Written So That You May Believe

As John wraps up his Gospel, twice he mentions that he could have written more about the life of Jesus:

“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” (20:30-31).  “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.  Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (21:25).

What to make of these editorial remarks?  At least two things:

• You don’t need to know everything.  In Scripture the Lord has given sufficient revelation for us to encounter the living Christ, recognize his glory, confess our sin, and turn and trust in him for life—true, eternal life in his all-satisfying presence!  In fact, the expectation that we should know more and we should have all our questions answered and we should know what Jesus would say and do in every circumstance … is unbecoming of humble, fallen creatures like us.  It’s pride in us that get’s hung up on, “But what if… what about… and then…?” Better to focus on what God has spoken rather than to speculate about the unknown.
• Scripture is the road to believing, to faith.  The Lord was not content just to give us “general revelation,” i.e., evidence of his existence conveyed through creation and conscience (cf. Rom­ans 1:19-20; Psalm 19:1).  Nor did he wish to communi­cate just by dreams and visions, or merely through the oral transmis­sion of a long-remembered story.  It was urgent to God that his saving revela­tion should be written down for us.  True doc­trine is preserved, and faith is generated, through God’s Word (so too Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”). If your faith is wavering, the way back to joy in Jesus involves con­sistent, quality time in Scripture (both privately and corporately).  After all, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

God has spoken.  And he’s said enough.  Are you paying attention?