That You Would Believe

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. Jn 20:30-31
That you may believe. It’s curious from a human perspective. John writes that we would see through the eyes of the apostles the life and deeds of Jesus. He offers no prayer for the seeker. He doesn’t promise ecstasy or burning sensations to confirm that what he is written is true or not. He merely writes out the book knowing that the Spirit is at work there in and those who read it will either believe or they won’t. More so, he writes it that those who do believe will believe even more, have their faith strengthened and confirmed. The word that he uses doesn’t mean “come to faith”. It’s a word that assumes faith is present and will be strengthened by what is written. We don’t really come to faith anyway. Faith comes to us. It comes to us through the word in which the Holy Spirit works that we would have life in his name, because his name is life itself.