Someone recently asked me:
Why do the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) have so little to say about “salvation by faith,” while John talks about almost nothing else?
It’s a good question, and I take it seriously. Questions like this are exactly why I wrote my book.
The answer, in short, is dates.
Mark, Matthew and Luke
Mark, the earliest gospel (c. 70 CE), was written in the shadow of Rome’s destruction of the temple. Jesus’ own ministry carried the apocalyptic hopes of first-century Jews – that his death would somehow bring the kingdom. Mark’s church shared that hope. It didn’t come true.
Matthew and Luke, writing a generation later (85–90 CE), had to reckon with the delay. Matthew recast Jesus as a teacher of Torah – the kingdom would come when the Torah was kept perfectly. Luke told a story of the gospel spreading across the Roman world, extending God’s promises to the gentiles.
John
John, later still (90–100 CE), was writing for a Hellenistic audience steeped in Plato – people who believed true reality existed only in “the world above.” So John gives us a Jesus who comes down from that world above and shows the way back up. Believing in him becomes the way there.
Jesus
Here’s the thing: it’s unlikely Jesus himself ever preached a personal salvation earned by believing the right things about him. That theology comes from Paul, who wrote decades earlier than the gospels. Having known Jesus, Paul turned “the religion of Jesus” into “a religion about Jesus” – and Jesus might not recognize what came after.
If you’re the kind of person who asks questions like this one – and you’re open to seeing the gospels in ways formula theology doesn’t always allow – my book is for you.
One Life, Four Stories: Invitations to Faith and Wonder (Berry Powell Press, 2026).