Key word: “Believe”
The Gospel of John was written some 30 years after the Synoptics, in 90 A.D. By this time new questions and challenges to the person and work of Jesus Christ had arisen, and John writes to address these. As a matter of fact, everything John writes is for the purpose of convincing the reader that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing they will receive life in His name.
John’s gospel, while covering much of the same territory, is also very unique from the Synoptics: for example, John skips over the birth of Jesus narrative but adds Jesus’ first year of public ministry In Judea, that the others skip. Two outstanding features of John should be mentioned. First, it is far more theologically concerned than the others. It opens with a heavy discussion of Jesus being the Word, or the Logos. John also records the seven “I ams” of Christ: He says I am: the Door, the Light, the Bread of Life, Good Shepherd, the Way, Truth, Life, True Vine. In chapters 14-16, Jesus gives the most comprehensive teaching on the Holy Spirit found anywhere in Scripture.
Secondly, John is more evangelistic than other Gospels. Not only does John claim the whole point of the book is to lead us to believe in Christ and find true life (20:30-31), but we are given some of the best accounts of Jesus evangelizing in all the Bible. His conversation with Nicodemus in chapter 3 says that he must be born again to find eternal life. And his discussion with the Samaritan woman is a masterful example of how to witness, as found in chapter 4. Therefore, our key word must be “believe,” for Jesus said over and over again that the human response to the gift of Salvation is to believe. It is summarized perfectly in 1:12.
Key verse: John 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.
