Friday, December 23, 2011

God In The What?!!

In his gospel, one of the several proofs the apostle John provides for the authenticity of Jesus' Messianic mission is that He was sent by the Father. For example, in his Bread of Life discourse in chapter 6, Jesus enlightens his miracle-seeking, consumeristic hearers that "“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (v. 29). He has come to do .. " “.. the will of him who sent me"". (38; see also 39). "“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” (44). Etc; etc. So unique is the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ that to believe in Christ is the same as to believe in God, (12:44), and to receive Christ is equivalent to receiving God the Father. (13:20).

On what basis could Jesus make such statements? He was sent from the Father because He and the Father are one. They are one in the sense that they are equally God. This bold defense of Christ's divinity is the theological and Christological foundation of John’s gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (1:1). God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ, and by necessary implication, God the Holy Spirit, are equally God in all aspects of "Godness." For this reason, Jesus was with God, that is to say, face-to-face with God in a most intimate way, in an eternal relationship. Further, is God and always will be God. It's no wonder that Jesus stuns the confused and unbelieving Jews by contending that "I and the Father are one." (10:30). The Westminster Confession of Faith instructs us that "In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost." (2.3).

The entire New Testament is flooded with proofs of the divinity of Jesus Christ. However, for our purposes today, there is one other verse asserting Christ's divinity that is frequently overlooked and that that deserves our attention- Jn 1:18: "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known." The Greek verb has made known can also be translated declared, explained or exegeted. Exegete literally means to guide out of (the ex prefix means from or out of). Thus, when we exegete a text, we seek to extract or get out of it, its original meaning. In other words, we explain what the Scripture actually says; we discover the meaning the author intended to convey to his readers.

Jesus Christ perfectly and objectively provides us with the original and clearest understanding of God the Father. There is no higher Self-revelation of God than Jesus Christ; He is God in the flesh. Anyone who has seen Christ has seen God the Father. (14:9). In becoming a human being, Christ did not become a creature. In his humanity, the eternal Son of God attaches his divinity to weak human flesh in such a way that neither is his humanity enhanced nor his divinity reduced – he is fully man and fully God at the same time and in the same relationship! In the newborn babe, infinity has taken on finiteness; eternity invades time; divinity appears in diapers; God comes down into His creation in the form of man. No other religion can make such a bold claim. The holy God comes to seek and save his worst enemies. This is indeed a mystery at which we do not stumble by at which we bow in solemn adoration and in humble, self-effacing worship.

The divine Self-revelation in Christ and Christ’s Messianic mission to seek and save sinners are a stumbling-block to the people of Jesus' time – His own people rejected Him (1:11) and the ignorant world leaders (as well as those of ours) crucified "the Lord of glory." (1 Cor 2:8). In a real sense, the incarnate Christ is God's last call, his last appeal from heaven for fallen man to be saved (Heb 1:1-2). God's coming in the weakness of human flesh is the highest expression of His mercy and the ultimate demonstration of his grace towards fallen man. There is no other redemptive process that is available to men; there is no other person by whom redemption can be accomplished, (Acts 4:12). In Christ alone are God and sinner reconciled. In Christ alone we have the grandest display of God's commitment to His creatures and, above all, to His own glory. In a word, the word of Christmas is the Word from heaven of whom the Father says, " “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” " Let it not be said of us:

Didn't know You'd come to save us, Lawd
To take our sins away,
Our eyes was blind
We couldn't see
We didn't know who You was. (From "Sweet Little Jesus Boy")

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