Articles
Reading John
Reading John
"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30–31)
- Signs – visible indications that are the basis of faith.
- Jesus is THE CHRIST (Messiah, promised one of the OT)
- Jesus is the Son of God
- Life is only found in connection with Jesus
- Believing
The very purpose of John’s writing this book is to convince people of who Jesus is. John chose his material and organized it to that purpose rather than give us a chronological biography. Some have noted that John only writes about 20 days in the life of Jesus, and only a few incidents of those days.
Out of all the many miracles / power works that Jesus did, John picks out 7 of them (8 if you count the resurrection!). These he calls ‘signs’ indicating that such works signified something. Such miracles were such powerful acts that people who saw them marveled and stood in awe. They recognized that such could not happen UNLESS God had intervened in the affairs of mankind. They recognized that ‘no one could do these unless God be with Him’ (John 3:2). Thus, they concluded from such signs that Jesus was ‘of God’ and that God was validating and vindicating the life and claims of Jesus.
In particular, such miraculous sign-acts were the foundation that allowed one to believe that Jesus was the Son of God. While we use this term to indicate relationship, the Jewish vocabulary used the phrase ‘son of’ to indicate character. The Jews of His day understood this to be a claim of being equal to God. That is in fact exactly what Jesus was indicating! [note in particular John 5:18, 10:33, 19:7 and the statement of Thomas in 20:28].
John writes to instruct us on the true meaning of life. He uses the word life nearly 50 times in this book. He often adds the word ‘eternal’ to this. Such ‘life’ is more than existence as it speaks of the quality of such existence. Such life is to exist in the presence of God. While all exist, many are spiritually dead while they are physically alive. Those that have come to know Jesus are alive unto Him and such will continue throughout eternity. "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
John writes this in order that people (you and me!) would believe. We not only believe ‘that’ - meaning that there are historical facts about Jesus - but we believe ‘IN’. This carries a deeper concept of trust and faith. Being the Son of God who died and was raised, He is able and willing to save us. We trust Him. When he instructs us, we trust Him. When obeying Him becomes dangerous, we trust Him. When obedience brings martyrdom, we trust Him. John mostly uses the present tense of this verb to indicate the ongoing and continuing nature of such trust. It is not a ‘once-and-done’ concept.
I am looking forward to our weeks of reading John together. I pray that in your reading your faith will become strong and vibrant.
Hugh DeLong
