John’s Gospel is unique among the four. Rather than being written to a specific audience, John presents Jesus as the Son of God. Chapter one sets this tone from the very first verse: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
From this point forward, John works his way through a few days in the life of Jesus to bring his audience this summary, “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name” (20:30-31).
Who is this Jesus? According to John…
Jesus is the LORD. John affirmed Jesus’ deity in verse 1 and called Him the Son of God in verses 34 and 41. As being God and Lord, He is worthy to be worshiped (Matthew 2:11, 8:2; John 9:38).
Jesus is the LIFE – “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (v 4). One must be in Christ to have life. To be in Christ, one must be immersed into Christ (cf Gal 3:26-27). Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). There is no way to God apart from Jesus, thus there is no life outside of Jesus.
Jesus is the LIGHT (vv 8-9). John the Baptizer is twice identified as being sent to bear witness of THAT LIGHT. Later in John’s gospel, Jesus would say of Himself that He is the light of the world (John 3:19, 8:12, 9:5). This same John would also write, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
Jesus is the LAMB (v 29, 36). This pictures Jesus’ role as the one and final sacrifice for the sin of mankind. However, unlike the previous lambs offered by men to God, Jesus was the lamb of God offered to men.
When Isaac wondered aloud to his father saying, “where is the lamb?”, his father replied, “God will provide for Himself the lamb” (Gen 22:7-8). So it is with Jesus, the Lamb provided by God “who takes away the sins of the world” (v 29).
Reading John’s gospel makes me love my Lord more!
0 Comments