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Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #55

JESUS calls US to be
members of His church
hand reaching out
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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide.

BY SETH WILSON of Joplin MO
from a study in
REVELATION UNVEILED, a study workbook
available from Mission Outreach in Joplin.

     The good friend of Jesus, the apostle John, in Revelation 19:13 refers to the conquering Lord as "the Word of God." John was not being mysterious (here), but expected Christians to KNOW this name for Jesus.

     In his earlier book, the gospel according to John, he had used this same title, "The Word" in expressing the significance of the FIRST coming of the Christ into this world.

     As we look toward the future triumph of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we need to realize that He has already come to the earth, and has already accomplished those things which secure (they GUARANTEE) the victory.

     The first 18 verses of the 1st chapter of the Gospel according to John are an introduction to John's account of the events in the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. All Christians would do well to memorize and meditate upon this precious gem of divine revelation.

      It's simple in form and wording, but very profound in meaning. Almost too easily, we see what John in John 1:1-18 means to say in a general way, so that we may overlook the force and significance of these tremendous truths. In very simple language, John 1:1-18 declares --

    These are supremely significant truths of  Christianity, and are at the heart of this religious faith. Other religions, at their very best, are capable only of showing man's seeking after God. This religion is the result of God's seeking after MEN.

    Other religions show man's need for God. Ours offers God's help TO man.

     If religion were, as some conceive it to be, only a collection of the best wisdom of MEN for ordering our personal lives and social relationships, it would probably be, even then, of some value for our short life on this earth. But CHRISTIANITY is far more and far better than that! This Way is not merely the experience of our fathers preserved for us -- it's the wisdom and power of God present with us. God with us and in us for our perfection and preservation here and hereafter, now and forever!

    Christianity is not a philosophy to be experimentally confirmed or disproved, revised or refined by US. It is instead a matter of facts faithfully witnessed, things done and forever unchangeable, and divine truths unerringly revealed.

     John 1:1-18 records the coming into the world of the greatest thing that has ever been IN the world -- life, light, glory, grace, and truth -- all embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. Here is told briefly but plainly:

  1. Who it was who came,
  2. Why He came to earth,
  3. How He was received on the earth, and
  4. What He accomplished by His visit.

     In telling who it was who came, John uses a title for Him that's used only in John's writings -- the Word. The WORD was, in the beginning. The WORD was with God. The WORD was God. That is, the WORD was deity, and had the nature of God the Father. The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us, and men (including John) beheld His glory (1 John 1:1; Revelation 19:13).

     The Greek word for WORD used in these expressions is LOGOS, which means much more than merely a word as a unit of speech. It often means a saying or extended utterance, the faculty of speech, instruction; a matter under discussion, a reason, an act of reasoning, or the power OF reason. In Greek, a mere word (as a thing spoken or a unit of language) is RHEMA, as used in Hebrews 11:3 and at least 66 other times in the New Testament scriptures.

     A most important indicator of a man's character are his words. JESUS is the supreme expression of God's character!

      Jesus Christ is much more than mere actions of God. He was (is) a person. In His entire personality and life He is the perfect expression of what the Father is and does. As John says in John 1:18, Jesus "declared him." That is, Jesus expressed plainly to human senses the nature and the will of God in a clarity never before known to mankind.

     Such an adequate manifestation of God was Jesus that He was able to say, "He who has seen me has SEEN the Father" (John 14:9), and "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). How well Jesus deserves the title, "Word of GOD."

      A person is a spirit being who has will and power of choice, who is capable of personal relations with others, such as feeling love or obligation, being pleased or displeased, showing goodness or judgment, and such things. GOD is a person. Any perfect representation and revelation of GOD must be made in the life and character of a person.

     The only one who can be the kind of character and who can live the kind of life that will adequately manifest the supreme being must himself be equal with God in the possession of divine attributes. That's Jesus, the man who was also God!

     John makes plain the fact of the personal existence of the Word from the beginning WITH God and LIKE God, and active in the creation of all things. But our understanding of such grand truth, so far beyond HUMAN reason and experience, is helped by other statements in divine revelation. Christ's pre-existence in the form of God and on equality with God is spoken of also in Philippians 2:5-7. His work as Creator is affirmed in Colossians 1:16,17 and in Hebrews 1:1-4.

     His deity and glory with God before coming to earth (as a man here) are stated or implied in John 8:58; 17:5; 6:62; and in Isaiah 9:6 and Micah 5:2. The following works of divine power and scope are attributed to Jesus of Nazareth --

      The deity of Christ is not a matter of cold, stale, abstract theology that has no practical importance to us.

      Rather, it's a truth of the greatest importance for each of us, for it's a matter of knowing whom we have believed, and being fully persuaded that whatever He has promised, He will DO.

The Unique And
Incomparable Jesus

     Jesus Christ in His earthly sojourn is identified by John as being God's ETERNAL WORD.

      In our common version, we read in John 1:14 of "the only-begotten of the Father," and in John 1:18 we see "the only-begotten Son." Think with me of a more correct translation (of MONOGENES) in those verses. For Jesus is only the first of MANY sons and daughters who are begotten by God's Holy Spirit in order to join the family of God. He IS unique in many ways, but He is NOT the only-begotten Son of God, as will be seen. The correct translation is UNIQUE rather than only-begotten.

     A frequent meaning of MONOGENES is "the only one of his (its) kind." That is, unique or unlike any other. And THAT definition fits Jesus. No one ever was like Him before. No one has been like Him since. No one ever will be the equal of Jesus Christ. So I feel that a better translation of the word as used in these two verses is UNIQUE rather than ONLY-BEGOTTEN. Think about it.

MONOGENES is used in Hebrews 11:17 to describe Isaac, who can be easily seen to NOT have been the only son begotten by Abraham (Ishmael and others were his sons as well). But Isaac was the son of promise. He was uniquely THE son of Abraham through whom the entire world was to be blessed. He was born long after the time of normal birth for both Abraham and Sarah. He was NOT the only begotten son, but he was unique. And so was Jesus, since every Christian JOINS Jesus in becoming sons and daughters of the Father, and our new birth is the result of having been begotten by God's Spirit through the gospel and then being born in the waters of baptism. We also are BEGOTTEN of God as was Jesus.

     Think of Jesus as uniquely God's Son in another way: John is in chapter one referring to Jesus not just as the earthly person but also as one who had been with the Father from the beginning. In every way Jesus is UNIQUE. If Christians should be thought of as being ADOPTED into God's family, yet Jesus was BORN as God's "natural" son. Any way you look at it, Jesus is UNIQUE and INCOMPARABLE. He not only was WITH God. He WAS God. All through eternity it has been so. His LIFE did not begin when he was begotten for earthly life, as ours does. Jesus is UNIQUE.

     Likewise, when our spiritual rebirth occurs, which makes us into sons and daughters of God. We were physically alive before we were born again. Jesus was alive before He was born physically.

     Before we leave the subject of the ONLY-BEGOTTEN Son of God, we should call attention to one fact -- IF any person experiences the new birth Jesus says is essential for entrance to eternal life, that person will have joined Jesus in having been BEGOTTEN of God and His Holy Spirit.

     John, in 1 John 2:29, says that "everyone doing righteousness is BEGOTTEN of him." In 1 John 4:7, he writes, "everyone LOVING is BEGOTTEN of God." In 1 John 5:1, "everyone BELIEVING that Jesus is the Christ is BEGOTTEN of God." And he speaks in 1 John 3:9, 5:1,4,18 of ALL CHRISTIANS as BEGOTTEN of God. In each of these verses, the Greek GENNAO (beget) is used, mostly in perfect passive participle form.

      John does not in these verses teach that Jesus is God's ONLY-BEGOTTEN Son, but says that every Christian is also begotten of God. Normal mammalian births DO require a begetting. For the NEW BIRTH, the begetting is done by GOD!

      KJV translates each of these uses (in 1 John) of GENNAO as born, except the second use in 1 John 5:18. Note that being born of your father has to mean exactly the same as being begotten of your father, for that's HIS part in the process. Let's let the Word speak of Jesus as UNIQUE, as the word is best translated in John, instead of denying that all Christians also are begotten of God. O.K.?

     And so John could rightly remind us in 1:18 that NO man has known God face to face, but one who is of the nature of God has come to us from the heart of God. In Jesus we can see the Father.

      It's not only because the teachings of Jesus are superior and effective that Jesus is important to us. That's surely true. But Jesus is supremely important because in reality He is GOD WITH US and speaks to us for God.

     The death of Jesus is more than an example of self-sacrificing meekness. It is the accomplishment, the completion of a divine plan of redemption with power to save the lost and purge the sinful. Jesus is God in the flesh.

     We need to realize the truth that the ONLY God there is can be seen in Jesus. There's NO God but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must have no other gods beside Him. If, in our wisdom, we make any philosophy about God that considers Him to be different from the character and purposes and teachings of Jesus, just as surely as if we had carved an idol out of wood, we have created an IDOL -- a false god.

     Let's not lose sight of the truth also that it is through JESUS that we must pay our respects to Jehovah God. He is the intermediary. No departed saint will do. Mary, mother of Jesus, will not do. Your own mother or father will not do. It's JESUS who now stands at God's right hand and represents US to the Father.

     If we want to pay any respect to GOD, or serve Him in any way, we must do it THROUGH Christ and according to God's will as revealed in CHRIST. We cannot know the true God, or serve Him, while rejecting or ignoring His UNIQUE SON. Beware of all those occasions on which men claim to honor God or to teach His will while they bypass Jesus and include in their ceremonies teachers who deny that Christ is God. "He who honors not the Son honors not the Father who sent Him" (John 5:23).

     The earthly life of Jesus was perfect in godliness. At the same time, it was truly human. For our sakes, He came to be really one of us. While never sinning, He was tempted in all the ways that we ever are tempted. Having suffered being tempted, He is fully able to help each one of us who now faces temptation. Jesus lived a very real and complete human life -- as a helpless babe, a growing boy, a working youth, and as a man of sorrows who served and saved humanity.

     No more than His deity is to be denied should we deny that Jesus was human (see 1 John 4:2 and 2 John 7). In order that He might die for us and now represent us before God, He became one of us. He even suffered our death, that through death He might free us from the sentence of the second death and from fear of the first death which all must face.

JESUS LIVES WITHIN US

     His coming to dwell among men on earth is especially significant when we let Him come and dwell in US! The Word of God not only dwelt among men two centuries ago. He is NOW dwelling in our hearts if we believe in Him and follow His Way.

     This is the real purpose of the incarnation, and of the teaching of the gospel good news. It's to BRING Jesus Christ into the lives of those who listen to the good news. He is our life and righteousness. He is our hope of eternal glory (see Colossians 1:27 and Galatians 4:19).

     When we genuinely accept Jesus as our LORD, when we make His death OUR death by dying to sin, then we can truly be made alive in Him. We are baptized into His death. Then we are counted as having been crucified WITH Christ. Henceforth the life of faith we live in Him is NOT our own life, but Christ living in us (see Galatians 2:20 and compare Romans 6:1-11).

     This is the divine purpose, and the abiding GLORY of the Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us!   --------------------   edited by Ray Downen.

          Brief Bible Study #55 from Ray Downen. To go back to Viewpoint's first page, click < here.   Or here to go on to Viewpoint Study 56. For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.