John's Witness: The Lord Is God

John described the fullness of Jesus’ grace

And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [John 1:16-17]

Look at that phrase “grace upon grace” or “blessing after blessing.” The first grace, or blessing, from God was the law He gave to Moses. Through that Law people came to know God’s holiness and perfection, which none of us can match on our own, and also God’s generous forgiveness which the sacrifices only symbolized, always pointing to Jesus.

The next grace, or blessing, that God gave was His own Son, Jesus Christ. The grace and truth of Jesus are the same as life and light. Life is the gracious gift of God to all His creatures, and light is the understanding of truth, the illumination of truth. True life and true light only come through faith in Jesus

No one has ever seen God, John said,

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. [John 1:18]

Jesus, the unique one and only, fully man and fully God Who is at the Father’s side, has made God known to us.

To know God, look at Jesus

Just as a scientist studying quantum physics can show that one particle can be in two places at the same time, the apostle John could, by his own eye witness testimony, along with John the Baptist’s, demonstrate that the Word was not only with God, but the Word actually was God, too. It seems impossible, it’s a mystery, but it is true.

Even those who were closest to God never saw Him, not Moses, not Abraham, not King David. And John agreed, only Jesus has seen God, and He has made God known to us. We now can know what God looks like, because we can see Jesus.

In what ways are you experiencing Jesus’ grace and truth right now? Maybe you’re not there yet, maybe you’re not even sure what that would look like. Keep studying, thinking, meditating and talking with God. Ask Him to help you apprehend His light and experience His life.

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The Incarnate Word

To the Greeks Logos was an abstract philosophy, and in fact a heresy had been growing in the church in John’s time that claimed Logos was a spirit that had entered Jesus when He began His ministry and then left Him before the crucifixion.

This heresy was called Docetism, from the Greek word “dokeo” which means “to seem.” It was a form of Gnosticism that said Jesus only seemed to be both man and God.

So John carefully chose his words to dispel any misunderstanding about Who Jesus is

And the Word became flesh [John 1:14a]

In the original Greek text those two words appear side by side, “Logos sarx became,” “The word flesh became.” The word, the creative thought and energy of the universe, became a soft, vulnerable baby. This is called the incarnation:
* the infinite became finite,
* the eternal became conformed to time,
* the invisible became visible,
* the supernatural one chose to reduce Himself to the natural.

He did not cease to be God. He willingly laid aside some of the privileges of glory, but He never gave up His deity. This is the hard part to truly grasp. Jesus is fully God and fully man.

Amazingly, this was what God had in mind from the very beginning. He designed human beings to be the bearer of Himself. Every person has the capacity for God and a hunger for God. God created people in His own image, the image of Jesus, and made us to correspond to Himself, the way Eve was made for Adam. Being made in God's image means that people are made as personal, moral and spiritual beings.

Spiritual
God gave some animals the ability to think and feel in a "soulish" way, as the Bible puts it, but only Adam received God's breath, or "Spirit". When a person is reborn, the Lord fills – totally saturates and permanently alters – believers with His Holy Spirit. People are designed to contain God's Holy Spirit in the most intimate communion possible.

Personality
People have intelligence, the ability to think and to know, to understand ideas -- we have the ability to think God's thoughts after Him, to share in the Mind of Christ.

We also have emotions, specially designed to experience God in a different way than thoughts: adoration of His beauty, reverence towards His holiness, awe at His power and perfection, a response of love to His own loving kindness, compassion and mercy. People have a will – the ability to make choices, to reject or receive the light.

God gave people the gift of language, the ability to communicate with God and to understand His unique revelation of Himself.

Morality
Jesus has always shined the light into darkness, by giving every person the innate ability to tell right from wrong, which is called the conscience. From the beginning God has always given each person a simple test, to teach us how to know, and understand in an experiential way, the difference.

Right is obedience to God's word, and wrong is choosing something apart from God's expressed will.

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