The below is an excerpt from Graeme’s latest book: That They All May Be One
“The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.” John 20:30-31.
Several times we have mentioned these verses as the stated reason John wrote as he did. His aim was to establish a body of evidence that would always encourage the Christians to whom he wrote, and of course us, to continue to believe two life-giving truths. First that Jesus is the Messiah, and second, that he is the Son of God. Faithful Jews believed in a coming Messiah, but for most of them he would be the son of David. What John set out to prove was that only a Messiah who was the Son of God could work the miracles that Jesus did. On several occasions, large numbers of people who saw and heard him attested to the same thing.
On the other hand Jesus primary message was that he was sent by the Gather., and that he was the Father’s dearly loved Son. On the day of his baptism, the voice from heaven affirmed that. Even the demons Jesus cast out of a man said that they knew who Jesus was and called him the Son of God. John the Baptist who clearly announced Jesus as the Messiah probably gave the strongest testimony in the Gospels about who Jesus is. In John 3 he had these things to say about him.
1. He (Jesus has come from above and is greater than anyone else
2. He testifies about what he has seen and heard.
3. He is sent by God.
4. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit.
5. The Father loves the Son and has put everything into his hands.
6. Anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life.
7. Anyone who does not obey the Son will never recieve eternal life.
John makes it abundantly clear why the central belief for Christians will always be that Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, to a virgin mother, was and is the Son of God through whom God created all things.
That God is a triune Being, one God in three persons, will always be a mystery, not easily understood by finite human minds. What we do knoe that from Genesis to Revelation, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are pictured together in unquestioned equality and unlimited love and honour. Their oneness in nature and their co-operation in activity is seen in the creation story of Genesis, in the liberation stories of Exodus, in the settlement stories of Joshua and Judges, in the exile stories of Daniel, the rebuilding stories of Nehemiah, and of course, the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The disciples called him Master, Nicodemus called him Rabbi, the religious leaders referred to him as a teacher, the woman at the well said she thought he might be the Messiah, the Samaritan villagers called him the Saviour of the world, Pilate sarcastically called him the king of the Jews, and John the Baptist said, ”He is sent by God. he speaks Gods words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The father loves his Son and has put everything in his hands.”
Never once in his 33 years on earth, did he cease being the Son of the Father. When he was twelve years old, he called the temple, “my Fathers House.” When he cleansed the temple in John 2, he called the temple my Father’s house.” When he spoke to Nicodemus in chapter 3 he said that “God so loved the world he sent His Son.” In every chapter after that, he refers to being God’s Son, or God being his Father and when at the end of his ministry on earth he commissioned his disciples. In chapter 20, he said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
To read more of Graeme’s writing, check out his library of books today.