August 3, 2020
John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
CONSIDER THIS
Welcome to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint John. While the scope of the gospel is as vast as eternity, the agenda of the gospel, from the first word to the last, is singular. It is to reveal this all consuming reality: God is Jesus.
Do we realize just how astonishing this is? Can we fathom what we are actually saying?
God is Jesus.
We are saying that a human being, a real, living, breathing human being is the Creator of all that is, the very God of heaven and earth. Pick someone out of a crowd today. Take a good look at them, and try to grasp the reality that a person, just like the person you are looking at, could possibly be almighty God.
God is Jesus.
It seems reasonable to posit an invisible, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent deity and call this being God. It seems reasonable to posit an invisible Spirit who is distinct from and yet indivisibly one with God.
It seems patently unreasonable, even absurd, to posit that a visible, approachable, flesh-and-blood human being could possibly be the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God of the cosmos. And yet the Bible couldn’t be more emphatically clear on this point.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
God is Jesus.
As the Nicene Creed, the consensus faith of the church at all times and in all places has it:
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
God is Jesus.
It’s one thing to make the claim that Jesus is God. It strikes me as of another order to say God is Jesus. The Gospel of John, as well as the other three eyewitness accounts, does not set out to convince or prove that Jesus is God as though we were the jury who would render a verdict. No, we are the ones on trial. The Gospel of John purposes to reveal the single most important truth in the history of history—the only truth with the power to save us: God is Jesus.
THE PRAYER
Abba Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the mercy of sending your Son. Forgive us for sitting in judgment on him. As we open the pages on this Gospel, open the eyes of our hearts to perceive this revelation of all revelation: God is Jesus. It is in his name that we pray, amen.
THE QUESTIONS
1. Do you sense the change in order of magnitude between saying Jesus is God and saying God is Jesus. Why is that?
2. Of course, we believe God is Father and God is Holy Spirit. So why is it so critical to grapple with the implications that God is Jesus?
3. What would it mean to approach the Gospel of John not as those seeking proofs but as those who are hungering for divine revelation?
For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
One Response
Oh, my goodness. I have studied and read through John multiple times and yet never stopped to think of the profoundness of that statement: God is Jesus. Wow. Yes, count me in as one praying and hungering to receive this divine revelation as we journey together. Thank you, Rev. Walt!