The Greatness of the One Who Came

Transcript

GRM 1172
12/18/2016
The Greatness of the One Who Came
John 1:1-18
Gil Rugh

We’re going to direct our attention to a familiar passage of Scripture just to remind us of the greatness of the One whose birth we celebrate. We’re going to focus our attention in John chapter 1 so if you want to turn there and then when you get to that you can leave a marker there and I want to go back to a couple of Old Testament passages just to read as background for what John has to say as He opens His gospel.

Come back to the book of Isaiah chapter 9. You know it is amazing when we come to the New Testament God has unfolded with a clarity not known before the truth that the Old Testament anticipated the coming of Jesus Christ to earth. It brought a fullness, completeness, and clarity of revelation that had not existed before but then with the clarity of the coming of Christ, so much of what the Old Testament prophesized becomes so much clearer and we understand it with a clarity that the Old Testament prophets did not have. Isaiah chapter 9 a very familiar passage prophetic of Christ in verse 6. “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

Part of the confusion the Old Testament prophets had, a prophecy like this that called of the coming of their Messiah, His greatness, the expanse of His kingdom to cover everything and an endless kingdom and yet when you get to chapter 53, Isaiah talks about the suffering and death of this Messiah. As Peter would later write in His epistle, the Old Testament prophets couldn’t understand the ruling and reigning in glory of the Messiah and the suffering and death of the Messiah. How could that all fit together? Now, with the coming of Christ we understand that He’s coming to this earth twice. The first, to be born into the human race and suffer and die to pay the penalty for sin, be raised in victory and then He will come again, at a yet future time, to establish a kingdom which will fit the description we just read in Isaiah.

Now if you turn over to a contemporary of Isaiah to the prophet Micah. The book of Micah and we’ll look at chapter 5 verse 2. “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” A remarkable passage. That little insignificant town of Bethlehem, five miles from Jerusalem from this city of David, would be born the One who was to rule Israel and yet amazingly this One going to be born in Bethlehem is the One who has lived from long ago, from the days of eternity. Amazing!

He goes on to talk about the rule and reign of this Christ and you see there’s not the clarity we have what is said here is clear but how both can be true and yet you put in suffering and death in the mix how do you grasp the reality that God is going to become a man? The One that is going to be born in Bethlehem is the One who has existed from the days of eternity.

We come to the New Testament and the gospel of John begins on these very notes. John wrote with the intention if you want to go to the end of his gospel in chapter 20-verse 31 verse 30 for the context. We just have a sampling of the miracles and wonders that Christ did during His earthly ministry. “Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,” the Anointed One, the Messiah, “the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” John wrote so you could understand and believe in the Person and work of Jesus Christ and that is the only way of salvation. Through believing in Him you will have life in Him, that you may believe in Jesus and that believing you may have life in His name. The wonder of it all, the inexhaustible truth and yet by simply believing in Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done, you can have life in His name.

Come back to John chapter one, a passage we’ve looked at on a number of occasions. John chapter one verses 1-18 are what we call the Prologue to the gospel. So we read as John gets near the end of his gospel what his purpose in unfolding the truths that he has recorded concerning Christ and His earthly ministry. Well the first 18 verses of Chapter 1 give you an overview of Jesus Christ, who He is, the wonder of His Person as God and as man. We’ll just pick up a couple of things before we highlight some of these verses.

You’ll note verse one. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He declares there something very clearly concerning the Deity of Jesus Christ. Then when you come to 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.” Those two verses put together, the fact that this One born at Bethlehem is the One who is from the days of eternity yet He became a man and as a man, He revealed with a fullness and clarity the glory of God in the greatest way possible.

The apostle Paul would write in his letter to the Colossians the wonder of the fact that in Christ in bodily form there dwelt all the fullness of Deity. That is something that our minds cannot fully grasp. The eternal God who had no beginning, will have no end is born into the human race and the fullness of Deity is contained in that human body. John just gives us a summary of these great truths and the absolute necessity of believing in this One if we are to have life. You realize the importance of Jesus Christ and the startling fact there is no way to have eternal life, to be a child of God but through faith in Him.

The celebration of Christmas takes place over so much of the world. You turn on TV and they’re talking about it and should you say, ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’ and you know we have Nativity scenes and debates about this but so little understanding of what really is being declared here. That we are a people lost and without hope. We are under the condemnation of a Holy God. There is no hope of our being saved from the fires of hell except for what we are remembering, that God entered the human race, became a man, died on the cross so that we through faith in Him could be cleansed from our sin, become the children of God. As Jesus would tell Nicodemus in John chapter three, “you must be born again” and we enter into spiritual life. We pass from darkness to light, from death to life. There is no other way. All the religions of the world culminate in an eternal hell. There is only one way of salvation. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.” They can debate it, they can argue over it, they can discuss it but they cannot change it.

John unfolds these great truths for us in these opening verses. We’ve done more of the details on other occasions but we’re just going to highlight these verses. It starts in verse one. “In the beginning” and I take it that he is carrying us back to the beginning, Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning, God created . . .” Well the God who was involved in the creation here and bringing all things into existence is the One who is going to become flesh. He will be involved with His Father. We have God the Father at work God the Son and as well God the Holy Spirit. “In the beginning was the Word.” I will say something about that name for Christ, “the Word” but that verb was it is what is called an imperfect tense, a Greek imperfect tense which denotes continuous action in the past time. You could translate this, “in the beginning the Word already was.” When you get into the beginning, the Word was existing. It’s what we read in Micah chapter five. This One born at Bethlehem is the One who is from long ago from the days of eternity. He is declaring His Deity. He is not part of the creation, He is the cause of creation; He is the Creator. He is the Word and that title for Christ is used a number of times, several times in this first verse.

I take it that it goes back to the Old Testament. We’re not going to look at the references but Psalm 33 verse 6. “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,” Psalm 107 verse 20. “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” In the Old Testament here the word of God is God expressing His power; it is a revelation of God. We know God because He has spoken so we read some of the passages in the Old Testament, Isaiah 9. We learned something of God and His purposes and plans by what He has spoken; He has said His words. His words have power because in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God said, He spoke and He calls things into existence. The word of God the manifestation of God we come to know Him through His word. His word reveals His power and so on. It is a fit title for Christ who is the Son of God, who is Himself God but He will be the one God eternally exists in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit but the one who most fully reveals God through His creation is God the Son. That’s what John is going to be talking about and that’s why the Word will become flesh and tabernacle among us.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Important points made here. He is personally distinct from God because He is with God yet He is identical in essence with God. In His very being, He Himself is also God but He is distinct from God the Father. If you read some grammatical commentaries that preposition ‘with’. The Greek has several prepositions, this is the one ‘pros.’ We transliterate it over and it literally means, ‘face to face’ so sometimes you will see a translation that says, “The Word was face to face with God.” It comes up from what the basic meaning of this is. When you are face to face with someone, you are with them but the picture here is within a relationship of intimacy and closeness but He is distinct from God but He is God. So make up your mind is He with God or is He God. Yes, they’re both true because He is God, the Son not God the Father, not God the Holy Spirit but you see the truths presented concisely here. He was with God, which you would expect because God is eternal. We will live forever. In a sense we talk about we have eternal life but we have a beginning. We will have no ending but that’s because of the power of God, what He has determined for us.

God has no beginning and no ending so when we get to the beginning, God the Son already was so don’t get confused. When we get to verse 14 and He says, “The Word became flesh . . .” He didn’t begin to exist at Bethlehem but the One who has dwelt in eternity now has entered humanity and become part of the human race. His humanity has a beginning as does our humanity but His Deity has no beginning and so Paul could write all the attributes of Deity, all the fullness of Deity, dwelt in Him in His bodily form. Remarkable truth.

So we have, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” One of the cults, the Jehovah Witnesses make an issue and they will try to explain to you as though they knew something that it’s an issue of whether the definite article ‘the’ is present with God. No Greek grammarian accepts that so it’s Deity. Down in verse 18 and what their argument is, if it doesn’t have the definite article it’s just talking about a god small ‘g’ so Jesus was not truly God as deity. He was just a god as we will be a god but down in verse 18 it says, “No one has seen God at any time;” There’s no definite article with that. I mean it’s a non-grammatical point. I just mention it because if you get involved with a conversation with Jehovah Witnesses, they will bring that up. I spent several hours over several days with some of them and we worked through this issue but it didn’t help.

All right, the Word was God. That’s as clear a statement of Deity as you could have. He was in the beginning with God so you have a statement of His Deity. They are distinct Persons but they all partake of the same essence or nature. The attributes that are characteristic of God as God are true of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He was in the beginning with God and the point He’s transitioning to the work of creation was the result of the action of God the Father and God the Son together. “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being.” Then nothing in existence outside of God Himself in His Triune existence as Father, Son and Spirit, angels, spirit beings, all creation that’s the point here. All things came into being through Him. Apart From Him, nothing came into being that has come into being so He’s involved in the creation of everything. He is Creator. Now you’ll note, all things came into being through Him.

Come over to I Corinthians chapter 8. Paul will refer to this fact. I Corinthians chapter 8 verse 5 reminds us even though there are many “so called” gods he said at the end of verse 4 there is no God but one but there are many “so called” gods and that’s true. You know we’ve talked, Roman Emperors declared themselves as gods. People around the world worship gods but we understand there is only one God, verse 6, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, (note this) from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one LORD, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we exist through Him.”

You see here it’s from the Father through the Son. So the Father and the Son along with the Spirit are equal but they are distinct. It’s not like just three machines that are exactly alike that are just doing the exact same thing. There is order within the Godhead and they function in complete harmony with one another distinct from one another but always working in agreement with one another.

So creation comes from the Father through the Son and He doesn’t go on to carry out but when we read Genesis 1 what? The Spirit of God “hovered over the face of the deep.” All three Persons of the Triune God are involved in our creation. Their roles are distinct. They say, “Well, I don’t understand it all, how do they come to this?” I have no idea. They didn’t come to this because they always were. Well my finite mind doesn’t make much progress with that either. So certain things I believe because the God who is unique, He is the only God. I only know about Him what He has told me and what He has planned for my finite mind to be able to respond to and believe. So don’t be shaken by the fact you can think, “well I don’t think I could understand that fully.” I can understand the Father, things come from Him through the Son but why would it be that way? I don’t know, that’s the way God works. He has always worked that way.

You know when scholars get in this they begin to confuse things. There’s discussion going on now in a journal article I was reading that the kind of order we talk about isn’t really going on in the Trinity. I think they’re driven by the fact they want to remove any distinction in order between male and female so they want to back up and remove 1 Corinthians 11 and the order there. You know we believe what God has revealed. We don’t take what God has revealed and then build our own system because we can’t become God.

Come over to Hebrews chapter 11. Look at verse 3. “By faith we understand that the worlds” or literally the ages, the periods of time and everything in them “were prepared by the word of God, so that which is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” So how do we understand this? We understand it by faith. God has spoken, and I believe what He has said. I don’t believe it’s nonsensical but I also realize that I cannot go beyond and in back of what He has said. It’s by faith that I understand the ages and everything in them were prepared by the word of God and He created what exists out of nothing because before God created there was nothing but God. Well how could God exist for eternity? What did He do without me? Wasn’t He bored? I don’t know. I’ve lived all my existence in this short block of time so I take it by faith. You’re clear on that.

Let’s come back to John 1. We only have a few hours this morning to get through this. In the beginning was the Word and all things came into existence through Him and apart from Him nothing--we come to verse four. “In Him was life and the life was the Light of men.” He’s transitioning here to spiritual life. It’s true, all life comes from God so since He created everything and we can read in Genesis 2 God made man out of the dust of the earth and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So it’s true all life comes from God. We have that example of its beginning but He’s transitioning here, and it was life and the life was the Light of men. “The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John in his gospel and in his epistles is very fond of that picture of light and darkness. “In Him was life, the life was the Light of men.” He came to reveal God and make God known, to enable us to know God, His Person and His works with a fullness and a clarity that could not have been known before. So the contrast between light and darkness. Darkness, living in a realm without the knowledge of God, devoid of the true knowledge of God. Oh, you may know certain facts about God but you don’t know God. You don’t understand His ways and His working, His character.

Light in 1 John chapter 1. John begins that first epistle by talking about “God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all.” So that revelation of His character and Person and being. Well life was in Christ and that life was light for men. “The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

Remember the prophet prophesied that the region of Galilee would receive a great light. There is where Christ carried out much of His ministry and His presence was Light. It shines in the darkness; it reveals and makes God known. We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Light because now we know God. Now we’re not the source of light. We may become the source of people learning about the Light when we share the light of the gospel with them but we are not the Light. We are not the source of light. I cannot bring light to a darkened mind. I can bring them the message of the One who can enlighten their darkened minds.

So the Light shines in the darkness and when He came the people living in darkness saw a great light. It says “The Light shines in the darkness the darkness did not comprehend it” or probably better as you have it in your margin, overpower it, katalambano; it’s the verb. Some of you have been taking some Greek. In its normal use it could be translated “comprehend” but more probably as it’s used, it would refer to overpower. You know the devil who is the prince of darkness who works to keep men’s minds and hearts blinded less the light of the glory of the gospel should shine in. Even in his attempt to destroy the Light he could not do it because what was the crucifixion of Christ that terrible deed? The plan of God as Peter would preach in Acts; you took “the author of life and by the hands of sinful men you put Him to death” but in that terrible deed God was working as only He could to provide for salvation for fallen men. Christ by His death on the cross “bore our sins in His body on the tree,” so that we could die to sin and live to righteousness and be transferred from darkness to light. He came to bring light.

Verse 6 and a few of the following verses talk about John the Baptist because in Israel he came after 400 years of silence where God had not raised up prophets. John the Baptist comes on the scene and much of the nation recognized him as God’s prophet; he came to prepare the way. “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.” That’s John the Baptist not John the writer of the gospel. “He came as a witness to testify about the Light so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light but he came to testify about the Light.”

You see he came to tell people about the coming of the Messiah to prepare them for His coming that they might believe and receive Him. In a similar way we are doing, the distinction I was mentioning earlier. We are not the Light but we testify about the Light in that sense. The testimony of John was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. We testify of the Light by telling them that the Son of God has come, that the Messiah of Israel came to provide salvation not only for Israel but also for Gentiles and before the world, but we’re not the Light.

People say, “oh you think you know it all.” No, no, I don’t, I’m just telling you what God has said. I can’t save anyone, I can’t even tell them to come to my church and you’ll be saved, I’ll baptize you. No, because we can only tell them about the Light the true Light, verse nine. “There was the true Light which, coming into the world enlightens every man.” Christ coming into the world provides light for all. Galilee of the Gentiles saw a great light and not everyone in Galilee believed but the light was turned on to make God known in a fuller, more complete and ultimately in a more encompassing way than had ever been known before. He was the true Light, which coming into the world enlightens every man.

This gets to the point, now light is centered in Christ and there is no other way out of the darkness but through Jesus Christ. There’s no salvation in anyone else. How can you escape your spiritual darkness? You have to come to the One who is Light, Jesus Christ. He brings light for every man.

It doesn’t mean that every man knows and understands or has even heard the gospel but why did He come? For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, He sent His Son into the world to be the Savior of the world. That’s the point He was making. He was in the world, the world was made through Him. That’s what He said up in verse three. It’s amazing; the Creator has become part of His creation. “He was in the world, the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” There He’s turned the attention particularly to the Jews. Those were His own people. He was their Messiah.

He didn’t come initially to the Gentiles. Remember when the Gentile woman came and asked Him for a favor. He said, “I can’t give the bread that’s for the children to a dog like you.” That’s basically, what He is saying. She says, “even the dogs get crumbs, I know I’m not worthy but even His own people rejected Him.” You know this is Pilate, an unbelieving Gentile. Do you want me to crucify your king? I don’t find any fault in Him but His own would not have Him. So the rejection by him, the world didn’t know Him and the Jews didn’t want Him but He’s going to make a transition here using that word receive. “His own did not receive Him but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right the authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

What does it mean to receive Christ? It means to believe in His name. What does that mean? It means you become a child of God. Remember Jesus will tells Nicodemus in John 3, “You must be born again.”

Well the Jews thought-- in chapter 8 of John’s gospel, we read them debating with Christ. We’re the children of Abraham, we’re not sinners like the Gentiles. What do you mean? We have a physical connection to Abraham and remember God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. That’s us, folks. Yes but you’re not included. Why? You must have the faith of Abraham also. So yes being a physical descendant that has a place but if you were a physical descendant without faith you have nothing and we know the glorious truth that Christ has provided salvation that is offered to Gentiles on the same terms. That we have been privileged to receive Him, believe the truth concerning Him. You know if the only verse we had was verse 12, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” there would be no excuse for anyone to be confused on how you are saved. It didn’t say anything about baptism, it didn’t say anything about keeping the Ten Commandments, and it doesn’t say anything about any kind of religious activity. The way of salvation is believe in Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh. He provided salvation for me by His death.

You have verse 13; these “were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God.” Pretty clear. Not of blood, it’s not your physical lineage, your physical generation, not of the will of the flesh, the natural desires for human sexual relations which result in conception and children. It’s not how this was brought about. Nor the will of men, men don’t make the decision, God is sovereign. We respond to God’s purpose and plan by His grace but you cannot come up with your own way.

What did Jesus say “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.” Well that’s narrow, I have my own church I have my own religion. Well that fine that won’t get you to heaven. Well I think you’re narrow. No, I don’t want you to misunderstand; God is narrow. I’m simply telling you what God says. If I was telling you and it’s just my words you can’t go to heaven unless you believe like I believe and join my church and get baptized at my church… what good is that? You must believe there is nothing man can do to alter this. This will come out through the gospel of John.

The Jews struggle with this just as we do now. You tell people how to be saved and the first thing, do you know you’re going to heaven? I’m Roman Catholic. Do you think you’re saved? I go to church, I’m Lutheran or I’m just throwing those names out, I’m Presbyterian, I don’t believe you have to go to church. Nature is my church. I feel God in the trees. Well somebody else feels religious when they have pizza. I mean we understand, well we don’t want to be unkind. The goal is not to be unkind but the goal is to be truthful. You understand this is serious business. There will be people talking about Christmas and all of this, they put up nativity scenes, they talk about it, and we get involved. Should we be able to say Merry Christmas or not to me is irrelevant. Whether they say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, they don’t have a clue. You understand this doesn’t make any difference. There is One, who does make a difference, Jesus Christ, and your relationship to Him and how do you have a relationship with Him. That’s what He is unfolding here.

We really could go from verse 1 of John 1 to verse 14. Verse 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Verse 14 “And the Word became flesh ...” so verses 2 to 13 are filling in details here that are important that help us understand but the connection is the One who is God in verse 1, is the One who has become flesh in verse 14. That is amazing and awesome! “In the beginning was the Word.” In the beginning the Word already was, “the Word was with God,” face to face with God; “the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

You may have a marginal note as I do a little number 1 in front of the word 1One and you have in the margin tabernacled. I think that’s important. I wish that they had translated it that way. I understand that the word, ‘dwelt’ gives the idea but there is a connection to the Old Testament here. We’re not going to go back but in Exodus 25 they built the tabernacle and within the tabernacle, there is the tent.

Remember the tabernacle was a tent structure and then within that there is what’s called the tent of meeting and there’s the holy place and the holy of holies behind the curtain but it’s called the tent of meeting because that’s where God met with His people, Israel. When the tabernacle is completed in Exodus chapter 40 verse 34 we are told this, then the cloud the cloud that descended marked the presence of God; remember the cloud that led them during the day as they left Egypt. “The cloud covered the tent of meeting,” note this, “and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” The presence of God among His people was tabernacle. There was Presence there in that tent; His glory was manifested.

Now we’re told in verse 14 the One who is God “became flesh and tabernacled among us and we saw His glory.” Just as Israel saw something of the manifestation, the presence of God’s glory in that Old Testament tabernacle now we’re told He’s now tabernacled among men. That’s why Paul’s letter to the Colossians, All the fullness of Deity dwells in Him in bodily form. God is present among His people. We saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The only begotten, monogenes and take this and say see He was begotten of the Father and get into theological discussions of eternal generation and that but basically, the word means someone who is unique.

In Hebrews 11, we are told about the faith of Abraham who offered his son Isaac, his only begotten son. He was ready to sacrifice him. Isaac wasn’t the only son of Abraham. He wasn’t the only son he generated by physical conception. He wasn’t even the first. Abram fathered Ishmael and after Isaac, he fathered a number of sons through his second wife Keturah in Genesis 25 but what about Isaac? He was his unique son He was the only one of that kind and that’s what this means. This is the only one of a kind. He’s unique. So, we’ll become children of God verse 12 through faith in Christ but we will never be children of God in the same way that Christ was. He is unique. He is the only One of His kind and through Him, we become through the new birth children of God.

He “dwelt among us we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Well, God is the God of grace, truth; He is truth. We talk about God’s word is truth. The Scripture says … “your word is truth” because God is truth. He is the God who cannot lie. He’s full of grace and truth. John the Baptist testified saying. “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me, has a higher rank than I, for He existed before Me.’” Wait a minute John, is somebody confused here! He has a higher rank than I do for He existed before me but John the Baptist is older than Jesus remember, six months older. Is somebody confused here out of time? No, because remember Jesus is the One who has lived in eternity? When you get to the beginning, He already was. That’s the beginning of creation.

We’re long before the birth of John the Baptist so He recognizes, now could he understand everything. Not any more in that sense than we could. The wonder that the eternal God is the One I am introducing now as having become a human man. He existed before me. “For of His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.” That grace and truth come through Christ and verse 17 summarizes. “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

Now be careful. Some people say, “well then you don’t believe.” How were people saved in the Old Testament through keeping the Law? No, anyone who was ever saved was saved by God’s grace through faith. Truth, wasn’t there truth in the Old Testament didn’t the writers talk about truth? Yes, but the ultimate revelation, realization of all that God had said and promised is in Jesus Christ. “Abraham believed God, God credited it to him as righteousness” but if it hadn’t been the plan of God to make provision for Abraham’s sin and the payment of the penalty by the sending of His Son to earth, Abraham couldn’t have been saved by faith.

There has to be a propitiatory sacrifice. Paul talks about this in Romans 3 before he goes in to use the example of Abraham’s faith in Romans chapter 4. He must “be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ.” He just couldn’t say, believe in Me and you’re saved. Now for Abraham and Old Testament saints, they didn’t understand how with a fullness I don’t believe, but they believed what God said. God saved them based on the finished work of Christ, what Christ would do on the cross and their faith in God and His promises. They were saved by grace but the fullness of grace and the ultimate provision of grace comes with the coming of Christ. Without Christ, there would be no salvation for anyone at any time or any point in history. Grace and truth and the ultimate manifestation and fullness of revelation of God’s grace is the giving of His Son. Just as God’s love was manifest in the Old Testament the fullest demonstration of God’s love is that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us,” Paul wrote to the Romans. We have the fullest and clearest display of the love of God in the giving of His Son. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

The Law of Moses never saved anyone. People in the Old Testament were saved by believing what God promised. Romans 4, Abraham. God said to Abraham. “Look at the stars of heaven and I’ll make your seed greater. Abraham believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness.” Well, I look out and look at the stars and I say I believe that God multiplied Israel like that therefore I am saved. No, Abraham was saved by believing what God said, putting his faith fully in God, the revelation God gave. Well why can’t I be saved by believing in the number of the stars? Because God’s revelation is now full and complete. You cannot choose I’ll believe this point and not this point. That’s why some people are still trying to be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. You never could be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments and there’s less reason to be confused on that today than there ever was before because the fullness of the giving of God’s grace has been given so they were realized; they came to be through Jesus Christ. There couldn’t have been any promises of salvation throughout Old Testament history if it wasn’t for God’s gracious plan. That’s why Isaiah 53 and other passages prophesied the coming of Christ.

No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God, the only begotten One who is God. I think the grammatical construction here is an apposition. An apposition, you’re saying the same thing Gil, pastor, and well pastor is saying the same thing as Gil. What you’re saying here, no one has seen God at any time, the only begotten who is God. Talking about the only begotten from the Father in verse 14. The only begotten who is God who is in the bosom of the Father, the One who has the most intimate relationship with the Father. The One who verse one said was face to face with God, He has explained Him. As I mentioned this is the word we bring into English, exergeted. Exergeted, He has explained Him, He has declared Him and He has made Him known with a fullness with a clarity. You want to know the Father, you know Him through Christ. It’s always been that. God sets the requirements.

Now all of that, we’re celebrating the birth of Christ. There’s nothing more worthy of celebration than the Person and work of Jesus Christ. You realize we have a lot of confusion. I don’t want to debate about whether we have too much commercialization; that’s pointless to those people. We don’t have to get involved in what we don’t want to get involved in but I want to talk about how this is a wonderful time. This is a time of great joy but you understand why. Understand what the coming of Jesus Christ to earth what His birth really means, the eternal God has become a human man so that He could take the place of you and me and the rest of mankind by paying their penalty on the cross but you must believe in Him to have that penalty credited to you. How sad it is that pieces of this message are thrown out there especially this time of year and most people don’t grasp it at all but we who have come to the Light can help them by telling them about the Light. Someone shared with me the light of the gospel and I can share the light of the gospel with someone else so that God who is light can do what only He can do in bringing salvation to them.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the coming of Jesus Christ who has brought light with it’s fullness to this sin darkened world. Lord I pray these might be days of salvation as we who by Your grace have been brought into the light from the darkness are privileged to bring the light to others. Pray even for the children’s program this evening and the message of the word. Lord I pray You’ll prepare hearts, draw people that we have invited, pray that it will be a time when the Spirit will work in lives. Bless this day we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.



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