John: The Most Theological Gospel

Four Views, ONE good News

Four Views, One Good News is a four-part series exploring the unique emphases of each gospel writer. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each tell the story of Jesus from a distinct angle—but together they proclaim the same good news.

If you read the gospels in the order they appear in the Bible, you come to the fourth gospel and immediately sense that something is different. One of these things is not like the other. The stories are different. The chronology is different. The very language is different.

Scholars call Matthew, Mark, and Luke the Synoptic Gospels. Break down the word: syn (together) + optic (view). One view. Matthew, Mark, and Luke see together. John, however, gives us another angle entirely. If the first three are synoptic, then John is—well—anoptic (I just made that up). He is coming from a different place altogether.

In fact, one analysis notes that John omits about 90% of the material in the other gospels. That’s not because he didn’t know it. It’s because he had a different purpose.

Here’s the grid my New Testament professor once gave us:

• Matthew: A Jew, writing to Jews, about Jesus the Jewish Messiah.
• Mark: A Roman, writing to Romans, about Jesus the perfect Son of Man.
• Luke: A Gentile, writing to Gentiles, about Jesus the Light for the Nations.
• John: A disciple, writing to disciples, about Jesus the eternal Son of God.

In a 2018 article, Professor Bryan A. Stewart outlines the unique contribution of John’s gospel to Christian theology. I’ll summarize his key points here, but you can [read the full article—it’s worth your time].

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With God, Was God

St. Augustine once said, “John spoke about the Lord’s divinity in a way that no one else ever did.” His gospel begins with a breathtaking prologue:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

Right from the start, John names Jesus as God. Not merely misunderstood. Not simply elevated. God.

But John also makes clear that Jesus was with God. This distinction—Jesus with God, yet also God—laid the groundwork for what Christians would later articulate as the doctrine of the Trinity.

Tertullian of Carthage (c. 155–220 AD) wrote:

“There is one who exists from the beginning and another with whom he existed—one is the Word of God; the other is God. Of course the Word is God, but only as the Son of God, not as the Father.”

John doesn’t leave the claim of Jesus’ divinity to others. He records Jesus saying it of Himself:

“I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

The response was immediate: the Jews picked up stones, not for a good work, but for blasphemy—because, being a man, He made Himself God (John 10:33).

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Was God, Was Man

But John doesn’t only emphasize divinity. He insists on humanity.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)

The Greek words are startling: logos (Word) became sarx (flesh). For the early church, this was essential, because heresies like docetism claimed Jesus only appeared to be human. Flesh was too corrupt for God to inhabit.

John will have none of it. In his gospel, Jesus grows tired and thirsty (John 4:6–7; 19:28). He weeps at the tomb of His friend (John 11:35). After His resurrection, He still bore wounds in His hands and side (John 20:27–28). He even ate breakfast on the beach with His disciples (John 21:15).

John’s letters drive the point home:

“Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not… is the spirit of the antichrist.” (1 John 4:2–3)

For John, it was not optional. Jesus is fully God, fully man.

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Written for the Church

Why is John so different? One possibility is timing. By the time John wrote, Christianity was no longer considered a sect of Judaism. At some point—perhaps as early as 73 AD—Christians were expelled from synagogues as heretics. A prayer called the Birkat ha-Minim included a curse on the Nazarenes:

“May the Nazarenes and the sectarians perish in a moment. Let them be blotted out of the Book of Life and not be written with the righteous.”

If this curse was already in use during John’s lifetime (he likely died around 90 AD), it helps explain why John portrays “the Jews” as antagonists more sharply than the Synoptics. Of 83 references to “the Jews” in the gospels, 64 are in John.

John even notes the synagogue issue in the story of the man born blind:

“His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.” (John 9:22)

It’s striking to compare that curse with the promise in Revelation, also written by John:

“The one who conquers… I will never blot his name out of the book of life.” (Revelation 3:5)

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One Gospel, Four Voices

Beloved, however you read them—Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John—the gospel is clear. Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Son of Man. He is the Light for the Nations. He is the eternal Son of God.

Four distinct views. One Good News.

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