MONDAY 6th
John 20:30-31
NIV – ‘Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’
ESV – ‘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.’
At the end of his Gospel, John lets the reader know why he has written it, ‘that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God’ and as a result of believing the reader will have life in his name.
I cannot think of any better or more necessary reason to write a book than to point people to the Lord Jesus Christ and to bring them to a place of believing in him. I love books, the one thing I am missing most because of our possessions being in storage for such a long time is my books! I cannot wait to get into our house and amongst other things to be able to unpack my books and have access to them again. But of them all whatever the genre of them, the Word of God is the most precious. The world is full of books, there are libraries around the world that contain thousands upon thousands, publishers are publishing them continually on just about any and every subject matter; reference, factual, fiction, instructional, helps, guides etc. Today we can have them in printed or digital form. But of all the books there is one that stands head and shoulders above every other and it is the Word of God, because as we read in Hebrews 4:12 ‘. . . the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’
The Bible is a collection of 66 individual books, and John’s gospel falls within the New Testament and classified as what we would call a gospel account. I personally think that John’s gospel is one of the most significant books contained within the most significant book! And why, because as John himself says it is written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ and in knowing we may have life in his name. The most important thing for any person today is to come to know Jesus and to have life in his name, and what better way to get to know him than by reading the gospel of John.
As we go through the devotions, if anyone is reading them and as yet you do not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, can I encourage you to read through this gospel and allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten you concerning Jesus and your need to know him as Saviour, and for those of us who do know him, may we get to know him better, more intimately, more deeper and in a way that we will be able to talk about him more freely to those who need to know him.