THE IDENTITY (DEITY) OF JESUS The Gospel of John is distinctively different from the other three. They tell the story; John interprets through lengthy reports of Jesus’ discourses. Only John focuses on distinct theological themes, contrasting throughout his writing such terms as life and death, light and darkness, belief and unbelief, truth and falsehood, love and hate. The Gospel of John begins with a poetic hymn that tells the story of Jesus’s origin, mission, and function. John says that Jesus is the incarnated Word of God, bringing “grace and truth,” replacing the law given by Moses, and making God known in the world. While the others were written to tell the story of Jesus, Matthew to the Jews, and Mark and Luke to the Gentiles, John was written for Christ’s church. In this Gospel we have the deepest spiritual and theological teachings of our Lord. John’s Gospel emphasizes Christ’s deity to a greater extent than the others. John began not with Jesus’ birth, but with a statement of Christ’s preexistence.