SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/12/2015
9:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 The Nature of the Incarnation
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 1:14
Message of the verse: “14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt
among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father,
full of grace and truth.”
I
have to say that it has been a while that I spent three days on one verse, but
I have mentioned that this verse is probably the most important verse in Christianity
and perhaps the entire Word of God, for if we can gaze into eternity past we
would see that this was the plan of God, that is to send His Son into a world
that He created in order to save them from their sin. I know that this is something that we as
humans, cannot get our arms wrapped around, none the less this is true, for
this is what the Word of God teaches.
We
have looked at His glory very extensively in our last SD and not we want to
move on to look at what the word begotten means, for verse fourteen says “glory
as the only begotten from the Father.”
We learned that Jesus Christ manifested the same essential glory as the
Father, for as God they possess the same nature. “"I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30).” Now we have to look at what “only begotten”
means. John MacArthur writes: “Despite the claims of false teachers through
the centuries, monogenes (only
begotten) does not imply that Jesus was created by God and thus not
eternal. The term does not refer to a
person’s origin, but describes him as unique, the only one of his kind. Thus Isaac could properly be called Abraham’s
monogenes (Heb. 11:17) even though Abraham
had other sons, because Isaac alone was the son of the covenant. Monogenes
distinguishes Christ as the unique Son of God from believers, who are God’s
sons in a different sense (1 John 3:2).
F. F. Westcott writes, ‘Christ is the One and only Son, the One to whom
the title belongs in a sense completely unique and singular, as distinguished
from that in which there are many children of God.’ Jesus unique relationship to the Father is a
major theme of John’s gospel.
“Jesus’
manifestation of the divine attributes revealed His essential glory as God’s
Son, ‘for in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form’ (Col.
2:9). The two attributes most closely
connected with salvation are grace and truth.
Scripture teaches that salvation is wholly by believing God’s truth in
the gospel, by which one receives His saving grace.”
In
the early church there arose a problem when the apostle Paul went on his first
missionary journey and many Gentiles’ were saved. The problem was that at that time most
believers were Jews and some of them wanted to these Gentiles to follow Judaism,
that is be circumcised for one thing and follow the other rituals. Paul came to Jerusalem and there was perhaps
one of the most important meetings of the young church and the following is
what they decided was true: “"But
we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way
as they also are’ (Acts 15:11).” Now why
would I bring this up as we study this verse in the book of John? Because of the last portion of this verse
which speaks of grace and truth, which Jesus was full of as the verse tells
us. Paul writes to the Ephesians and tells them
how they were saved: “8 For by grace you have been saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast.”
2 Timothy 1:9 says (God) “has saved us and called us with a holy
calling, not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus
from all eternity.” Titus 2:11 “For
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,” with the result
that believers “being justified by His grace…would be made heirs according to
the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).
John
writes about grace and truth in verse 14 and there is no salvation grace except
to those who believe the “truth” of the gospel message. Paul writes the following in Ephesians 1:13 “In
Him, you also, after
listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-having also believed, you were
sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” James writes in 1:18 “In the exercise of His
will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of
first fruits among His creatures.”
Now
we move on to the word “full” and John MacArthur writes “Jesus Christ was the
full expression of God’s grace. All the
necessary truth to save is available in Him.
He was the full expression of God’s truth, which was only partially
revealed in the Old Testament (cf. Col. 2:16-17). What was foreshadowed through prophecy,
types, and pictures became substance realized in the person of Christ (cf. Heb.
1:1-2). Therefore He could declare ‘I am
the way, and the truth, and the life… If you continue in My word, then you are
truly disciples of Mind; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make
you free’ (John 14:6; 8:31-32).”
I
want, at this time to quote from a sermon that John MacArthur preached on March
8, 1970 which was on verses 14-18 of John chapter one.
“Now,
he says first of all, the Son of Man came full of grace. And that's true, His
message was grace, wasn't it? I mean, let's face it, if God dealt with us for
what we deserved, it would be pretty sad, wouldn't it? If God just gave us
justice, it would be pretty sad because we rebel against Him, we're stubborn,
we despise His ways, we walk in our own paths, we do the things that are
Satanic, we follow the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of
life, disobedient to God. If God just dealt with us on the basis of that He
could wipe us out and start with a whole new generation. But God doesn't deal
with a sinner on the terms of justice. Initially He deals in the terms
of...what?...of grace. And Christ came as the expression of grace. He was saying,
"World, I know you sinned. World, I know you've rebelled. World, I know
you hate Me but I love you. And I'm going to graciously give you opportunity to
accept My love and return it through Christ." And so Christ's coming was
pure love on heaven's part. Did we deserve Christ's coming? Did we earn it? Did
we do so many good things that we just forced it to happen? It was pure grace,
pure grace. And so Christ came with full grace, just what we needed, full
grace.
“Have
you ever thought about that? You see, grace is totally comprehensive. It
doesn't matter how rotten, vile, how absolutely detestable, how flagrant your
sin, how low you are, the scum of the earth, the worst human being that ever
lived, grace can handle you. It's full grace. Christ came full of grace...full
of grace.”
MacArthur
concludes with the following statement and then a quote from Gerald L.
Borchert.
“A
vague belief in God apart from the truth about Christ will not result in
salvation. As Jesus Himself warned, ‘Unless
you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins’ (John 8:24). Those who think they are worshipping God, but
are ignorant of or rejected the fullness of the New Testament teaching about
Christ, are deceived, because ‘he who does not honor the Son does not honor the
Father who sent Him’ (John 5:23; cf. 15:23).
In his first epistle John affirmed that ‘whoever denies the Son does not
have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also’ (1 John
2:23; cf. 2 John 9). Thos who reject God’s
full revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ will be eternally lost.”
“In
analyzing this crucial verse of the Prologue it becomes quickly apparent that
this verse is like a great jewel with many facets that spreads its rays of
implication into the various dimensions of Christology—the theology of
Christ. As a summary of this verse it
may be said that the evangelist recognized and bore witness to the fact that the characteristics ascribed only to God by
the Old Testament were present in the incarnate Logos, God’s unique messenger
to the world, who not only epitomized in person the awesome sense of God’s
presence in divine qualities God’s people had experienced repeatedly.” (Quote by Gerald L. Borchert)
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Later on in verse 16 we will see more on the
word grace and I am so thankful for the grace of God. You can earn grace, you just receive if from
the Lord and it is not just a onetime thing you continue to receive it as you
need it.
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
Trust the Lord to get me through the things that I have to do today by
giving me the grace that I need today.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “That which is done in part shall be done
away” (1 Corinthians 13:10.
Today’s Bible question: “Through whom did some
people accuse Jesus of casting out demons?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/12/2015 11:35 AM
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