Today we are surrounded by many different views of Jesus. All views claiming to be the correct view. Muslims, who are 2 billion strong, claim that Jesus is merely a prophet, and less than their final prophet, Mohammed. He is never referred to truthfully as our Lord and Savior, the one who fulfills Old Testament types as prophet, priest and king, and the one in whom God’s revelation culminates as the alpha and omega, the one under whose authority and final judgment all things are placed. Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are 8.5 million strong, reject the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ.
Things inside the Christian church haven’t been a lot better. There are debates about whether Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, the nature and extent of his atonement, rejecting certain aspects of his incarnation (i.e. how can Jesus be fully God and fully man?), and the Bible’s claim that he was sinless. The impact of the ambiguity concerning who Jesus is has had great impact on our communities. Rapidly growing Ottawa County is now home to 286,000 people. And even in this heavily- churched community with its almost incomparable heritage in the Christian faith, 171,000 (60%) currently have no religious affiliation.
In John’s Gospel, his audience was facing a variety of issues that caused an immense amount of suffering and persecution. Central to their challenges was the question “Exactly, who is Jesus?” John is not only instructing his audience by giving them information to correct and combat the false teaching they are being tempted to believe, but also is encouraging them to enjoy comfort and hope as they learn who Jesus truly is.
So what do these verses of the Word of God teach us concerning who Jesus truly is and what difference does that make to us?
Humanity is blinded by its sin. John tells us in 1:1-5 that Jesus is the eternal, preexistent word that has always been with God and was always God. He was the power that creates and sustains the essence of all things and the ever-shining light in the darkness. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (1:1).
It’s this God/man to whom John gives witness. Humanity is blinded by their sin (Rom. 3:23; 6:23), and John, “from the side of God” (para), witnesses to the true light that all men might believe (1:6-8). John, like us, was heralding people to Christ. The gospel is communicated, the Holy Spirit illumines the mind, softens the heart, and gives us ears to hear. We provide people with the gospel and God opens the eyes of the blind. “Oh God, give us the soft heart needed to receive the mercy of Jesus Christ in our lives. Give us the eyes to see. Give us ears to hear.”
John witnesses to the eternal word, who is the creator and sustainer of all things. All life comes and exists through Jesus Christ. Darkness and sin refuse, resist, and rebel against the true light, but they cannot overcome it.
12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John’s words are probably the epicenter of the prologue. This is in sharp contrast with 1:11. John speaks of those being drawn to Jesus Christ. The text says that Jesus “gave [us] the right to become children of God.” Becoming a child of God is not our right, however, — it’s by the power and will of God. We’ve been given a great privilege to be a child of God. It is a great privilege that he made us children of God. This is purely the mercy and grace of God that Jesus employed his power as the eternal God to make us children of God. Jesus is the eternal, preexistent God. He is the creator and sustainer of all things. He is the true light that can never be extinguished in a universe awash in darkness/sin. The one that was face to face with God in eternity and became a man to save his people from sin and death. This God — Jesus Christ — gave his life for those he makes children of God. He became flesh to give his life for us! He employed his power as the eternal God to make us children of God.
What difference does that make to us? Being united to Christ by faith, we receive and rest on him alone for salvation. Jesus employed his power as the eternal God to make us children of God, and it’s by faith that we receive the righteousness of Christ. We receive and rest on him alone for salvation — freeing us FROM:
- the curse of the moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments,
- the guilt of sin,
- the present evil world,
- the bondage to Satan,
- the wrath of God,
- the sting of death,
- and — eternal Hell.
In other words, Jesus Christ employed his power as the eternal God to make us children of God!
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