Daily Devotions
John
Reviewing the astonishing theology John held
Text: John 1:1-18
REVIEWING THE ASTONISHING THEOLOGY JOHN HELD
The Gospel of John is arguably the most theological in approach in presenting Jesus as the Saviour of the world. Let’s take time to review how John presented Jesus. He was absolutely correct when he presented Him in the following ways:-
1. He was the very Word of God.
2. He was in every sense of the word God too, yet distinct from His Father.
3. He was Co-creator.
4. He possessed the power to give life. He was Life!
5. He possessed the power to give light to a darkened world. He was Light Himself.
6. He possessed the power and authority to grant those who believed in Him the right to become the children of God!
To John, true faith in Jesus must see the believer understanding and embracing all of the above. It was either all or nothing!
ONE MORE ASTONISHING TRUTH
John went on to proclaim another astonishing truth about Jesus. He wrote,
“And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
John wrote as an eyewitness (note the first person personal pronoun “we”). He too bore witness concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was both God and Man!
Even before the end of the first century, John encountered people who opposed this teaching concerning Jesus. There were those who rejected the idea that Jesus could have put on human flesh. John stoutly and consistently held his theological position. He wrote to counter those who opposed the doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit,
but test the spirits, whether they are of God;
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.By this you know the Spirit of God:
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
Is of God,
And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ
Has come in the flesh is not of God.
And this is the spirit of the Antichrist,
Which you have heard was coming,
And is now already in the world.”
1 John 4:1-3
SUPPORT FROM OTHER NEW TESTAMENT WRITERS
Other New Testament writers also wrote to bear witness concerning their faith that the Divine Jesus had indeed come in the flesh.
One outstanding New Testament writer was the author of the Book of Hebrews who had this to say about the Divinity of Jesus. Let us consider what he wrote.
“God, who at various times and in various ways
spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
has in these last days spoken to us by His Son,
whom He has appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the worlds;
who being the brightness of His glory
and the express image of His person,
and upholding all things by the word of His power,
when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand
of the Majesty on high…”
Hebrews 1:1-3
If you carefully go over what he said, you would note that he argued for the following theological truths:-
1. Jesus was the Word of God.
2. He was Co-creator.
3. He has full divine power. He upholds the worlds by that power.
4. He is distinct from His Father.
5. However, He is the express image of His Glory. That is another way of saying that He is Deity.
These were the same things that John declared in his Gospel. Both affirmed that Jesus was Divine.
Concerning the Humanity of Jesus, the author of the Book of Hebrews had this to say. He believed that Jesus was fully man too, that He might taste death for everyone!
“What is man that You are mindful of him,
or the son of man that You take care of him?
You have made him a little lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honour,
And set him over the works of Your hands,
You have put all things in subjection under his feet.But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels,
For the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour,
That He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”
Hebrews 2:6-9
Jesus was truly unique! He was God and Man and dwelt among men!