I’m always thankful when a writer tells me his or her purpose for writing.
For example, the Apostle John told us why he wrote the fourth gospel:
“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
John wrote this book so that the reader would believe that Jesus is who He said He is: the Christ (the Messiah promised in the Old Testament), and the Son of God (i.e., God the Son).
Furthermore, John wrote this book so that the reader can have, through faith in Jesus, life – eternal life!
Only by believing in Jesus as Messiah and God can anyone have life – spiritual life. This is a key component of the gospel message that Jesus gave His disciples to take to all peoples of the world.
Because we are all born in sin, we come into the world as the living dead – physically alive but spiritually dead. But thanks be to God, He sent His Son into the world so that “whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
This is reason to get excited. This is reason to wake up in the morning.
If you are a believer in Jesus, you have life. You are no longer a living corpse, and you will not end up in the lake of fire with the devil and his thugs. Jesus said so:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).
This is a recurring theme in John’s gospel: God offers eternal life to all through faith in His Son.
Let repetition continue to be our teacher today:
“Whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (3:15)
“Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (3:16)
“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God” (3:18)
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day” (John 6:40)
“Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (7:38)
“Jesus said to her (Martha), I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (11:25-26)
“Jesus said to him (Thomas), Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (20:29)
So when we come to the end of John’s account, we should not be surprised when he tells us that the purpose of his book is for us to believe in Jesus unto eternal life. In fact, the word “believe” occurs 98 times in the book of John. And the word “life” appears 36 times.
This begs the question, What does it mean to “believe” in Jesus?
Do you believe in Jesus? If so, what does that entail? How would you define and describe “faith in Christ”? How would you explain it to someone?
Let me know your thoughts on this by leaving a comment below.
- The Infinite Greatness of Jesus - February 22, 2026
- The Love of Jesus on Display - February 15, 2026
- Why Did John Write the Book of John? - February 8, 2026
