The Gospel of John 1:1-18
John 1:1-18 · Vern Peterman · Jan 20, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492634131948

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Beginning in the text here, John 1, 1 through 18. So, Mary, you're looking more at spiritual insight from the prologue rather than narrative substantially. One of the things that we can do to look at it is just simply break it up into three parts. The next verse is 6 through 13, looking at John the Baptist as a witness.

Other things are said, but certainly that's a theme. And then finally, the word, which is a term brought to look at is just how John writes. John writes unlike Paul, who writes more as a logician. The Apostle Paul tends to write, you know, this, therefore this, because of this, since this, then this, John writes more like a musician, and even in the book of Revelation we have illustrated here, he goes between diminuendo and crescendo, alternating between heaven and earth there, and following certain patterns, patterns that he continues in the Gospel of John as well.

What you see there in the middle of page 1 is this chiasm pattern in the first 18 verses. that bullets four reasons for the use of this chiasm. One of them is chiasms provide emphasis by repetition and by providing a pivot at the center of the passage.

When we write in our modern era, how do we emphasize things? Sequential. Sequential, that is one. And how else do we emphasize things? Underline. Yeah, underlining, we bold, we italicize, do things of that sort. Yeah, larger fonts. In those days, that wasn't a pattern. They tended even to minimize punctuation. But what they would do is use this chiasm as one way of bringing emphasis, because you would repeat something, say it more than once, or you would have a key theme right in the middle of the chiasm. So it would be a way of emphasizing something. All right, next thing. a memory tool and a cross-check for copying by hand.

It is a Hebrew poetry pattern in a sense, but Hebrew poetry patterns may have other characteristics as well. One of them, for example, With a Hebrew poetry pattern, oftentimes it's an immediate restatement, whereas this restatement may actually be separated by a fair amount of text. The entire book of Matthew, as we pointed out going through Matthew, is one large chiasm. And so by the time you repeat something, it may be chapters later. Whereas a Hebrew poetry pattern typically is going to look at something being restated or repeated in the immediate context.

Something else there, chiasm is made for memory tool and a cross check for copying by hand. It was considered in New Testament times, it was considered that you would learn, if you were a disciple, you would learn the words of the rabbi. As a matter of fact, you might be thrilling one another over what those words of the rabbi were. And even though People were well able to read. Memorizing significant chunks of text was considered a very valuable and even essential thing. And so achaism made for an easier way for people to memorize things, because you had some kind of a pattern that you could follow.

One of the pictures that people would have in their mind is, here is a doorway, and they would have an archway. And you'd have at the top of the archway a keystone. And so they would picture a chiasm as, OK, here are the blocks in the doorway. And then the keystone is the pivot point. And then you'd go down the other blocks in the doorway.

And they would memorize a passage with that picture in mind. Chiasms made for an orderly presentation. We'd group thoughts together. example in here, mention of the word in the first verses and then the word in the last verses. Finally, chiasm served to help us check our understanding of each part of the passage. How would this chiasm pattern help us check our understanding? Because it's not just a straight poetry pattern, but If I see it and I notice this is repeating a theme, did I recognize that and have I picked up that theme?

It helps me understand that he's trying to focus on the word Why does that matter, that Christ pre-existed? That he didn't just come into existence when he was born of Mary, or conceived? Because God has always been. Yeah, God has always been. One of the things that comes out in this passage, and we're going to continue to see in John, is the deity of Christ. And you're right, God has always been, Christ is fully God and fully man.

By the way, the Jehovah's Witnesses say that Christ is actually Michael the Archangel, and that's why he's pre-existent. Because God made Michael the Archangel early. So that would be their story. But Christ, the Word, was spiritually pre-existent because Christ is deity.

That's spelled out here in this passage in John. Can you think of other places where it talks about Christ being the one who made things? Colossians 3. Colossians is a key book on pointing that out. All things were made by Him. The next one, John testified of Christ in the light of men. That's pointed out in this passage, as we're going to see right after this, where it describes John the Baptist as a witness.

And finally, all this is done and said so that you might believe. That's the turning point. And what does John say at the very end of the book? These things have been written so that you might believe. It is roughly a hundred times in the book. And in that passage we just made reference to these things were written that you might believe and that believing you might have life through his name. That's the last reference to believing in the Gospel of John.

But it's the same theme here. Okay, let's take a look at There is something else to look at in terms of John as a pattern. John writes masterfully. He writes simply, unlike Paul who writes with complexity. The Apostle Paul, by the way, sometimes even invents, as far as we can tell, three- and four-part compound words. The Apostle John writes simply, and yet he writes masterfully. Look at this in the top of page 2.

John 1.1-18 draws words and phrases from Genesis chapter 1 regarding creation, chapter 16 regarding Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, as well as Exodus chapter 33 in which Moses intercedes for Israel after Moses shattered the stone tablets in anger over Israel's sin. Isn't it interesting for the Apostle John to take those basically three chapters out of Genesis and Exodus and pull those into this passage here.

John 1.1.2.10 draws from Genesis 1. In the beginning, light, darkness, life, and the world was made for him. What two books in the Bible start with in the beginning? You've got Genesis and just one, John. So you have that pattern. The next one, John 1, 11-13 draws from Genesis 16.

Abraham offspring and descendants and doesn't give all those names but talks about the different ways that people, particularly Abraham, have tried to fashion history and have an impact. And what we find is, no, human beings trying to do things doesn't get it done. It's what God does that gets it done. And finally, John 1, 14-18 draws from words and images in Exodus 33.

Presence, tempt, gaze, saw, know God, Moses' name, of course, is mentioned there, show glory, cannot see God directly, and those show up in the order. So real interesting connections that John would make. John 1, 1, and 2, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Here's John, and he's got, in the beginning was the Word, so he's drawing from the start there in Genesis, but then he focuses on this title, the Word. which he calls Christ. As a matter of fact, he continues to call Christ in this book, 1 John and in Revelation.

He calls Christ the Word. Why is he going here from, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God? Why that distinction? Why does that matter? The Word was with God. characteristics of God. In the beginning was the Word, so this is talking about his pre-existence, right? And then the Word was with God, yeah? Well, it also means you'd have to say that if he's deity. Yeah, if he's deity, that makes good sense, right? Well, it has to be. Yeah.

Does he say that the Word was created by God? No. And that was the Jehovah's Witness teaching. As a matter of fact, their translation says at the end there, instead of the word was God, they have the word was a God, lowercase g. So they call Christ a created God, lowercase g. Yes.

So did Gnosticism back in those days believe in Trinity? Is this an answer to Gnosticism? Gnosticism, if you look at it, there are a couple of different things that Gnosticism would teach. Gnosticism, which was, this would be early stages of it, it really kind of blossomed in the second century, but Gnosticism would teach that God is good, matter is evil.

So the moral teaching of Gnosticism It doesn't matter what you do in the body, because the body is evil no matter what you do. Or the other thing is you've got to beat down the body and do bad things to it to keep it suppressed. And so they would tend to go towards asceticism, beating down the body and denying it. Or just immorality is the other way that they would go.

But it would be based on the idea that God's good, matter's evil, and you're not going to fix it. So the idea that Christ, being full deity, would come and actually dwell in a body to the Gnostic, they couldn't abide by that, so they would end up coming up with various ways of trying to describe Christ that wouldn't have him be fully God and fully man.

In the beginning was the Word, so Christ pre-existed. The Word was with God, so this meant that there was a relationship between Christ the Son, the Word, and the other members of the Trinity. And then the Word was God. It meant that Christ was in fact Deity and not some created being that was created early. And then, he was in the beginning with God. How is that different from what was said before?

Yes? No? Yeah? Just to guess, is that imperfect where he was existing? Whenever the beginning was, he was already there? Yeah. He was in the beginning with God meant that he was in fact deity. It summarizes He was in the beginning with God, he pre-existed, he was with God, and the reason that that makes sense is because he was in fact God, and not a created being. So it is a way of summarizing all that was said previously, and then as we point out here, his fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit was already there in the beginning. His fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit was already there in the beginning. As a matter of fact, he's going to pray about his fellowship with the Father in John chapter 17. John 1-3, all things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.

So the first part is the positive statement, and then the next part is the negative statement. In order to be absolutely clear, He didn't say most things came into being through him, or the rest of the things came into being once he was made. He doesn't say that. Apart from him, nothing came into being. So the other thing is, this is an absolute statement. All things were made by him. Nothing came into being without his bringing it into being.

And let's think about this. We can certainly think of that in terms of the physical realm. Are there things that were created in the spiritual realm? Yes. And what things were created in the spiritual realm? We have angels and then human beings. How are angels and human beings similar creatures? Both angels and human beings are spiritual creatures, right? So there's a similarity there. What's different about angels and human beings?

Wings. Pardon? Wings, yeah. Having a body. We've had to work centuries and centuries to get the wing part. I'm sorry, you said? Have bodies. Bodies, okay. It's an interesting one. We have bodies as a part of our nature. Angels have bodies When you see them described in heaven, they have a body, but in terms of their human existence, it's real interesting, they embody themselves differently, and they will either be unrecognized as angels, or else, very commonly, you'll see, don't be afraid, because they're just spectacularly glorious as a created being. Yeah? They also have souls, and it's as an idea. also have souls. And it's because on the spiritual side, they're spiritual beings. And that's a part of, we're not like angels, but it's a part of being made in God's image as a spiritual being.

Isn't this what God's saying here, kind of an addendum to Genesis? but it doesn't mention Jesus. Yeah, what's interesting is that the New Testament provides insights into the Old Testament that are not contained in the Old Testament. Example, Moses and the veil in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We don't get all the insights about Moses and the veil from the context of the Old Testament. We do get additional insight looking at the New Testament. We find out more, we find out from 1 that Israelites were baptized into Moses under the cloud and in the sea. So that's a New Testament insight into the Old Testament that you wouldn't get just from reading the Old Testament.

And the insight, although the Son is revealed, that is, the Son of God is revealed in the Old Testament, that He is the agent of creation was not explicitly revealed. It is revealed here in John and in Colossians. So that's one of those areas where we get additional insight reading the New Testament, just being a case in point. what Colossians 116 says, and we have that quoted at the bottom there, for by him, and it's by Christ, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible.

And that's one thing to ponder, is it's not just a physical creation, as spectacular as that is, but there's also a spiritual creation. Other than the persons of the Godhead, All other spiritual beings are created spiritual beings. Even those fallen. Even those fallen. Created spiritual beings.

Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. Now that's one other thing. For Him. All things created for Him. How can all things be created for Him? he's going to rule. In other words, when you look at for him, there's a ruling, there's also a glorifying. There's also a glorifying that's part of God's eternal purpose.

Let's take a look here at the top of page 3. One of the things that we'll want to take a look at is this principle, John wrote with words like they were a baton in a relay race. And we'll see in a minute what we mean here. He passed words from book to book. He calls Christ the Lamb here in the first chapter of John, and then he keeps using that all throughout the book of Revelation. We see the word here in the Gospel of John, and then in 1 John, and then again in the book of Revelation. So we see words getting passed from book to book and we also see passing names from verse to verse. Let's see what that looks like here. John 1, 4-5, top of page 3.

In him was life. So what did you see? Initially Christ is called what? The Word. And then you see Christ is called the Word and then the pronoun he and him gets used and In this verse here we find life, and then it switches from life to light. 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 we see this pattern here, the word, he or him, the life, and the light.

So John passes not only terms and words and phrases, one book to the next, but he passes them like a baton in a relay race, and we see Christ in these verses being called different things, and he switches from one to the next in terms of what he calls him. Why would that be helpful or valuable to use different words? Why don't we just call Christ a word all the way through the book? Why is it valuable for John to switch from one term to the next, or one title to the next?

If you look at it, you're correct. It gives different dimensions and different descriptions because that's helpful in our understanding. Christ is not monotone, but in fact there are all these different aspects and different ways of seeing Christ, all of which are important, all of which are valuable. Both life and light are major themes in the Gospel of John. We'll find between those two words, we're going to see them dozens of times through the book, along with the word believing. Like the purpose statement that we mentioned earlier towards the end of the Gospel of John, these things are written that you might believe, and that believing you might have life through this name. Here's that word life that shows up again.

John 1.6-8. Now we're coming into a different section here. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. So here's the introduction to John the Baptist.

And he came as a witness to testify about the light. So here's a reference to the light again. So that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. Why is it important that this distinction be made? He's not the light, but he came to testify about the light.

Yeah? Because it took a living human being to give the rest of the human beings a clue. Okay, yeah. So here's a living human being giving the rest of them a clue. Let's think about it. What if John said, yeah, I'm the light. What does that do? Nullifies practice. Yeah, that's a problem. Because he's claiming something. That is not the case.

In fact, what John the Baptist does, as we'll see, is he makes every effort to differentiate between himself and Christ. I'm not worthy to untie a sandal. He existed before me, even though John's six months older. So he keeps different. No, I'm not the Messiah. I'm not the prophet. He makes those denials.

John points to Christ, behold the Lamb of God. Don't look at me, look at Him. These verses hand off the reference to Christ as the Light. John sent from God, came as a witness to testify of Christ the Light. And we're going to see that in further detail starting in verse 19. The beginning of these verses is the first mention, excuse me, in the middle, is the first mention of belief which is a stated purpose of the Gospel of John, John 20, 31.

These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that is the Messiah, the Son of God, and we made the point previously, the Christ and the Son of God are not just repetition of the same thing. The Messiah is one who comes here on this planet to be the King of Israel and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the Gentiles and also we as the Bride, the Church as the Bride and Christ as the Bridegroom so these are not just identical titles as the Son of God is the second person of the Trinity that's a different statement from the Messiah but he's He's writing these things so you believe that he's the Messiah, the one who will come again to this earth, to Israel, and the Son of God, the one who pre-existed.

That believing he may have life in his name. By the way, the Jews were inclined to think of, and even to this day the Orthodox Jews, inclined to think of the Messiah as not being deity. So part of what he's putting together here is, here's the Messiah who is deity. That was something that was a part of why the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Wait a minute, you're claiming to be God too? Whoa, that's a bit much, so far as they were concerned. John 1, 9, and 10, right in the middle of page 3.

There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. So they have this word light all of a sudden changing now to pronouns again. Pronouns again. And let's look at the statement. He was in the world.

Okay, and what kind of a statement is that? Christ was in the world. He was living here, and related to your Gnostic question, he came into this physical world, right? And to the Gnostics, that just was, you know, they tried to find ways to separate him from that idea because they just thought the physical world was bad.

Yeah. And he was, since he was in the world, he was also bound by matter, space, and time. Yeah. Like everybody else. Here is God who deliberately steps into the limitation of time. limited by matter, space, and time voluntarily. Voluntarily. He didn't have to do it, but he did.

Yes? Is this a good point to ask about in the beginning? Uh-huh. Is that the beginning of time? Is that what we're seeing? What's interesting is that if you look throughout the Bible, there's a term in the beginning, there's even before the beginning. What is in the beginning? In the beginning of what? Before everything existed. All right. Including space, time. Before God existed? No. Thing, I said. Yeah, yeah. Not sheep.

Here is another point of differentiation. It was common in Greek philosophy. It was common in Greek philosophy to look at the physical world as always having existed and continuing to exist eternally, and to see deities as coming into existence, or even going out of existence, but having an eternal physical universe. That was the picture in Greek philosophy. that and says, no, deity exists before and the physical universe and even other created spiritual beings are brought into existence by this deity that lives forever. Yeah? Doesn't that word for beginning in Genesis 1 actually mean the chief of all beginnings? So there actually could be other beginnings other than that one. And I always took that to mean that this is the beginning when man was created.

Yeah, what we don't have clearly described, for example, is when were the angels created? There have been some speculations about that, different thoughts and ideas. Job indicates that the angels sang when some of the heavenly bodies were created and things of that sort, but it still is not ultimately clear. The Jews have some traditions about which days the angels much.

So it's possible there are other beginnings, if you will. What's revealed, however, is here is the beginning of the physical universe, and obviously by that time the angels had been created at some point, and we see described on was the earth, but it wasn't the sun, moon and stars. And it wasn't until the sun, moon and stars, meaning that we had the order, but the implication there in Genesis is of time, that we could document 360 days of the year and so forth. And so our measurement of time began at that point.

Because God put it that way. He painted that. Well, here's what's interesting. From a human reference standpoint, that's true. However, we do have days that were begun, and evening and morning, even before the beginning. So, what that would say is that the stars and the sun, the moon, things like that, were additional chronometers, if you will, given for us. But, in fact, time was begun at the beginning, which is interesting. We have formulas for life that include time, right? Okay, let's take a look here. Here is John 1, 11-13.

He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. First part of that, He came to His own, and His own could not receive Him. Who are His own?

The Jews. Previous to that, in verses 9 and 10, He talked about coming into the world, and the world not knowing Him. It's interesting, that's more of a global perspective. Here, there was also among the Jews, His very own people, They didn't, in general, recognize him. So there's the summary statement that the Jews as a whole did not believe him and receive him. But is that a universal statement? Did absolutely no one receive him? No. That's not quite the case. You had some who did, right? And to as many as did believe and receive him, what happened? What took place? Because they believed, they became children of God. Because they believed.

Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, which is an unnamed reference to what we see referred to in Genesis with Abraham. He said, boy, I'm going to start myself a line of people. No, that's not God's design. But of God. We're going to see more in John chapter 3 what it means to be born of God. One of the things that we see in this prologue is it's got the seeds of things that will be expanded on in later chapters.

So, John 1.14, and the Word, here's the return to that term, the Word. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word became flesh.

Remember what we said about the Gnostics? They said that this physical universe is bad. So the Gnostics would choke at this, because they said, oh wait a minute, the physical world is bad. So here's John, right at the outset, before he gets started into the narrative, just shoots Gnosticism right off by saying, the Word, who is God and was with God, and by him all things were made in the physical realm. And of course, Christ making all things when the physical realm is bad, that shoots the Gnostics as well.

But here, the physical world that he made, he entered into it voluntarily, and became subject to time, and became limited to this matter that was in his body. So in essence, during that period of time were used to say that Jesus was not God. If you look at it, a great many of the cults then, and now, would choke at the things that are said in this passage.

But isn't that our nature? Isn't that our nature from now? It's not just agnostics. That's what our nature is. Ultimately, what do people do? They came up with other doctrines. rather than what is true. And John is teaching doctrine here. He's saying this is true and that truth is embodied in a person. And that's Jesus Christ the Word.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Someone we could relate to. He dwelt among us. And dwelt among us, what does John mean by us? Are you? Humanity, and certainly it includes, yeah, he dwelt among us as human beings. Can John say this personally? Yes, John personally spent time with Christ the Word. Dwelt among us, and he could go, you know, yeah, he could include himself in that. So it's not just a general statement, it's a personal statement as well. It includes both. And we saw, okay, so this is very personal, we saw his glory.

Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. And by the way, at this point, grace and truth do not have definite articles, so it's looking at the fundamental character of grace and the fundamental character of truth. And notice, full of it, not just having a bit of it. Not just having a bit of it. He didn't say, no, there's some grace there and some truth there. No, it's full. Full of that character of grace and truth.

So the Word, the Son of God, was in fact deity, became a human being, and John the Apostle saw his glory, the radiant essence of who he is. When you see the word glory, that's what it's looking at. The radiant essence of who God is. having full divine qualities of grace and truth. What's the origin of grace? It's God himself, and it's demonstrated and exampled by Christ himself.

How about truth? Absolute truth. Jesus, John 14, 6, we'll see it as we get through here. Jesus' eye being in fact word pair, I being in fact God, in contradistinction to anyone else, am the specific way, the specific truth, the specific life. So truth and life, themes we've seen in this passage, are brought out even further. Okay, let's take a look at the top of page four.

John 1.14 expanded and explained in light of 2 Corinthians 3.18. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and of God's communication of his essential being, came so as to be born in human form, and though total deity, he was dwelling in that human form even while among us, and we beheld, and oh, this is awesome, We beheld his glory, that radiant essence of God himself, since Christ is the unique Son of an expression from the Father, full of the grace and the truth which are God's eternal and infinite character, as we behold John's description of how he and the disciples beheld Christ. We are beholding him as well, and as a work of the Holy Spirit, are being made to grow in and into the glorious character of Jesus Christ.

John 1.15, John testified about him and cried out, saying, This is he of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. So now, instead of just referring to John testifying, he actually gives a quote of John.

In a few verses we're going to see how John will write John 1.29.30, The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, 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 a higher rank than I, for he existed before me, even though John is six months older than Jesus. So Jesus is higher ranking and prior in time to John the Baptist. But John put the focus on him. My job is to point to him. That's my job.

So John 8.59, we will read, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. Statement of deity. And not just before Abraham was born, I was, but before Abraham was born, I am. The statement, egoimi, the claim that God himself made in the Greek Old Testament. It's not just a decree.

Is God subject to time? Only as we see him volunteering to be subject to time, as in Jesus Christ. That's where you put your mind around. Yeah. One of the ways we've demonstrated before is to look at it and say God stands outside of time. I'm not sure that that's a complete description, but it's probably as good as we can do.

Looking at all times as present. Looking at all times as present. He looks at the time that we are experiencing now, the time non-linearly, as present. He looks at the time when Christ was there on the cross as present. He looks at the time when in the beginning all things were created as present. All things God sees as now, unlike us who are stuck in this time tunnel. And we look back and we look forward. So we heard one day coming to church with that guy on the radio that the universe is currently expanding into eternity. So That's really hard for me to grasp.

But if it's expanding, and time, space and matter is the universe itself, then when it expands, time, space and matter is expanding into... What if? Well, that use of the word expand is based, I think, on Big Bang theory. I don't know. And the reality is that Big Bang theory has some technical issues. So they tend to make various islands that aren't expanded to try to resolve technical issues. All I'm saying is that the universe is expanding though, correct? Not necessarily, but that is the theory according to Big Bang, but it's not been demonstrated.

Back here in John 1.14 it says, We beheld His glory, that radiant essence of God Himself.

Now, was that limited to the apostles and the believers, or was that glory available for anybody that looked upon Christ to see? Well, very interesting. The Sadducees and the Pharisees that Jesus was speaking to, and says, unless you believe, you will die in your sins, did they behold His glory too? When they came to him and said, you know, you're healing on the Sabbath. You're claiming to be God. We're going to pick up rocks. You wouldn't think so. Very interesting.

The ability to see spiritually is not universal, is it? And so how does the Apostle Paul put it? The unbelievers have minds that are blinded. So it doesn't just come down to discernment. You could see his glory, whereas the ones that weren't could not. It has shades of pessimism. Let's think about this. What does Jesus get called here? The light? Is everything light? It does say he enlightens every man. Does that mean that everyone sees the light? No. So he gives light. to everyone, but not everyone is receiving it. So it's like salvation. It's available. It's available.

But only some, only some, here's John saying we beheld his glory and here's some other guys that are picking up rocks. What? You're claiming to be God. We're going to stone you. Right? And more than once that happened. Right, it's crucified. Yeah, let's crucify this guy. Get some nails in him. So it's interesting that you have John say, we beheld his glory, and you've got other people that say, hey, you need some rocks. You need some nails. Amazing the difference in perspective on this very same man.

Here's the last verses, 16 through 18, and I've changed the translation by putting the death and their articles in here, because that's something they didn't do in the New American Standard. For of His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, the grace and the truth were realized through Jesus Christ. And that's different. This has definite articles here above where it talks about grace and truth. It does not. So I've made a distinction.

For the law was given through Moses and the grace and truth, the grace and the truth, were realized through Jesus Christ. Verse 18, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten of God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. How did Christ explain Him? Well, first He had to be visible to man. I'm sorry, what? If you know me, you know the Father. Okay, if you know me, you know the Father. Okay. Yeah? He had to be visible to man. Okay.

If you look at it, how did Christ explain him? How did that come across? Did Christ just talk a lot? In other words, we beheld his glory, we saw his miracles, yeah? He demonstrated his character naturally. So there was not just words, although there was that, but it was also lived out. So it was a well as actions that were consistent with that message.

Well, he said that if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And it says in Colossians that he was of the image of God, or the character of God. He was in the likeness of man, but he had the character of God. Did the Jews that wanted to stone Jesus for claiming to be God, did they see the Father when they saw Christ?

Probably not. are the son and the father the same, how is it that he can say, you've seen me, you've seen the father? Because he has the exact representation. He's revealing the father. He's revealing the father. Yeah, let's think about that a little bit. How can Christ say, you've seen me, you've seen the father? It says right here in this verse here, no one's seen God many times.

He's not talking about the physical appearance. No, not the physical appearance, right? The action, and kindness, and love, and all those other things. Christ was the only available vehicle at that time that could You got glimpses of it and you really didn't get much of an essence because it was just externalities. But here he is, God is in flesh, and he's showing. Alright, let's think about this. If the Son and the Father are not the same person, what about the Son and the Father are alike? that Christ can represent the Father.

In essence. They are alike in essence. As human beings, we're used to one being, one personal being, one essence. So having three personal beings and one essence kind of blows our circuits. But, we talk about in essence they are one. How else would you say that they are one? Purpose in purpose. Okay, so in other words, they're not going different directions in purpose. Okay, good.

How else? when we think of The way that Christ revealed the father He revealed his grace He openly expanded what we know about that What we know about him, are there things about God the Father and God the Son that are the same? Here we have the attributes. We beheld His glory, Christ's glory. Does the Father have glory? Yes. The Father has glory too. So Christ's exhibition of glory, if you will, represents also the Father's glory.

We understand the Father from Him. Well, think about that. What did Christ set aside, and we're going to be seeing that basically through the whole book. What did Christ set aside when he became born of Mary and became not just the Son of God, but the Son of Man? Because we would be blinded if he came. Okay. We'd be held as glory. It's there. But think about that. What did he set aside? Philippians chapter 2 actually spells this out pretty well. What he gave up was privilege.

Here is the Son of God who does not subject, who is not subject to time, who voluntarily makes himself subject to time. Here is the Son of God who is not limited to space, who voluntarily steps into, I'm going to dwell in this physical body. He gave up the prerogatives of deity that he might have exercised. Yes, he gave up the prerogatives, privileges of deity in order to step into time and step into space and be subject to those limitations.

And He did the will of the Father. He actually did us a favor by doing it, or we couldn't stand His presence. We couldn't stand His presence. Here's Isaiah, who is in the presence of God, in Isaiah chapter 6. And he goes, woe is me. Woe is me. But all the things that he gave up were waiting for him once he got back again. Yeah, think about that. Here was Christ the Son who made everything.

Has Christ the Son changed when he ascends into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father? Has Christ the Son changed? He learned obedience. That's the human attitude. Alright, and so did Christ the Son change? Did the Son of God change from the time before He became embodied until afterwards? A direct quote, I am the Lord, I change not. So the Son of God, He didn't change as the Son of God, what changed?

The Son of Man. Yes, the Son of Man, He took on a human body and went through the things that He voluntarily went through historically. And now we have a man in heaven who has been through things he hadn't been through before, that as the son of God he did not change, but had this humanity added to his deity.

And what's amazing is in that process we were identified with his history in those five ways. We died with him, were buried, raised, ascended, and seated with him in the heavens. That's amazing. But the man in heaven is there with a glorified body. Yes. The man in heaven is there with a glorified body. And when we see him, we will be like him. Accept him as deity. Accept him as deity. We have as the last line there, while nobody on earth has seen God's essence, Christ expressed full deity in human and bodily form, being fully God and fully man, as the Son of God and the Son of Man. The Son of God pre-existed in eternity past. The Son of Man came into being there in Israel about 2,000 years ago.

That's difficult to grasp because when you see God in the Old Testament and the essence that he portrays, I mean, he goes in there and says, kill all the people. And I mean, he's a very aggressive and very almost non-loving relative to the populace, but now here comes Jesus, who seems to really be on the other end of the spectrum, yet they're exact. Well, you're diving into something we don't have time to dig into, but what's interesting is you will find in both the Old Testament and the New Testament some pretty intense things. Here's Jesus, who doesn't kill us all, in his first coming, and then in his second coming, he's got the sword coming out of his mouth. And he will speak judgment at his second coming, which he didn't in the first.

So, you know, you've got some real interesting discrepancies. Yes? Just a thought here. He did, in a sense, judge the world when he came into flesh. He said, I have only come to give the nation Israel. He sent out the disciples just to the Jews, not to anybody else. He made some very specific points of discernment.

We're running out of time. Let's take a minute to pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this prologue. What an amazing introduction to this book. It has the seeds of so many things. here as we step our way through this amazing, masterfully written book. And we thank you for the privilege we have, the honor we have, to look at things that you've inspired and preserved for us and brought forth.