The opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ has been rising like a crescendo. It is soon about to burst upon Him and His disciples. John’s Gospel portrays Jesus as the Son of God. The reason for this is because John desires to provoke (in one sense) his readers to deep faith and belief in Jesus as very God of very God. John’s Gospel rotates around the 7 “I am” sayings of our Lord (John 6:35, 48; 8:12; 9:5; 10:7, 9, 11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1 – 5. Compare these with 4:25, 26; 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19; 18:5, 6, 8). In these references, Jesus says that He is the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life, and the True Vine. He is also the same as the “I AM” of the Old Testament Scriptures.

John also includes 7 signs that point specifically to the divine character of our Lord. These are changing the water into wine (2:1 – 10), healing the nobleman’s son (4:46 – 54), healing the paralyzed man (5:1 – 9), feeding the 5,000 (6:1 – 14), walking on the water (6:15 – 21), healing the blind man (9: 1 – 41), and raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1 – 44). In each of these miracles, our Lord points to the fact that He is indeed God.

John also tells us why he wrote his Gospel in John 20:30, 31, “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.” [Read more…]