"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." (John 20:31)
In this verse John is clear about his motivation for writing an account of Jesus' miracles and teachings.
However, it's not his motivation for writing that sets his gospel apart from those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
It's what he wrote. The latter three, known as the Synoptic Gospels (syn, "together with"; -optic, "see, seeing")
share much of the same content and tend to present the events of Jesus' life in parallel order using similar wording.
While John does share some content with the Synoptics, much of his content and presentation are unique.
It's been said that John was more concerned with conveying the significance of who Jesus is than he was with including
all the same details of Jesus' life that the other gospel writers provided. This may be why we see such an emphasis on the
divinity of Jesus throughout John. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1).
With his opening verse John gets right to the point and declares that Jesus is God!
In the verses that follow John continues to lay the foundation for his gospel by making several other assertions about Jesus:
- Jesus is the source of life through whom all things were created (v. 3)
- Jesus is the light of men, and the darkness has not overcome that light (vv. 4-5)
- Jesus took on human form and lived in the world (v. 14)
- His own people rejected him (v. 11)
- Those who do believe in the name of Jesus are given the right to become children of God (vv. 12-13)
Through his account of seven miracles, Jesus' seven "I am" statements, Jesus' ministry to his disciples, and much more
it's clear that John intended his readers to be awestruck by the majesty of Jesus. His hope was that such awe would lead to
belief because he knew that by believing we would be saved.