the question, demonstrating that there is still the opportunity, and the requirement to do so.
John felt that his readers needed to make a similar decisive, irrevocable, one-time decision to believe, to place their trust in God the Son. So after presenting his Gospel revealing God the Son, he first explains what they must do, then presents this story showing what believing looks like. He says not to be what Simon was: someone wanting to follow but not fully trusting, but to be what Peter would become: someone for whom there was no going back, who would suffer and die for his belief in Jesus.
John's readers needed to make that decision. Do you?