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.
Do you know someone that’s complained that there’s not enough evidence for him/her to believe in God? Well, John 20:31 is the answer and, in point of glorious fact, the whole reason for the gospel of John in the first place. It’s rare that a book would state its purpose near or at the end but John does that. He says that the goal and end of his gospel is that the reader will come to know Jesus Christ as Lord. That’s the point of the whole thing.
This makes John an extended apologetic, doesn’t it? Perhaps you hadn’t thought about that. Perhaps the idea of defending the faith had slipped past you but that’s the way of Scripture for the simple reason that we are, in sin, constantly in the process of neglecting the obvious. Christians ought to be the greatest realists, seeing things as they truly are but instead, quite sadly, we’re lost in our own little worlds. And it’s in these little villages of self-exile that the enemy of faith would like us to stay. But let us leave them. Let us take the simple road out of those towns of unbelief, those man-made cardboard fortresses upon an uneven hill, with gates that say, “materialism” or “atheism” or “humanism”. The road out is a humble one, paved over by the gospel replete with humble signs that say “take up and read” and roaming guides along the way that you’ll find tending to some business or another. They’ll tell you of Jesus Christ who died for your sin. The Enemy, as we said, will try and bring you back; he’ll block your way with greed and lust, or cares and worries. He’ll do it all but he can never carry a man or woman, nor boy or girl, off by force.
The real thing that blocks a man or woman is simply the pride that refuses to believe and the arrogance that rejects the obvious proof God has provided. Yes, the proofs are easy enough to see. Let’s look at them.
Why is there life or anything at all? John starts off with the explanation. John 1:1-4 answers this central and elemental question. God is eternal and Jesus is God and all things were made by God.
Why is there death and evil? John 3:20 tells us that sin is man’s killer and that man loves his sin, doesn’t want it exposed nor let go of if, so he won’t come to God. Man is morally insane. Everywhere he runs from death, which is the consequence of sin, but he will not lay down that sin. He will not come to God. No earthly philosophy even bothers to explain these most elemental aspects of life. Why are we here? Where did we come from? Why do we die? Why is there evil?
There have been great philosophical minds that have wrestled with the so-called problem of evil as if it’s some great mystery even though John shows the plain truth. There is death and evil because man has rejected the light. God isn’t impotent to solve evil – He sent Jesus Christ to be the propitiation for our sin but people who won’t come to Him as they “loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil” (3:19). The great conundrum isn’t actually the fact of evil. Man’s problem with evil is that he refuses to admit that his own deeds are evil. Sinners discussing the philosophical issues of evil without reference to Christ, pretending it’s all a great mystery, are like cats wondering why the mice keep dying. John 3:36 says “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Romans 1:18 alerts us to the fact that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness in what? In man! Evil isn’t an abstraction as we’d like to think. We’d like to think it’s events and things that happen externally to us. That’s why we puzzle over it. But evil is man’s insistence on going his own way and refusing God and wishing, for all intents and purposes, that God is dead. “Leave me alone!” He shouts. Then, when the consequences of sin are realized, he rages against the Lord (Proverbs 19:3). Man’s rebellion against God is evil; it fractures the peace of righteousness. God has given man a way back to that original state of peace, before there was enmity, before there was death, but man would rather have their sin than Jesus Christ. The consequences of this decision are felt unevenly throughout one’s life but, make no mistake, these encounters with evil are signs of wrath surely sent to warn us. Turn back! Run to Christ while today is still the day of grace and mercy. But sin causes man to embrace the worst kind of foolishness and then blame the consequences on God.
Indeed, there’s a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death (Proverbs 14:12).
God’s answer to this is Jesus Christ. It isn’t a seven-fold path, or a new lease on life, or a Cross Fit membership, a yoga class, a new rock-hard set of abs and a cheerful outlook, or any other ridiculous and vain thing. Nothing saves a man or woman from sin except Jesus Christ. That’s the message of John and the signs of Jesus (the miracles) are His proof of Deity. Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection (Romans 1:4). John lays down the gauntlet. He says, “if a man hasn’t come back from the dead, he has no right to speak of righteousness and peace.”
Likewise, John’s gospel provides the answer to man’s problems. Watch how politicians are always busy with some new policy. Corporations are always charging ahead with a new goal to achieve. There’s always a plan. There’s always a scheme. All of it, be sure, are man’s attempt to scale the walls of heaven, to achieve paradise without righteousness. But every attempt is blocked by the cross just as for Adam and Eve the way back to Eden was blocked by that war angel and the flaming sword. John’s message is clear: Jesus is the Way and all other paths are self-delusions.
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