The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ

Transcript

GRM 1049
12/26/2010
The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ
John 1:1-18
Gil Rugh


You know we have four gospels and they are unique. Three of the gospels overlap in some of their material, we call them the synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—because they see things together. John is more unique and the vast majority of his material is not found in any of the other three gospels. But each of these four gospels h as a unique emphasis. Matthew emphasizes Jesus Christ as King, He is the Messiah of Israel, the King of the Jews. Mark brings an emphasis that focuses on Jesus Christ as the Servant of the Lord. Luke has an emphasis that emphasizes Jesus Christ as man, He is the Son of Man. And John has a strong emphasis on the deity of Jesus Christ. And each of these gospels as they begin, begin in a manner consistent with what their emphasis will be. For example, Matthew presents Jesus Christ as the King so His genealogy is presented to demonstrate He is of the kingly line. And Matthew traces the genealogy of Christ from Abraham through David because to be the King of the Jews He has to be the descendant of Abraham. To be the King of the Jews He must be the descendant of Abraham and the descendant of David because the promised King of Israel will come from the line of David. So that's how Matthew begins, with the genealogy showing the Jesus Christ has a valid claim to the throne. Mark presents Jesus Christ as a Servant, and there is no genealogy in Mark because the genealogy of a servant is not of significance or importance. Luke presents Jesus Christ as man, He is the Son of Man. So Luke connects the genealogy back to Adam, the first man, and carries the lineage of Christ from Adam down to His birth. John presents Jesus Christ as God and God has no genealogy. But John opens up with a genealogy of sorts because he shows the Jesus Christ has been present with God the Father in eternity. And so John has a strong emphasis as he opens his gospel showing that Jesus Christ is God who has dwelt in eternity with God the Father, who created all things by His power. And He has become man.

I want to direct your attention to the gospel of John and the first chapter. Hold on to that chapter and come to John 20. John will begin with an emphasis on the deity of Jesus Christ, emphasizing that He is God and as God He has always been, because one of the characteristics of God that make Him God is He is eternal, without beginning and without ending. He begins with that emphasis and really at the end of his gospel he draws us back to that emphasis as well. In John 20:28, following the resurrection of Christ and an appearance to His disciples. And on this occasion Thomas is there, who had doubts about the resurrection, said he could not believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes, touched the wounds with his own hands. And then confronted with the resurrected Christ he falls down and says, verse 28, Thomas answered and said to Him, my Lord and my God. A strong, clear declaration again of the deity of Jesus Christ. You are my Lord, you are my God. That would be blasphemy if Jesus Christ were anything other than truly God. Then John says in verse 31 that there are many things that Jesus did that he didn't write about, but he has selectively chosen these things so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God, which we will see when we come back to chapter 1. That is a unique role of Christ because He is a Son of God in a way that no one else ever has been or ever will be a Son of God. You may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Come back to that emphasis again—life, a strong emphasis in John. He'll emphasize that in chapter 1 because Jesus Christ is the life. And salvation comes to those who believe in Him. To those who believe in Him, they will be given the authority to become children of God.

Come back to John 1. This is a very familiar portion of the word of God and many of you have emphasized some of the verses found in this introductory section of John's gospel. And even if you haven't memorized them word for word, you can probably give out the gist of what is said in these key verses. The first 18 verses form a prologue and I'm just going to highlight the matters in this with you to remind ourselves of the uniqueness of Christ as God becoming man. What an awesome even that is, an event that we can never, with these finite minds, fully grasp, that we can understand the truth of those facts. And that's what John is presenting.

He begins in verse 1 with that very familiar verse, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That repeated emphasis on the Word. The background for the use of the Word as a title for Christ is in the Old Testament. It's not in Greek writings or Greek philosophy, it's in the Old Testament where the New Testament draws its material. And in the Old Testament the Word of God is personified on occasion. It is spoken as a person going and doing things. The Word of God is that which reveals Him, which accomplishes His work, which brings about deliverance for His people.

Come back to Psalm 33, an example of this use of Word. Verse 6, by the word of the Lord the heavens were made. You see it's like the words are active in doing something. It's like saying God spoke and the world came into being, the heavens came into being. By the word of God the Word of God is active, it is powerful, it creates. So that's the background for that becoming a title for Christ, who is the One who creates. I'm not saying in Psalm 33:6 that that is a reference to Christ specifically, by the word of the Lord, but that use of that word, Word, forms its background for its use by John in John 1.

Come over to Psalm 107:20, speaking of God. He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. You see the word of God being active in healing, in delivering. So the word of God reveals, it heals, it creates, it delivers. So it becomes a title to be used of Christ because He is the One who, as we'll see in John 1, creates, the One who brings deliverance and healing. He is the One who most fully and clearly reveals God. And what do our words do? They reveal us. I may say to someone, what's on your mind? What are you thinking about? I need you to tell me. When children are small and they are crying and something is wrong and you say, settle down and tell me what is wrong. I can't read your mind. Because it has to come through words to express it. It's out of the abundance of the heart, we've seen, the mouth speaks, that reveals what is in us. That's why Jesus said it's by our words we will be judged because our words reveal our character and our inner condition.

So Jesus Christ is the revelation of God. Hebrews 1 begins by telling us that in Old Testament times God spoke in a variety of ways through a variety of people. But in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son. That is the fullest, clearest, most complete revelation of God ever given, that ever could be given.

So you come back to John 1 and when it says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, then down in verse 14, and the Word became flesh, we're talking about Jesus Christ and that One who is the revealer of the Father and that One who carries out the will of the Father, and that One who has been with the Father in eternity. So look at verse 1, there are three statements made about the Word. The first, in the beginning was the Word. The beginning, well for us as far as we can go back is Genesis 1:1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And here we are told, in the beginning was the Word. But that doesn't mean He had a beginning, that verb translated was is an imperfect tense, denoting continuous action in past time. You could translate it in the beginning the Word already was. When you get to the beginning, the Word was already there. So in the beginning was the Word because He will begin the creation by His sovereign action. So in the beginning was the Word. So we're going to start all creation. Well, the Word was there already.

The second statement about Jesus Christ. The Word was with God. Now in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God at that time. That shows that He is distinct from God. The Word was with God, that distinguishes Him from God the Father. In the context when you talk about God, you're talking about God the Father. That will become clearer in the next statement. He was with God. That preposition with, some would give it ___________________of face to face with someone. You are with them, you are toward them, you are face to face with them. It denotes the intimacy. You read some Greek commentators and you see the translation, the Word was face to face with God, denoting the closeness, the intimacy, that relationship He had there. But He is distinct from God the Father. This is important. The Word was in the beginning and the Word was with God. But He is distinct from God. He is with God the Father but He is distinct from Him. He's not the same person as God the Father but He is there with God the Father in a relationship with intimacy.

Then the third statement that brings it to its climax, the Word was God. So that explains. He was in the beginning, when you get to the beginning He is already there and He is in a relationship of intimacy with God the Father, face to face with Him. The Word was God. Clear, direct statement of the deity of Jesus Christ. Some of you have had contact with Jehovah Witnesses, and they try to distort what is clearly said here by saying, there is no definite article before the word God, the definite article “the.” And sometimes the word theos translated God here has a definite article before it and sometimes it doesn't. That has nothing to do with whether you are talking about the true and living God or not. It's a total failure to understand anything about the Greek language and the use of the Greek article.

Just for your information down in John 1:6, there came a man sent from God. There is no definite article in front of God there either. Verse 12, but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. There is no definite article in front of theos, God, there either. Verse 13, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. There is no definite article before theos, God, there, either. Down in verse 18, no man has seen God at any time. There is no definite article in front of that, either. So don't be intimidated or set back by the lies, they are lies. I have had conversations with them over their new world translation, and they have an edition that has notes supposedly explaining the Greek where someone who is able to go to certain resources misquoted those resources to imply support for their position. I have not found anyone, I have had several come to my office at my request, bringing someone who would know something about New Testament Greek to address these issues. But those who came didn't know anything about that. I just say that for your reassurance. When we're talking about the Word was God, we're declaring that He was God. In fact you could open the door to a problem if you put the definite article in front of God, and we don't translate the definite article into English often, when it is or isn't. That's not an issue there.

When it says the Word was God, if it had the Word was the God, it would have opened the door to the possibility that all there was to God was the Word. That's not true, we've already been told the Word was with God, God the Father. So we are distinguishing between the persons of the Godhead. And yet Jesus Christ is fully God, He is the same in essence with God. That which makes God, God, is true of God the Father and true of God the Son, as well as true of God the Holy Spirit, who is not in view here at this time. The Word was God and He is present with God the Father. At the beginning they are there, the deity of Jesus Christ.

Another point that we have made before, we have to be careful about illustrating the trinity. And as I've said before, I don't know that there are any illustrations that hold up. You don't want to get in trouble with your illustration. The trinity is unique, the triune God, three persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—eternally existing as one God. There is only one God, there are not three Gods. There is only one God, there are three persons. Some illustrate it and say it's like a man, he can be a husband, a father and a businessman. But wait a minute, that doesn't work. That's a heresy called sibellianism, modalistic monarchianism. It's saying that there is only one person manifesting himself in three modes, that man who is a father, a husband and businessman, you're only talking about one person with three areas of responsibility or three ways he functions. That's not what God is, God is three distinct persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But He is only one God. Now that's biblical truth. Do I understand all that that means with my finite mind? No. I can understand there is one God, I can understand there are three persons comprising the one God. Can I explain it all out? No, you would have to be God to do that. So the fact that Jesus Christ is God clearly declared here.

So then he brings it to a completion in John 1:2, He was in the beginning with God. Or literally, this One was in the beginning with God. This One we've talked about who is God, who was with God, who was in the beginning. Pulls it together. This One was in the beginning with God because He is God. And one of the characteristics of God is eternality. So of course He was there in the beginning. Furthermore He was there when we have a beginning because He created the beginning. So we're told in verse 3, all things, and it expresses all things as taken individually, not just the lump sum. But all things individually that have come into existence, have come into existence through Him. All things came into being through Him. And to state that negatively, apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. Everything that exists outside of God came into existence through the action of the Word. That's remarkable, because everything outside of God has had a beginning, had to be created. Only God is eternal, without beginning, without ending. So everything that has been created, whether in heaven or on earth, it was created by Him.

Come over to Colossians 1:15, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. He is the image of the invisible God, you see He is the One who reveals God most fully because He is God. He is the firstborn of all creation. That doesn't mean He is the first created being, just read the next statement. For by Him all things were created, not because He is part of creation, because He is the Creator. So He is the firstborn, He has the priority, if you will, over all creation because He is the Creator. For by Him all things were created. That includes the things in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, anything in the spirit world, the angelic world, the physical world. Everything that has ever been created was created by Him. Then the end of verse 16, all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things. We see that Paul is basically repeating what John has said, in the beginning the Word already was; Colossians 1:17, He is before all things. Because when creation starts He was already there because He was the One who started creation. And in Him all things hold together. He not only created it, He sustains it. All things have been created through Him, the last part of verse 16 says and for Him. Because as God the glory that is to be given to God for all things comes to Him as well as the Father and with the Spirit also.

Come to Hebrews 1, I've referred to it but you might as well see it. God after He spoke long ago, verse 1, to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages, all the periods of time. Because with the beginning of creation you have time. God dwells in eternity and sometimes we talk about the eternal present in which God dwells, but we can't, we're created beings bound by time. All things were created through Christ. So here you begin to see the functioning of the Father and the Son. The Father creating but doing it through the Son. As we go to Genesis 1 we find the Holy Spirit brooding over the face of the deep, being active in the creation as well. He is the radiance of His glory, the exact representation of His nature. And He upholds all things by the word of His power, or as Colossians says, He sustains all things, in Him all things hold together. So that awesome uniqueness of the Son.

Stop in I Corinthians 8:4, we know there is no such thing as an idol in the world. There is no God but one, one God. And even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are indeed many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God the Father from whom are all things and we exist for Him; one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. So again you see the relationship of the Father and the Son and the creating work coming from the Father through the Son who is also deity.

Come back to John 1. Jesus Christ, as Hebrews told us, could not have been the exact representation of the nature of God the Father if He weren't Himself God. So He created everything. Verse 4, in Him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. So this eternal creating God is also the One in whom is life. And He is transitioning here to spiritual life. And the life was the light of men. John is partial to the words life and light, and light contrasting with darkness. For those of you who are familiar with the gospel of John, you know these are repeated emphases in his gospel. And then when you get to his epistles he'll start out I John by talking about light and darkness, about the life that is found in God, the God who is light, the God in whom is no darkness. So here, in Christ was life and the life was the light of men. This emphasis on life. He that has the Son has life, John will write in John 3:36. In John 14:6 Jesus will say, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me. And that life brings light. Light is what God is, it stands in darkness. He is holiness, He is truth. Light is the ability to know. We talk about, they are in the dark. What do we mean when we say somebody is in the dark? They are not in the know, they don't have any idea what they are talking about, they don't know what is going on. Jesus said, here is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. So Christ came into the world and brought the light of the knowledge of God and it reveals God, it reveals the will of God, it reveals what we are in light of the holiness of God. But men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

We think, wouldn't it be wonderful if we had dozens of unbelievers come to our services every week, and that would be, they would hear the truth. But you know what? They don't want to do that. Why? Because if you present the word of God, you present the person of Christ, you are turning on the light. It becomes proverbial. When do people break into homes? Usually at night, under the cover of darkness, it hides us. If you are involved in a sinful activity, the last thing you want is to have somebody come and shine the light on you. So that's what Jesus Christ did. He came into the world as the fullest, brightest, most complete manifestation and revelation of the character and presence of the holy God. And men couldn't stand it. They love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil. They don't want to be exposed, revealed, as sinful.

But in Him was life and the life was the light of men. The salvation that Christ brings when you enter into the salvation, it brings light. In II Corinthians 4 Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said, if our gospel, the truth of the message of Jesus Christ, is hidden, it is hidden from those in whom satan has blinded their hearts, their minds, lest the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ should shine in. You see satan doesn't want people to be exposed to the truth of the gospel. He desires to keep people in darkness, satisfied with their lives apart from Christ, comfortable in a life of separation from the God who is light, enjoying their sin, comfortable in their sin. But when the gospel comes, it comes as light. When a person believes that gospel, then their life is flooded with the light and the true knowledge of the living God. The life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it or overcome it. The darkness refers to sin, obviously. Come over to John 3:19, verses I've been referring to. John 3:16, the most familiar verse in all the Bible of course. Verse 19, this is judgment, that the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifest as having been wrought in God. What happens in your own life even as a believer if you begin to practice sin? Pretty soon you are uncomfortable being with believers, pretty soon you are uncomfortable being where the Word of God is taught. Pretty soon you find that you don't want to go to church because they are hypocritical. You don't like these people, you don't like the way they do these things, and on and on. What are we saying? I have to get away from the light because the light keeps revealing what I am. And men love the darkness.

So we come back to John 1. The light shines in the darkness, the world enveloped in sin. Remember I John, in his first epistle John will write in chapter 5, he concludes that letter by saying the whole world lies in the evil one, satan's power, the darkness of sin. And when Jesus Christ came into the world as light, the darkness did not comprehend it, or literally, overwhelm it. People decide to try to put out the light. So we find that even the religious leaders are planning on how they could kill Him, snuff out the light. But in the marvelous plan of God, the death of Christ was to bring the light of His salvation to a sinful world. Two thousand years later the light of Jesus Christ continues to shine and we give off the gospel which is the light of God and makes known His salvation.

Then he has a little bit on John the Baptist. Now John the apostle wrote the gospel of John, John the Baptist was the one who came and announced the coming of Christ. Because remember he is bringing testimony here for the world, but he is bringing testimony for the Jews. And John was the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets, so John brings the testimony of John the Baptist who came and announced the coming of the Word of God into the world, the Messiah.

So there came a man sent from God whose name was John, and that's John the Baptist and not John the apostle. He came as a witness to testify about the light. What did John do? He came and announced, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the Messiah is coming. Turn from your sin and believe in Him. So he was testifying about the light so that all might believe in Him. John introduces Him later in John here, John 1:29, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is He on behalf of whom I said, after me comes a man who has higher rank than I, for He existed before me. That's going to be quoted here in a moment, earlier in chapter 1. Just what John the Baptist did, came on the scene, declaring the light was coming.

Verse 9, he was not the light, verse 8 told us, he came to testify about the light. There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man. Jesus Christ coming into the world, He brought light to the world. We are a testimony to that. The light of the knowledge of Christ has shown in our lives through faith in Him. So He brought light to the world, and over the last 2,000 years that light has spread around the world so here we are far removed from the land of Israel, place where Christ was born and lived and died. But it spread around the world, across the ocean, and here the light has come to us.

That was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man, provides light for all men. He was in the world, the world was made through Him, we've seen earlier. And the world did not know Him. Just think of the weight of that statement. He was in the world, the world was made through Him and the world didn't know Him. Here is the Creator, walking among His creation and people don't know who He is. Remember when the Jews said, who is He? I mean, isn't this the carpenter's son? Aren't His brothers, and they name them off, still with us, and His sisters? They don't know He is the Creator.

He came to His own and there is a play on the word own here. The Greek word for one can have different forms. He came to His own, and it's a neuter informed, that means His own things. And then those who were His own, moves to a masculine, His own people. So He came to His own, they are His own by virtue that He is the Creator of them. All things belong to Him. Isaiah emphasizes that concerning God who created all things, so all things are under His authority and power and ultimately belong to Him for His use. And He came to His own people, the Jews, and they didn't receive Him. I mean, of all the nations and peoples on the earth, those that should have been ready and should have received Him were the people that God chose for Himself, the Jews. John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus, he didn't go to China, he didn't go to Europe, he didn't go to North or South America. He went to the Jews. They had had 2,000 years of history, the work of God in their midst. Jesus Christ came to His own people, Jews, they didn't receive Him.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right, the authority, to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. Now you'll note, we become children of God, we become sons of God, the scripture also tells us. We're going to see Jesus Christ as a Son, there is a uniqueness about His. But through Christ as many as received Him, He has the authority and power to cause us to become children of God. And when you receive Him, what does that mean? That means to believe in Him. To those who believe in His name. When you receive Him you accept Him because you believe that He is the One that He says He is. He is the Son of God, He is the Savior. I receive you, I believe in you.

These are those who were born, not of blood, physical descent. Not the way you become a child of God. It's not of the will of the flesh, it's just not a result of human desire and conception. Not of the will of man, it's not a decision a human being made. It's the will of God. You know the scripture is never reluctant to openly, clearly and right at the beginning of a letter like this, the gospel of John, to declare the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. And ultimately it comes down to the sovereign action of God, born again by the will of God. Those who received Him, believed in Him, they wre born of the will of God. Now really between basically verse 1 and verse 14, you can skip to get the sense because you go right from verse 1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God; verse 14, and the Word became flesh. Then you have this further elaboration between to help us appreciate the dramatic impact here. But you want to be careful that you see the connection with verse 1. The last statement of verse 1 was the Word was God, and then the first statement of verse 14, and the Word became flesh. That's the awesome truth of the incarnation. How do you get your arms and mind around that? The Word was God, the Word became flesh, became human. The Word that was God, that has always been God became flesh.

Now we call this the theanthropic union, the God-man union, the hypostatic union of the divine nature and the human nature. God becomes man but He can never cease being God, and He is fully man. Two natures in one person, God and man, a human nature and a divine nature but only one person. How do I grab onto that? How do I understand that? One person, the Son of God, He is both God and man. The Word became flesh.

The second statement in verse 1, the Word was with God; the second statement in verse 14, the Word dwelt among us. The One who dwelt face to face with God the Father, dwelt in eternity, in that unique relation of intimacy. God the Father dwells now among us. From heaven to earth, now with human beings. He dwelt among us, tabernacled among us, maybe drawing from the Old Testament tabernacle where the glory of God dwelt and manifested His presence. And it says we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The glory of God was manifested, the very nature and being of God. Colossians states twice, once in chapter 1 and once in chapter 2 that all the fullness of deity dwelt in Him in bodily form. He did not cease in any way being fully God. The independent use of His prerogatives of God, He set aside, but as far as His being and essence, He was fully God dwelling with a fully human nature in a human body. Remarkable.

He manifests the glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father. That word only begotten gets a lot of discussion. The word really doesn't come from the word begotten, as we would think of it, the only begotten as the one begotten in the sense we would think of it. It comes from the word “to be.” It denotes that He is the only One of His kind, He is in that sense unique. There is no one else like Him. He is the only begotten of the Father, the sole One, the only One. There is no other. He is the only begotten of the Father. We can become children of God, he just stated that, other passages tell us we become sons of God. But not sons like He is, we can never be a Son like He is. He has been eternally in the presence of God. He is Himself God. We see some of the benefits and some of the blessings and something of the character of God implanted in us by the new birth, but He is a Son in a way no one else ever has been or ever will be. And so He is the only begotten of the Father. Unique. John 3:16, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, His one-of-a-kind Son, we could translate that. We get caught up in that aspect of begotten, but that's a misidentification of the word. The derivation of that word does not come from the word begotten. He is the only one of his kind Son.

Come over to Hebrews 11:17, by faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten. That's drawn from Genesis 22:2. Interestingly, when the Jews translated the Old Testament into Greek a couple hundred years before Christ, they used this word. It means the only one of its kind, it doesn't mean begotten, the only one of its kind because they understood what was being said there. Because Isaac was not the only child that Abraham fathered, he was not even the first son that he fathered. Ishmael was. And then later Abraham fathered other sons recorded in Genesis 25. But Isaac is the only one of his kind in the sense that he is the only one in whom all the promises that God had given to Abraham in His covenant with him could be fulfilled. So he is unique in that sense. He's the only one of his kind. If he died there would still be Ishmael, but Ishmael couldn't be the son in whom the promises God gave would be fulfilled. Isaac is the only one of his kind. That's the point.

And so we come back to John 1, Jesus Christ is the only begotten from the Father, He's the only One of His kind, He is unique. We become sons of God but that's through a relationship with Christ. But we will never be a son in the way that Christ is in His uniqueness.

He is full of grace and truth. Grace and truth are focused in Him. What is the source of grace and truth? It's God and here in particular it is God the Son. God's grace comes to us in Christ, His truth is fully revealed in the One who said, I am the way, the truth and the life. So you want to experience God's grace in salvation and come to the truth of His salvation, you come to Jesus Christ. And it's to reveal God's grace and God's truth in a fuller and greater way than had ever been revealed before.

John the Baptist testified of Him and cried out saying, this is the One of whom I said, He who comes after me has higher rank than I. For He has existed before me. John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus Christ but John says He is of higher rank, higher authority than I am. He existed before me. You say, John, you are confused, you are the older. Well humanly speaking, yes, He was born six months after me but He existed before me because at the beginning He already was.

For of His fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. His fullness, He is the One, verse 14, who is full of grace and truth. So verse 16, for of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. _________________done in Christ. He came to be the Savior and there was grace before Christ came, revealed in God's dealing with His people through Old Testament times. But never the fullness of grace we have in Christ, and even the grace bestowed upon them is bestowed on the foundation of the fact that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world, we saw when we studied Revelation. God could bestow grace on them because in His eternal plan His Son would come to this earth, be born into the human race and suffer and die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. And so God could bestow His grace. But the fullness of grace and the manifestation of any grace that is ever bestowed in created comes through the One who is full of grace, Jesus Christ.

The law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. That's what we're saying. Even the grace and truth manifest in Old Testament times is based upon God's eternal plan that focused in His Son and the work that He would accomplish.

No one has seen God at any time. Now there are manifestations of God in the Old Testament, but no one has seen God in His fullness. No man can see God in that way and live, we are told. The full display of who He is as God and all that He is. No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten, and there is a discussion here of whether it is the only begotten Son or the only begotten God. I don't think it makes a difference and the reason I'll tell you in a moment. The only begotten One, God or Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. The only begotten, this discussion is over which manuscripts, older manuscripts have God, the majority of manuscripts have Son. I think the point here is that it's the only begotten Son, and the word God is in apposition to only begotten. The only begotten Son who is God. This totally unique Son, the One who is a Son in a way that no one else is, the One who is God, which we've just talked about in verse 1. He is God and the only begotten, verse 14, from the Father, which would be the only begotten Son, who is God. That's the point here. The only begotten Son who is God, he's picking up what we had in verse 1, who is in the bosom of the Father. So we were told at the end of verse 1, the Word was God. Now we're told the only begotten Son who is God, who is in the bosom of the Father. The second statement of verse 1 was the Word was with God, and we noted that denoted that intimacy and closeness, face to face. We still talk about it, I was face to face with him, I was right there. It's a picture, He was with God. Here we are told He is in the bosom of the Father. What does that indicate? The place of closeness, greatest intimacy. There is nothing between Him and the Father, He is in the bosom of the Father. This is how close they are. He was with God, face to face with God, in the bosom of the Father. The only begotten Son who is God is in the bosom of the Father.

He has explained Him. We carry this Greek word over into English, just transliterate it—He has exegeted Him, interpreted Him, explained Him, made Him known. It's a tremendous statement, the deity of Christ, what He has done. When He became a man, He has made God known in a fuller, clearer, greater way than had ever been done. That's where Hebrews was, this One who was the exact representation of the nature of God. That's why it is so amazing, these last days God has spoken to us in His Son. I mean, that is a higher, fuller, more complete revelation of God than had ever been given before because the One who is in His very essence and being Himself God comes to make God known. It's remarkable, it's amazing. The truth of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, that God became man so that He might bring the light of the revelation of Himself to Man, the work of His salvation to man.

We don't have to understand it all, we cannot understand it all. But we can understand enough to be responsible and believe it. I know you understand all that about the trinity and He is God the Son who dwelt in the presence of God, face to face with God, and He is a separate person from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, but there is only one God. No I don't, but it doesn't shake me a bit. He wouldn't be much of a God if I with this puny mind had a full understanding of Him. What about that God stepped down and was born into the human race so that He is fully and completely God and fully and completely man, a divine nature and a human nature joined together without intermingling and yet He is only one person. Do you understand that? No, I don't understand that. Do you believe that? Absolutely. Why? The Bible tells me so. Like the song says, Jesus love me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. I believe what God has said about Himself. I am glad He is greater than I am, I'm glad He is God, I'm glad I don't understand everything there is to know about Him. That will give me something to do for all eternity. Imagine the library I will have there. Wonderful, we keep growing in knowledge, but we know enough to know He is the God who saves.

What was Jesus Christ doing here? He came to be the Savior. Have you believed in Him? Have you come out of darkness into light?

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your Son. Thank you that He brought light. Lord, we don't understand everything, but by your grace we are privileged to understand all that we need to. We know that we are sinners and your Son is the Saviour and we are privileged to have our faith in Him and Him alone. And we give you praise. In Christ's name, amen.