If a new Christian ever asks, “What’s the first book I should read?” my answer would almost always be the Gospel According to John.
Why?
John is raw and to the point, introducing the deity of Christ in a direct, undeniable way. It explains, both in poetic and historical form, the origins of Christendom and why we hold the beliefs we do. But even more astonishing is how fluid the Gospel According to John is.
This is the Gospel that contains Jesus’ direct connection to the Father, His theological statements about Himself, and His divine nature.
If you truly believe in the Scripture, then John, no doubt, paints a picture of Christ as both God and man. However, despite its easily digested theological statements, John has a far more Hellenistic approach to the life of Christ. This means, if I’m being honest, modern-day readers would appreciate the depth of study and philosophy that John presents in his account of the Gospel.
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The Other Gospel
If you’ve read through the Gospels, you’ll automatically realize that John is not like the others.
The first three Gospels are what we call the synoptic Gospels—that is, they are synchronized in their accounts of Christ and work together to paint a picture of who Jesus was during His time on Earth.
John approaches his Gospel differently. He doesn’t tell the story of who Jesus was while he was on earth. Instead, John tells the story of who Jesus is, making his account of the Gospel so different. It wasn’t geared toward a Jewish audience. It was geared toward philosophically minded individuals who were more interested in Christ’s deification.
Who is Christ, According to John
I’ve always asked, “Who is Christ?”
Who is this Yeshua, this Jesus that we speak of, that we revere? For a while, these questions plagued my mind. I understood who He was and his mission in a spiritual sense. I understood His character and His role, but I didn’t quite understand who He was.
Then, I had a dream. It was through this dream that I realized some truths about Christ that I would like to share with you. This dream has highlighted to me what John understood about his Rabbi.
Key Takeaways
There are a few key takeaways I want you to get while we go through the Gospel of John. John’s story doesn’t simply focus on the deification of Christ as we know it. It focuses on God the Son and His unique relationship with humanity. The Gospel of John is the Gospel of love. So, I want to truly highlight those key points as we carry on through this book.
Key Takeaway #1
Christ wants to save us. It is apparent in the name given to Mary—Yeshua means ‘YAH delivers’, but we don’t always understand what that actually means.
A person who means to protect us and save us wants to guard us from harm. They want to truly ensure that we are out of danger’s way. So, a savior such as Christ seeks to ensure that humankind is out of harm’s way. Christ is primarily concerned with our spiritual being, ensuring that our souls and spirits are protected.
Knowing that, at the beginning, our ancestors were deceived, dooming the rest of humanity, Christ knew He needed to do something to ensure our souls would not be damaged or destroyed.
Even as we walk on our individual journeys, He sees our paths and knows where each leads. His intention is to guide us back on the right track, to prevent us from taking a journey that will end in our demise. Knowing that our end leads to total death, He seeks to save us from that sort of finality. He wants to save us from death. To prove that He has power over death—even of physical death, He came as a human to die and rise again.
Key Takeaway #2
Christ cares about the smallest things. Even circumstances that seem insignificant to us are of concern to Him. He also cares about the things we care about—even if we think He doesn’t.
He cares about who we are, what we’re interested in, and the little quirks and characters that make up our personality. He wants us to have the best possible life. However, having the best possible life doesn’t always seem immediate, especially when, in this world, we have to suffer.
Because of this, He ensures that we understand what causes our suffering and gives us the guarantee of the Holy Spirit to guide us through it. He suffered the things we suffered. He understands what pain feels like and how it impacts each of us. Because of this, He can relate to us as God who overcame these pains.
Key Takeaway #3
Christ’s laws are there to establish safety and fairness. His governance is not set to limit our freedom, but instead, to free us from the bondage of hurt, pain, suffering, and evil. His laws are meant to protect us and keep us safe. His laws guide us to love each other and to love God.
He wants to ensure that we are whole—that’s where the word holy comes from. We cannot be whole without also being spiritually whole, which is why to complete this circuit of holiness, we must have the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel of Jesus’ Deity
If we’re going to start anywhere, we first have to make what I like to call a ‘thesis’ statement. Think of John as the thesis statement of the New Covenant between God and man. There is something both symbolic and literal about this book that allows it to easily be digested by even the most amateur in the faith.
However, it still provides an incredible amount of space to think, theorize, and question your own philosophy.
John combines Greek philosophy with Roman mythology, and, with all its allegories, you can certainly understand Christ from a unique perspective specific to John’s audience.
John is also an entertaining read. Not only does he unfold the drama surrounding Jesus in first-century Judea, but he also adds his personal quips, making each sentence relatable to how we feel today.
He had a bond with Christ that was more personal than the other disciples, as in Jesus’ final moments, He entrusted His mother’s well-being to John’s care.
More so than that, John is the only disciple with a true eyewitness account of Jesus’ death and resurrection, as he was present on the day Christ was crucified and was the first disciple to discover the empty tomb.
Until Next Time…
Want to do a deep-dive into the Gospels? Follow my mini-study series, The Gospel According to John, right here on The Ravyn Blogs. Sign up to get all your questions answered as you Grow with God.
Signed,
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