John's treatment of the miracle stories is especially significant. In the Synoptic Gospels, the purpose of the miracles appears to be that of presenting evidence to support the claim that Jesus is the true Messiah. The evidence for this claim rests on Jesus' ability to do that which ordinary human beings cannot do. In this case, the historical accuracy of an event as reported would be crucial. In John's gospel, only seven miracles are reported, and in no one of these instances is the real meaning of the story dependent on its historical accuracy, which is not to say that John has any doubts about the events' historical accuracy. He does not discuss historicity, for he has something else in mind that he regards as far more important: the spiritual lesson that he derives from the stories, whether the details are reported accurately or not. One of the advantages of the Gospel of John is that it presents the meaning of Christianity in a way that makes its validity dependent on neither scientific accuracy nor historical verification. This position is a fortunate one for modern readers since we have no adequate means for determining exactly what happened in regard to any of the reported events. All of the evidence we have is what the individuals who made the records believed to have happened.
The interpretation of Christianity set forth in the Gospel of John may be characterized as mystical in the same sense that Paul's letters are mystical. In both instances, the essence of salvation is the mystical union of the human and the divine. The presence of God in the life of Jesus of Nazareth enabled Jesus to overcome the temptations that arise from contact with the flesh and the world, and this same presence can enter into the heart and life of any individual who allows this spirit to become the motivating life force. Paul expresses this conception in the words "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." John says that just as the branch cannot bear fruit except that the fruit abides in the vine, so a Christian cannot live the good life unless Christ abides within that person. This type of mysticism unites the believer with God, yet it does so without destroying the individuality of either. In this respect, Christian mysticism differs from those types in which individual personality is destroyed by becoming wholly absorbed in the deity.
