Written down

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. – John 20.30-31

John lets us now towards the end of his book that we don’t see everything Jesus has done. But he did write the book and here he tells us exactly why he wrote it. Not everything is written done, but what is written down has a purpose – ‘that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life through His name.’

There are a lot of good things about the Bible. There are great lessons on living and great stories and great teaching, but there is one great purpose – that we believe in Jesus and hence we can have eternal life.

Thank God for those written words because we can trace those written words back nearly 2000 years. I’ve seen manuscripts from the early second century century. Being written down they endure. From written manuscripts to typeset to the printing press to being on our electronic devices God’s written words endure that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ and by believing we may have life.