2. It Is a Gospel of Testimony. John writes to prove that Jesus is the Christ. He assumes the attitude of a lawyer before a jury and introduces testimony until he fells certain of his case and then closes the testimony with the assurance that much more could be offered if it seemed necessary. There are seven lines of testimony. (1) The testimony of John the Baptist. (2) The testimony of certain other individuals. (3) The testimony of Jesus' works. (4) The testimony of Jesus himself (see the I am's). (5) The testimony of the scripture. (6) The testimony of the Father. (7) The testimony of the Holy Spirit.
3. It Is of Gospel of Belief. The purpose being to produce belief there are given: numerous examples of belief, showing the growth of faith; the secret of faith, such as hearing or receiving the word; the results of faith, such as eternal life, freedom, peace, power, etc.
4. It Is a Spiritual Gospel. It represents the deeper mediations of John, which are shaped so as to establish a great doctrine which, instead of history, became his great impulse. To John "history is doctrine" and he reviews it in the light of its spiritual interpretation. It furnished a great bulwark against the Gnostic teachers, who had come to deny the diety of Jesus. He also emphasized and elaborated the humanity of Jesus. His whole purpose is "not so much the historic record of the facts as the development of their inmost meaning."
5. It Is a Gospel of Symbolism. John was a mystic and delighted in mystic symbols. The whole book speaks in the language of symbols. The mystic numbers three and seven prevail throughout the book not only in the things and sayings recorded but in the arrangement of topics. Each of the Eight Miracles is used for a "sign" or symbol, as the feeding of the five thousand in which Jesus appears as the bread or support of life. The great allegories of the Good-Shepherd, the sheep-fold and the vine; the names used to designate Jesus as the Word, Light, the Way, the Truth, the Life, etc., all show how the whole gospel is penetrated with a spirit of symbolic representation.
6. It Is the Gospel of the Incarnation. "Matthew explains his messianic function; Mark his active works and Luke his character as Savior." John magnifies his person and everywhere makes us see "the word made flesh." God is at no great distance form us. He has become flesh. The word has come as the Incarnate Man. Jesus, this Incarnate Man, is God and as such fills the whole book, but he, nevertheless, hungers and thirsts and knows human experience. God has come down to man to enable him to rise up to God.
Subject: Jesus, the Christ, God's Son.
Analysis.
Introduction or prologue, 1:1-18.
(1) The divine nature of the word. 1-5.
(2) The manifestation of the word as the world's Savior, 6-18.
I. The Testimony of His Great Public Ministry, 1:19-12 end.