The Gospel According to John: Jesus as the Son of God

A painting by Salvador Dali, The Sacrament of the Last Supper, shows Jesus and his disciples seated at a table celebrating the last supper they would enjoy before the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. The difference between this painting and many others of Jesus is that the Jesus portrayed by Dali is not a solid, human being, but a transparent being; not an earthly being, but an almost mystical being.

In some ways, Dali's painting symbolizes the Jesus portrayed in the Gospel according to John. In three previous Associated Content articles, I have discussed the different ways that the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) present Jesus. Now we come to John. Putting all four Gospels together, we see Jesus presented in the following ways:

Matthew presents Jesus as a King
Mark presents Jesus as a Servant
Luke presents Jesus as the Perfect, Compassionate Man
John presents Jesus as the Son of God

John's Different World. When we come to John, we enter a different world. John takes us back to the beginning, the very beginning: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." (John 1:1-2, New International Version) It soon becomes clear that the Word is Christ, and not only was he with God, he is God.

Even though John does not ignore the human Jesus and the Jesus who knows the very human needs around him, it is clear that John's Jesus operates on a divine level and is aware of his divine nature in a way that we do not see in the other three Gospels.

The Relation of John to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. As I wrote in my article on the Gospel according to Luke, the first three Gospels are known as the Synoptic Gospels (from the Greek word which means "to see together") because they have much material in common. By contrast, according to J. Sidlow Baxter, in his wonderful Explore the Book, much of what John includes in his Gospel is omitted by the other three while, at the same time, helping us better to understand what is in the Synoptic Gospels.

The Miracles in John. Since John presents Jesus as the Son of God, we might expect John's Gospels to be overflowing with miracles performed by Jesus. John with eight, however, has considerably fewer miracles than the other three. According to Baxter, the common theme in the eight is transformation, with the purpose of showing that Jesus can transform the human condition. The eight miracles are:

The turning of water into wine (John 2)
The healing of the nobleman's son (John 4)
The curing of the Bethesda paralytic (John 5)
The feeding of the five thousand (John 6)
The walking over the sea of Galilee (John 6)
The giving of sight to the blind man (John 9)
The raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11)
The miraculous catch of fish (John 21)

The Discourses in John. A distinctive of the Gospel according to John is the long speeches or discourses that Jesus gives in connection with some of the miracles, as though to drive home a spiritual point in connection with a physical miracle. For example, after feeding the five thousand people, Jesus talks about himself being the bread of life.

The Purpose of John's Gospel. John leaves no doubt about why he wrote his Gospel. He tells the reader in John 20:30-31: "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (New International Version) This, of course, is not only John's ultimate purpose; it is the purpose of the Bible as a whole.

Source:

J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1960), 293.