Believe That Jesus Is the Son of God - May 20

Read 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.

Reflect

Why isn’t it enough to simply acknowledge that there is a God? Why must a person place their faith in Jesus in order to be saved?

You have to make a decision about Jesus. Who exactly was He?

Historically, there have been conflicting reports about who He was. Christians say that He is the Son of God, the Incarnation, God in the flesh, the Messiah. But if you don’t believe that, you have to come up with alternative identities for Jesus and try to make them jive with biblical and extra-biblical historical accounts of His life, death, and reported resurrection.

In his must-read classic work, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis addressed who Jesus was with his now-famous trilemma argument. You might know this as “the Liar, Lunatic, or Lord Trilemma”. Lewis explained: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

In today’s verse, the apostle John stated his purpose for writing his Gospel account—to record some of the signs that Jesus performed to prove that Jesus is who He clearly claimed to be—the Son of God. John’s expressed hope is that everyone who reads his Gospel would understand the evidence and put their faith in Jesus for eternal life.

First, he presented the testimony of John the Baptist. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him to be baptized, he declared: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Then, at Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and rested on Jesus as a sign that Jesus was the Son of God (1:32-34).

John also recorded several of Jesus’ miracles that attest to His identity as the Messiah. For example, Jesus changed the water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana (2:1-11), Jesus healed an official’s son (4:46-54), He healed a paralyzed man (5:1-5), He fed the 5,000 (6:5-13), He walked on water (6:16-21), He healed a man who had been blind since birth (9:1-7), and He raised Lazarus after He’d been dead for four days (11:1-44). Jesus’ miracles drew crowds of curious onlookers, but Jesus was not putting on a magic show. He was proving that He is the Son of God. Jesus said, “...For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me” (5:36).

John also recorded Jesus’ own claim that He is united with the Father and equal to God which is why the Jews were trying to kill Him (5:18). He quoted Jesus’ mission statement: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (3:16-17). And finally, John recorded the greatest testimonies to the deity of Jesus: His death, resurrection, and post-resurrection appearances (John 19-21).

You see, after admitting your own sin and need of a Savior, the next step of faith is belief that Jesus is that Savior. Of Himself, Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). That’s why Lewis said that Jesus didn’t leave open the option of Jesus being merely a moral man or a good teacher. Jesus claimed to be God with both His words and His actions, thus, Jesus was either a flat-out liar, a complete lunatic, or He actually is our Lord, the Son of God. What do you think the evidence supports? Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

Respond

Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God. Thank You for showing us so clearly that You are truly our Savior and that by trusting in You, we can have everlasting life. Amen.

Reveal

Do you know someone who hasn’t yet made a decision about who Jesus is? Pray for them and talk to them about it today.