SON OF GOD (John 1:1-5, 14)
SON OF GOD
INTRODUCTION:
We have heard Luke’s account of the first advent read to us by Mike this evening. Luke of any of the Gospel writers goes into the most detail. Matthew follows Luke giving us the event from Joseph’s perspective. Mark does not even mention the first Christmas, he simply begins with the ministry of John the Baptist. John gives us one verse on the incarnation, but before he does, he proves that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Over the advent season we have been looking at the instances that Jesus was called the son of someone. We looked at Jesus as the Son of Adam, Jesus as the Son of Abraham, Jesus as the Son of David, then this morning we really began to look at the incarnation by looking at Jesus as the Son of Mary and we will wrap that up this evening by looking at Jesus as the Son of God. There are many verses that we could look at that tell us that Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God, but I want to look at the proof that John gave that Jesus Christ is God and then look at the one verse that John gives to the incarnation. John begins his Gospel by taking us into eternity past because that is where the incarnation begins. As we contemplate the incarnation this evening let me begin by reading you an excerpt from Max Lucado’s book, God Came Near. This is from a chapter entitled “Just a moment…” (Read pages 7-8 area marked as 1)
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles if you have them this evening to John 1:1-5 and verse 14. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God, and listen carefully.
John 1:1-5, 14,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it…And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-5, 14, NASB95)[1]
THE WORD IS GOD (John 1:1-2)
John begins by introducing us to the subject of his book, Jesus Christ. John calls Him the Word. We use words to reveal our hearts and our minds, Jesus as the Word reveals the heart and mind of God to us. Jesus as the Word shows God to us. We come to know God through Jesus Christ. He truly is the Word in the sense that He is the image of the invisible God, that in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. It is through Jesus that we see God. John’s opening words take us back before the beginning into eternity past. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1a, NASB95)[2] The Word, God the Son, was already there in the beginning because He was there in eternity past. These first three words in John’s Gospel transport us back to the first book of the Bible and the opening words of Genesis. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NASB95)[3] God chose that moment in eternity to create the heavens and the earth. But before God began the act of creation, the incarnation had already been decided upon. Peter describes in this way in 1st Peter 1:20-21, “For He [Jesus Christ] was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:20–21, NASB95)[4] Before the foundation of the world it was already known that the Son of God would come in the flesh to redeem mankind. In eternity past the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit decided that God would appear in human flesh to redeem mankind from the bondage of sin. The Word, God the Son was in the beginning because He was there in eternity past. The Word, God the Son, was with God, John writes. God the Son has always been in a special relationship of eternal fellowship in the Trinity. One God in three persons existing equally in the Godhead in perfect fellowship, perfect unity, each person fully God and possessing the attributes of God. Not only was the Word existing in eternity past, not only was He with God, but John goes on to declare that the Word was God. Without reservation, John declares for us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word is God. For the incarnation to be true John had to prove that Jesus was God, otherwise He was just another man like us, sinful nature and all. He had to be different from us, He had to be the seed of the woman, not the seed of man. He had to be both God and Man otherwise He could not be sinless and if He were not sinless then He could not be the perfect sacrifice for us when He died. His death would not have paid the penalty required for sin unless He was sinless. When Mary asked the angel how she could have a child since she was a virgin, Gabriel responded in Luke 1:35, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35b, NASB95)[5] John goes to great lengths to prove that Jesus is God, and in verse two he states again that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was there in the beginning with God, not because He came into existence then, but because John wants us to understand that Jesus is God and what better way than to offer proof. John gives three proofs that Jesus is God. He is God because He is the Creator, He is the Life, and He is the Light.
THE THREE PROOFS (John 1:3-5)
John begins by proving Jesus is God by presenting Him as the Creator of all things. Jesus could not be created, because He is the One who created all things out of nothing. John says that all things came into being or into existence through Him, there is not even one thing that has come into existence apart from Him. If it exists it is because the Creator, Jesus Christ, brought it into existence. Paul agrees with John that Jesus is the Creator of all things when He writes speaking of Jesus Christ in Colossians 1:16-17, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16–17, NASB95)[6] John’s first proof that Jesus is God is that He is the Creator.
John’s second proof that Jesus is God is that He is the Life, and in Him is life. We understand that God is the giver of life, that He creates each of us and gives us life. Jesus as the Creator gave the first man, Adam, life when He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. In the same way He gave life to the first woman, Eve, after fashioning her from one of Adam’s ribs. Jesus is life, and each of us live and breathe each day because of the life given to us by Jesus Christ. How a baby is formed in the womb is truly a miracle of God, it is the creative power of Jesus Christ and the fact that He gives life to each person. David wrote in Psalm 139:13-14, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:13–14, NASB95)[7] Not only does Jesus give physical life, but He came to also give us spiritual life, to raise us from spiritual death. Each of us is born with a sin nature and we are spiritually dead because of it and Jesus is the One who raises us and gives us spiritual life. He died to pay the penalty for our sin, He was buried, and He rose from the dead on the third day so that He might give us life, spiritual life. It is through Jesus that we receive life that we might come into the presence of God the Father justified, Jesus is God because He is the Life and in Him is all life.
John’s third proof that Jesus is God is that He is the Light. John writes that the Life was the Light of men. Jesus came to give life and the way we receive life is when the Light dispels the darkness around us, and we understand that we are sinners unable to save ourselves and we believe in Jesus Christ and His work for us in His death and resurrection. Jesus as the Light shows us God. In the Bible Light is often used as an emblem of God, and darkness denotes death, ignorance, sin, and separation from God, so by saying Jesus is the Light John was declaring Him to be God. Jesus said of Himself in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12b, NASB95)[8] John 1:5 states, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:5, NASB95)[9] This word translated “comprehend” in Greek means either “to understand, to grasp a concept” or it can mean “to overcome or to overpower.” Which is what it means in this verse. When Jesus came into the world it was like light coming into a dark room, the darkness was dispelled by the Light. John is saying that Jesus is God because He is the Light and as the Light He invaded the dominion of darkness, and Satan the ruler of this dark world and his subjects resisted and tried to overpower the Light, but they were unable to frustrate the power of the Light, the Light was and always will be victorious against darkness and bring life to men who respond to the Light. John proves that Jesus is the Son of God by showing us that He is the Creator, He is the Life, and He is the Light.
THE WORD BECAME FLESH (John 1:14)
When John speaks of the incarnation of the Son of God, he does not go into the detail that Luke and Matthew do. John instead tells us very clearly what happened. John ties verse 14 back to verse 1 by calling Jesus Christ the Word, the term he used to prove that Jesus was the Son of God. John takes that name that we know to be God and writes, “And the Word became flesh…” (John 1:14a, NASB95)[10] John is saying, Jesus Christ, the Word, God the Son, the second person of the Triune God had taken on human flesh. Here is something we will never understand, it is beyond our grasp how God became an embryo in a young woman’s womb. How God who created everything that has been created became a single cell and grew in Mary’s womb just as any baby does and when the baby was fully formed it was time for Him to be born. How could God who has always existed and who sustains the universe by His power, become a baby totally dependent on Mary for all His needs. Jesus Christ took on our humanity, body, soul, and spirit, the only thing that He did not have was a sin nature. He was born of a human woman, the seed of the woman, but His Father was God, so He had no sin nature. He who was always Spirit, took on flesh and bone. He became a Man, yet He was God. This is the mystery, this is God’s great surprise, He came to us in our time of need in human flesh. Understand that while He was fully man, He never ceased being fully God. That body that He took on, the one that Mary birthed, though now glorified will be His for all eternity, forever we will be reminded of what God did for us by the scars in His hands and feet. The Word became flesh, God became a man.
John goes on in John 1:14 and writes, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14b, NASB95)[11] The Son of God came into this world just like each of us being born and as He grew up, He first learned to crawl, and then walk. He listened to Mary and Joseph and learned to talk. He experienced everything that we do as we grow from infant, to toddler, to adolescent, to teen, to adult. Yet He experienced all of this without sin. Like any human He experienced thirst, hunger, weariness, pain, rejection, love, anger, happiness, sadness, and the list could go on. But when John wrote that He dwelt among us, the word He used for dwelt is the Greek word for tabernacle. It could be translated, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” No doubt when John wrote this, he was thinking of the Tabernacle that Moses had built when Israel was wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Remember this is where God dwelt among the people in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. The Jewish people called this cloud the Shekinah Glory which means “the glory which dwells,” and it is the term for the visible presence of God among men, Jesus is the Shekinah Glory of God. Paul wrote concerning Jesus in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,” (Colossians 2:9, NASB95)[12] Jesus mission was twofold when He became flesh, first it was to show us or explain to us God, and second it was to reconcile us to God through His death and resurrection. John declared in in the end of verse 14, “…and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father…” (John 1:14c, NASB95)[13] John wants us to understand that Jesus is the Shekinah Glory, the visible presence of God among us, He tabernacled among us and we saw His glory. John was an eyewitness to this glory as he lived with Jesus Christ for three years and walked with Him, saw the miracles He performed, watched Him live a sinless life and the final display of His glory was when John saw Him resurrected from the dead. John tells us that the glory that Jesus displayed could only be the glory of One who is unique, the only begotten of the Father, John uses this phrase to show us the uniqueness of Jesus’ Sonship, that He is eternal and is of the same essence as the Father. This is why Jesus could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9b, NASB95)[14] The Father’s glory and the glory that John said they saw in Jesus is one and the same.
John finishes this verse by saying that the glory Jesus displayed was full of grace and truth. So often at Christmas we focus on the birth of Christ, and we walk away leaving Him as a baby in the manger. We cannot do that, because when we do we leave the grace and truth out of the picture. We must remember that the Son of God became flesh so that we could experience His grace and truth in our own lives. Grace is God’s unmerited favor to undeserving sinners, and the truth of that grace is seen in the fact that Jesus came to die for sinners so that they might receive God’s unmerited favor and have their sins forgiven and be saved from God’s wrath against sin. When we in faith believe that Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection was for our forgiveness and salvation then we have the hope of eternal life, spending the rest of eternity in the presence of God. When you choose God’s grace, God’s Word promises that one day you will be transformed and be like Jesus, you will be free from sin and have a glorified body that will live forever, and you will forever enjoy the goodness of God. This is why the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, that we can dwell with Him for eternity.
CONCLUSION:
I want to close by reading a few more paragraphs from Max Lucado’s book, God Came Near, again from the chapter entitled, “Just a Moment…” (read pages 8-9, the parts marked as 2). Will you be a part of the next transformation? You can by agreeing with God that you are a sinner, and by believing that Jesus alone could pay the penalty for your sin through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead three days later, when you believe this you will be made acceptable to God, and you will be a part of the next transformation, the transformation of your corruptible body into an incorruptible body, and your mortal body into an eternal, glorified body.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation. (Emphasis Mine)
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.