I’m one of those people who must see it to believe it. A skeptic, I guess that’s what you’d call me. Tell me something I’ve never heard of before or something that seems unlikely, and chances are I will have to verify it myself. I want to know the how, when, why, where, and once I know, I might believe. Skepticism has caused tension in some of my most important relationships. You tell me something, and instead of immediately accepting it as true, I Google it. I can’t help myself. I must verify it. I look up the how, when, why, and where and if I find evidence, I believe. It is for people like me that John wrote his Gospel.
The Book of John is all about believing. John, an eyewitness to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and one of the twelve disciples, said that he wrote the Book so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31). Throughout his Gospel, he sets out powerful reasons why we should believe Jesus.
But before we begin, let’s define believe. Dictionary.com says this about “believe”:
This definition sounds about right. John wrote the Gospel so that we would believe in the truth, the existence, and the reliability of Jesus: who He is, what He said, and what He did.
“to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so: Only if one believes in something can one act purposefully.”
Here, we will touch on three reasons we should believe in Jesus.
Believe So You Will Have Eternal Life
That’s the big one. Living forever in Heaven with God. No more tears, death, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:4). All possible for those who believe. One of the most famous Bible verses, and probably the first verse most of us memorize, is John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 is all that we need. But John didn’t stop there. John didn’t even begin there. Before that, in verse 3:14, he says “that whoever believes in him [Jesus] may have eternal life.”
Then John keeps going. He tells the story of a woman at the well who met Jesus and received a different kind of water than she came for, a living water. Jesus told her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14
Throughout the Gospel, John continues to remind us to believe so that we may have eternal life (John 5:24, 6:27, 6:40, 6:47, 6:51, 6:54, 11:25).
Believe So You Will Be God’s Child
When you receive Jesus, you are born again into God’s family. You get the right to be a child of God (John 1:11), and with this right comes all the benefits of having God as your Father.
- You have access to God and His spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3, 7,8) and gifts (1st Corinthians 12).
- You have God’s protection (Psalm 91)
- You have God’s peace (John 16:33).
- You have God’s provision (Matthew 6:25-34)
When you become God’s child, He sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in you, a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance in heaven (Ephesians 1:14). HEAVEN, y’all.
There is more, though! As children of God, we are the brothers and sisters of Christ (Hebrews 2:11, Romans 8:29, Mark 3:34). Jesus is my brother. Wow. I don’t know about you, but having God as my Father and Jesus as my brother is reason enough to believe!
Believe So That You Will Have Life In His Name
This sounds a bit like reason number one, doesn’t it? Believe so that you may have eternal life. It is, but it is not. This life in His name is not just our future eternal life but our here and now life!
You see, the Greek word for life is zoe which not only means physical and spiritual life but “the absolute fullness of life, life real and genuine. Wow! Jesus came not only so I can live my eternity in Heaven with Him BUT so that I might have a full life right now on earth. I don’t have to wait for His peace. I don’t have to wait for His protection. I don’t have to wait for His provision. All these things are available to me here and now! That is GOOD NEWS.
John gives us so many more reasons we should believe. He also says, we should believe so we won’t be condemned (John 3:17), so that the Word abides in us (John 5:38), so that we will never thirst (John 7:38), so that we don’t die in our sins (John 8:24), so that we see the glory of God (John 11:40), so that we don’t remain in darkness (John 12:46), and so that we can do even greater works than Jesus did (John 12:46).
See what I mean. John is quite convincing, especially to a skeptic like me. John was an eyewitness to Jesus, and He gives many convincing proofs of why we should believe. Although my skepticism kept me from believing the Gospel for too long, I am happy to say that when I need proof now, all I have to do is turn to the living Word of God. That is enough for me. I BELIEVE.
