Basking In The Son

Jesus, God incarnate;
It’s no wonder that thoughtful people find the gospel of Jesus Christ hard to believe, for the realities with which it deals surpass man’s understanding. But, it is sad that so many make faith harder than it needs to be, by finding difficulties in the wrong places. But in fact the real difficulty does not lie in the Good Friday message of atonement, or the Easter message of resurrection, but instead in the Christmas message of incarnation.

The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God, made man, the second person of the Godhead. And, that He took on humanity without loss of His deity.

Here are two mysteries for the price of one – the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of the Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus. And “the Word was made flesh” John 1:14.

Jesus is the same person as the Eternal Word, the Father’s agent in creation, “Through whom also he made the worlds.” Hebrews 1:2

The baby born at Bethlehem was God. He was the Son of God, or as Christian theology regularly expresses it, God the Son.

“The” Son, not a son: as John says four times in the first three chapters of his gospel, in order to make sure that his readers understand the uniqueness of Jesus. He was the “Only begotten” Son of God (John1:18; 3:16, 18). Accordingly the Christian church confesses: “I believe in God the Father… and Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.”

The apostle John wrote, in order that they “might know that Jesus is the Son of God; and…believing…might have life through his name” John 20:31. It is as “Son of God” that he presents Jesus throughout the gospel.

However, John knew that the phrase “Son of God” was tainted with misleading associations in the minds of his readers. Jewish theology used it as a title for the expected (human) messiah. Greek mythology told of many “son’s of god’s”, super men born of a union between a god and a human woman. In neither of these cases did the phrase convey the thought of personal deity; in both, indeed it excluded it.

John wanted to make sure that when he wrote of Jesus as the Son of God he would not be misunderstood, and to make it clear from the outset that the “Sonship” which Jesus claimed, and which Christianity ascribes to Him, was precisely a matter of personal deity and nothing less.

Nowhere in the New Testament is the nature and meaning of Jesus’ divine Sonship more clearly explained than in the Gospel of John 1: 1-18.  Let's check it out together shall we.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1-2

John does not bring the term ‘Son’ into his opening sentences at all: instead, he speaks first of “the Word”. God’s Word in the Old Testament is His creative utterance, His power in action fulfilling His purpose. The Old Testament depicted God’s utterance, the actual statement of His purpose, as having power in itself to affect the things purposed.

Chapter One tells us how at creation “God said, ‘Let there be…” and there was. And in Psalm 33: 6 and 9 it says, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made… He spoke and it was done;” The Word of God is thus God at work. John takes up this figure and proceeds to tell us nine things about the divine Word.

1. Verse 1 – “In the beginning was the Word” Here is the "Word’s" eternity. He had no beginning of His own. When other things began, He was.

2. Verse 1 – “And the Word was with God” Here is the “Word’s” personality. The power that fulfills God’s purpose is the power of a distinct personal being, which stands in an eternal relationship with God.

3. Verse 1 – “And the Word was God” Here is the “Word’s” deity. Though personally distinct from the Father, He is not a creature; He is divine in Himself, as the Father is.

“All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."                                                              John 1:3

4. Verse 3 – “All things were made by Him” Here is the “Word” creating. He was the Father’s agent in every act of creation that the Father has ever performed. All that was made was made through Him.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend…There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” John 1:4, 5 & 9

5. Verse 4 – “In Him was life” Here is the Word animating. There is no physical life in the realm of created things except in and through Him. Life is given and maintained by the Word.

6. Verse 4 – “And the life was the light of men.” Here is the Word revealing. In giving life, He gives light too; that is to say, every man receives knowledge of God from the very fact of his being alive in God’s world.

7. Verse 9 – “Enlightens every man” Here is the “Word’s” impartiality. In revealing Himself, He did not exclude any from the possibility of understanding.

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:10-13

8. Verse 12 – “He gave the right to become children of God” Here is the "Word" rebirthing. He receives as His own, any and all who would elect to follow Him. Man is made alive in the Spirit by acknowledging and surrendering to His deity.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

9. Verse 14 – “And the Word became flesh” Here is the "Word" incarnate. The baby in the manger at Bethlehem was none other than the eternal Word of God…Jesus the Christ, of Nazareth.

And now, having shown us who and what the Word is – a divine person, the author of all things – John indicates identification - the Word, he tells us, was revealed by the incarnation to be God’s Son. “We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father.”

“John bore witness of Him, and cried out, saying, ‘This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” John 1:15-18

The identification is confirmed in verse eighteen, “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.” He has now made it clear what is meant by calling Jesus the Son of God. The Son of God is the Word of God; we see what the Word is, well, that is what the Son is. He is divine, He is deity, He is eternal, yet He was man. He came for the purpose of redeeming the souls of mankind back to the Father.

“But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory...” Hebrews 3:9-10

The Bible says that Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth, became a man, and gave up His life, specifically to redeem you and me. Amen and thank you Lord!!!

God Bless and Press On
Larry