When you were born, you were given a name. You have it for the rest of your life and it is inseparable from who you are. You are.....(insert your name) and it is your identity. If you do something, people will say, so and so did it.
The apostle John said in John 20:30, 31 that he wrote his book to help us believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we can have life in His name. We cannot have eternal life in our own name, because the Bible says that there is no other name on earth than that of Jesus Christ by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12). It wouldn't help to be a famous movie star, the president of the United States or Mother Theresa or to say we know them, they're related to us or they even know us. Only Jesus' name can save us from eternal death.
John says it is by believing that we can have life in Jesus' name. He meant for us to read his story about what Jesus did when He was on earth. If you read chapter 20 you will see John himself running to the tomb, finding it empty and he "saw and believed". Mary did not understand straight away what happened and Jesus had to tell her He was going to God. She was not to cling to Him as she knew Him on earth, but understand that He had really come to connect her to God!
A third disciple, Thomas, wanted to see, feel and experience Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection. Jesus allowed him to and he believed because of this proof. By believing, all these disciples received eternal life in Jesus' name.
Although we were not there at the tomb, all these things were written down by John so that we can believe that Jesus is the Son of God. If we believe, we have life in His name.
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