God the Son: Life is a comma?

Or - “I’m not a religious but I believe in god.” Tell me about your god. Too often we think if someone says, “I believe in god,” they are believing in the same God we find in our Bibles and often nothing could be further from the truth.

When I speak to kids I often use a series of mini skits to describe some of the wrong beliefs we have about God.

THE TYRANNICAL SHERIFF GOD: A person makes a mistake and God jumps in - “you sin, you die!”

THE UNREACHABLE GOD: God is way up on some mountain like some very old wise prophet, distant and difficult to reach. We work to climb up the mountain to ask one life altering question and just when we get there we fall off the mountain.

THE SANTA CLAUS IN THE SKY: God is simply there to give us what we want (if we’re good). So we ask and ask, and ask, and ask, and ask… and hope we’ve been good enough to receive what we’ve asked for.

It seems we’re willing to go anywhere to find out about God other than perhaps the most obvious sources - The Bible, the Church, and praying to God Himself.

We’ve been going through the Apostles’ Creed, and we’re in the middle of learning about the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ, God’s son.

This is the most developed part of the Apostles’ Creed:

“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius PIlate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day He rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

So far we’ve learned this up to -

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,…

and from there it goes on to

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified…

Today I want to focus on an oddity here, at least I think it’s an oddity. Jesus entire life on earth from the circumstances of his birth to the those of his death are summed up by one very short stroke of a pen!

A comma!

A simple comma to represent his whole life.

It reminds me of the poem by Linda Ellis called The Dash often read at funerals, I’m only reading the first few stanzas:

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time that they spent alive on earth. And now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

Perhaps it is only those who love Jesus that know what that little comma is worth.

There are many that perhaps only understand Jesus birth and life - perhaps that’s all they ever hear in church. Perhaps thats the only time they are ever in church - Christmas and Easter?

There’s so much that we learn from Jesus life on earth. Whether it be from the first excursion we see on His own at 12 years old where His parents find Him in the temple answering questions of the teachers there. So much more - beyond His miracles and healings - there is all of his teaching and the understanding of how as Luke writes:

Luke 24:27 ESV

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The resurrected Jesus walked these men through the entire Hebrew Bible showing them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. That must’ve been a long conversation. LOL

The truth is Jesus was a real person and walked this earth, He lived, He ate, He drank, He talked with others, He partied at weddings, He celebrated holidays like the Passover, He cried over the loss of a friend; And of course He healed, and performed many miracles. John the apostle, author of the Gospel of John wrote John 21:25

John 21:25 ESV

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Yet all of it from His journey as a 12 year old which is only recorded in Luke, His baptism by John the Baptist; His calling of His disciples; all of His parables; His sermon on the Mount; all of His teaching; His interactions with teachers of the Law, Pharisees, and Scribes; His meeting of people the culture rejected - women, tax collectors, lepers, demon possessed; all of it is summed up with just a comma here in the Apostles’ Creed!

A comma, a pause in the flow of thought and there in the entirety of the Son of God’s life on earth is contained.

Serious question

When was the last time you read through one of the Gospels? Matthew - 28 chapters, Mark - 16 chapters, Luke - 24 chapters, John - 21 chapters. Each of these Gospels could easily be read in less time than the average person sits in front of the television daily.

Perhaps we don’t recognize the gift we’ve been given. For centuries books were a rarity in people’s homes, and mass printings were not existant. Then came the Gutenberg printing press in the 1400’s and the Gutenberg Bible in the 1450’s.

Still, most people didn’t have a Bible of their own.

According to the Guinness book of World Records, the Christian Bible is the best-selling book of all time. It is impossible to know exactly how many copies have been printed in the roughly 1,500 years since its contents were standardized, but research conducted by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 2021 suggests that the total number probably lies between 5 and 7 billion copies.

I’m willing to be that most of us have not just one but several Bibles in our homes. I grew up in a church where everyone brought their Bible’s to church with them. Often they were of different translations, but we would sit listening to the sermon following along in our own Bibles. We’d underline words, or put a note in the margins (yes, I was taught it is not a sin to write in your Bible).

In today’s churches with all the electronic media we have it is impossible to tell who is reading along as many use electronic Bibles on their phone or tablet. I’ve even had people compare various translations during my sermon and then ask me why translators may have chosen the word they did.

Lifeway research reports approximately 13% of Americans have read through the entire Bible. And only about 1/3 of those attend church two times per week or more.

Yet we say we believe it.

Our faith is not like those app user agreements we get on our phone where we click the “I agree” button saying that we’ve read through the 15 screens of Terms of Use Agreement that no one actually reads.

Yet most Christians claim to BELIEVE their Bible. How can we believe what we don’t read? If you’re relying on a devotional, or on a weekly sermon you’re living a second hand faith. You’re relying on what you understood another person said about what they understood about the Bible. How can we honestly question what we haven’t read?

If you simply read 3 chapters per day you can finish all four of the Gospels by this time next month. I think you’ll find it’s much easier to read like you would a novel and simply read through it.

Yes, that comma represents an awful lot. How familiar are you with Jesus life. Perhaps as we learn the Apostles Creed it’s a good time to recommit to knowing the Gospel first hand by reading it regularly.

Let’s close by reaffirming our faith using our ASL:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,…

To God be the glory. AMEN

Related Media

Related Sermons

Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.