John 8:30

As he spoke these things, many believed on him.

Holders of the "faith only" theory of salvation force themselves through all kinds of mental gymnastics in their vain efforts to separate these "believers" from that class of adamant enemies of Jesus with whom they are here identified. Calvin got around it by supposing these "believers" not to have had "genuine faith"; Others suppose a transition of subject matter from the Lord's enemies to another class who believed; but as Hendriksen noted:

No transition of any kind from one group of men to another sharply contrasted group is apparent to the ordinary reader of the Greek text or of the English translation. Thus, it is very difficult to see why the men in John 8:31 would have to be a completely different group from them ... in John 8:30.[5]

For us, there is no problem. Something over and beyond faith in ihe Lord Jesus Christ has always been necessary to salvation; and the "believers" in this verse, having faith only, and being at once exposed as enemies of the Lord, were never saved in any sense. This is not the only such case in John. See John 12:42.