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.1
The kind of belief that leads to salvation is based on knowledge of the truth. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.2 John says that Scripture was written and is sufficient so that we may believe that salvation is through Jesus. Paul laments that his fellow Jews have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.3
I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.4 God is patient not wanting any to perish and awaits those who seek him. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.5
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains in him.6 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.7 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.8
In him you also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.9
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, . . . , could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk . . . according to the Spirit.10 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.11
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.`12
Notes:
1. John 20:30-31
2. John 17:3
3. Romans 10:1-4
4. Hosea 5:15
5. Proverbs 8:17
6. John 3:35-36
7. 1 John 4:15-21
8. 1 John 5:11-12
9. Ephesians 1:13-14
10. Romans 8:1-4
11. Romans 8:11
12. James 4:8
