Who is God? Pt. 1-2 (Introduction to John)

“There’s a cognitive psychologist by the name of Justin Barrett who did a series of really fascinating studies about the way in which people think about God. He asked a group of devoutly religious people--Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus--he basically gave them a form to fill out about the ways in which they think about the Divine. For the most part, what he found was that they answered in theologically correct ways when talking about God as being omniscient or omnipresent.

But then he began to engage the same subjects in conversation. He asked them to start describing in regular language how they think about God. What he discovered is that almost every single person, when forced to start talking about God, violated those core theological beliefs--God being, for instance, omnipresent and omniscient. What he discovered is that the more they talked about God the more it sounded like they were describing some person that they met on the street.

And this goes to a fundamental aspect about the way that we think about the Divine, whether we are ourselves believers or not. Unconsciously, we can't help but to imagine God as essentially a Divine version of ourselves. When we conceive of God, we unconsciously, innately impose upon God our own personality--our own virtues, our own vices, our own strengths, and our own weaknesses. We project upon God our own biases and bigotries. We implant in God human characteristics--human personality, human desires, all along with superhuman powers. So as a result, what we really do--whether we're aware of it or not--is we divinize ourselves.”

--Reza Aslan, “Big Think” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YchU0VMdckY

The fact of the matter is this—If I were to survey you all and ask you some basic theological questions about who God is and what he is like, I have no doubt that you would all pass with flying colors. You’ve been raised in church and had Christian doctrine pounded into you all your life. But, our deepest beliefs are the ones that we’re not even conscious of. Our deepest beliefs come out in more subtle ways—how we talk about God, how we think about him, and how we live our lives in light of these subconscious beliefs. These often reveal much more about what we truly believe than a simple survey.

And no belief is more important than a solid understanding of who God is. There is no question greater because no subject matter is greater. There is no question with greater consequences that the question of who God is. Yet, even within the Church, there is no question upon which people struggle so much as this one.

FCF: As sinners, we are prone to ignorance and misunderstanding of who God is and what he is like. These errors of belief show up in subtle ways throughout our lives and can have drastically negative effects in our faith and practice.

Main Idea: John’s Gospel reveals to us who God is by showing us who Christ is. An accurate understanding of who God is is absolutely essential to salvation and the Christian faith.

Scripture Intro:

John 1:1–18 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Prayer for Illumination

Transition: John wastes no time in answering this question. Many people nowadays argue that Jesus didn’t see himself as God, and some even argue that the Bible doesn’t portray Jesus as God. But, in the very first verse of his Gospel, John tells us that...

Jesus is God

The danger in the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons is a failure of correct belief at this point.

JW’s and Mormons misinterpret the Greek in this verse and try to argue that John says that Jesus is merely “a god” rather than “God.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses—“We follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and honor him as our Savior and as the Son of God. (Matthew 20:28; Acts 5:31) Thus, we are Christians. (Acts 11:26) However, we have learned from the Bible that Jesus is not Almighty God and that there is no Scriptural basis for the Trinity doctrine.—John 14:28.” https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jehovah-witness-beliefs/

Mormons—”The Holy Trinity is the term many Christian religions use to describe God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Latter-day Saints believe very strongly in all three, but we don’t believe they’re all the same person. We do think they are one in purpose. Their purpose is to help us achieve true joy, in this life and the life to come (which we also believe in)....The Church’s first article of faith states, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” We believe these three beings are three distinct personages, not one singular being. We call Them the Godhead.” https://www.comeuntochrist.org/articles/do-members-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-believe-in-the-trinity?lang=eng

The danger in Mormonism’s beliefs is that they are cleverly stated so as to give the impression of orthodoxy. In fact, orthodox Christian belief could affirm almost all of what Mormons state in their doctrine of God.

Fox News interviewed some Mormon scholars once and posed three questions to them:

Does the Mormon Church believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God?

Does the Church believe in the divinity of Jesus?

Does the Church believe that God is a physical being?

This was the Mormon reply:

“Mormons believe Jesus Christ is literally the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer, who died for the sins of humankind and rose from the dead on the third day with an immortal body. God, the Father, also has an immortal body.”

But what they don’t make explicit is that their definitions of terms like “Son of God” and “Godhead” differ radically from genuine Christian belief. Rob Bowman, from the NAMB, summarizes it this way:

“What this answer--which is accurate as far as it goes--neglects to make explicit is that Mormons understand what it means for Jesus to be "the Son of God" in a way that differs radically from orthodox Christianity. When they say they believe he is "literally" the Son of God, the significance of this qualification will be lost on most people. Mormons believe that God the Father is an immortal Man and that he is the literal father of Jesus Christ "in the flesh," just as Mary is his literal mother (see below). This is not what orthodox Christianity means when it affirms that Jesus is the Son of God. To us, Christ has existed eternally as the Son of God, personally distinct from the Father yet one and the same God. For us, to affirm that Jesus is the Son of God means to affirm that he is eternally of the same absolute, infinite divine nature as the Father.

It is peculiar that the LDS Church did not directly address the question of the divinity of Jesus. In their view, Jesus is Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament, and yet he is a different God than Elohim, the Father, and will always be subordinate to him. Mormons do not pray to Jesus. In their view, Jesus, and all other human beings, and all angels, existed in the distant past as the spirit offspring of our heavenly parents (God the Father and his wife); Jesus is simply our Elder Brother and the first of God's children to become a God himself.”

https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2007/december/mormonism-incarnation-and-why-it-matters.html

What we believe about God matters. While we may not fully understand the intricacies of how God can be three persons with one nature, we can and must acknowledge that it is true. Our doctrine of God is the bedrock of our faith—the most fundamental belief that we have, upon which every other doctrine depends. To get this doctrine wrong is to undermine our faith.

John 4:24 ESV

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The Oneness Movement—Oneness theology is a movement within some Pentecostal churches.

It denies the Trinity, arguing that God merely manifests himself sometimes as the Father, sometimes as the Son, and sometimes as the Spirit (and sometimes as all three simultaneously). It is basically a repackaged version of a much older heresy called “modalism.” Oneness Pentecostals often argue that the Father was the revelation of God in the OT, the Son during Jesus’ earthly ministry, and the Spirit after Christ’s ascension.

From this defective doctrine of God flow many other false doctrines:

Baptism is a necessary part of obtaining salvation.

Must be baptized by an ordained minister of a Oneness church.

Baptized with the formula “In Jesus’ name,” rather than “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Speaking in tongues is a necessary proof of salvation.

You can loose your salvation.

Strict, legalistic dress and lifestyle requirements.

When we fail to guard the faith from such doctrinal errors, however subtle they may seem, we are in great danger.

Jude 3–4 ESV

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is identified as an eternal being

Even if the Mormons and JW’s were right on the point of Greek grammar in Jn 1:1—and they aren’t—Jesus’ divinity does not rest upon that point alone.

John’s use of “in the beginning” is not an accident. He’s drawing the reader’s mind to the Genesis account of creation to show that Jesus existed, even then. His birth in Bethlehem was not the beginning of his existence. He is eternal. No one but God can say that.

Jesus is identified as the source of life and creation

The Word was the source of creation. The creation is something attributed in Genesis 1 to God, and throughout Scripture, this type of creation is something that no one but God does.

Jesus is the God-man.

John 1:12 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

On what basis could Jesus grant the right or power for us to become children of God? If he was merely the Son of God, he could not grant us such a privilege. Can a child grant adoption for another child? No, only God could grant us the right to become children of God. Only an infinite sacrifice could atone for the infinite sin-debt we owed. So Jesus had to be God in order to accomplish his work of atonement and adoption.

Yet, only a human could pay the human debt of sin. He had to become like us in order to take on our sins.

Hebrews 2:14–18 ESV

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Jesus is the Word

The Greek concept of the logos was the ‘word,’ ‘reason,’ or ‘logic’ that pervaded creation. Jesus is the fullest expression of reason and wisdom.

Greek philosophers spoke of the logos—the underlying reason or logic to the universe. John picks up this motif and uses it as a bridge to the gospel. Jesus is the fullest expression of wisdom. He is the Word which all the philosophers sought after but never found.

For Greeks, the idea of “the Word” as God’s active agent on earth would have resonated with the Greek notion that the Logos was the stabilizing principle of the universe. In Greek, logos can mean reason or rational thought; in Greek philosophy, logos referred to the ordering principle behind the universe, the all-pervasive creative energy at the source of all things. The philosopher Heraclitus (sixth century bc) declared this principle always existed and was responsible for all things. The Logos was ultimate reality, the ever-present wisdom organizing the universe. The Stoic philosophers developed this idea further in the third century bc, envisioning the Logos as the rational principle of the universe that made everything understandable. The Logos was the impersonal power that originated, permeated, and directed everything.

Douglas Mangum, “The Eternal Word in John’s Gospel,” in Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016).

But, he’s not just the Word according to Greek philosophy, he’s the Word of God—the prime cause of creation, the means by which God relates to his people, and the fullest expression of God’s truth.

God’s Word is effective. God speaks, creation comes into being.

Psalm 33:6 ESV

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

God’s Word is the agent through which he accomplishes his work.

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

God’s Word is the means by which those who love God can draw closer to Him. His Word

Psalm 119:9–16 ESV

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

So, when Jews read that Jesus was the Word, they realized that when Jesus speaks, God is speaking. Jesus was accomplishing God’s work in the world, renewing and restoring creation, drawing those who love God closer to him.

The revelation of God in Jesus Christ helps us to better understand what God is like.

John 1:18 ESV

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Hebrews 1:1–3 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

We struggle to understand and relate to God the Father:

Because he is invisible and seems distant

Because of poor readings of the OT (seeing the Father as angry and wrathful but the Son as merciful and loving—pitting the members of the Trinity against one another)

Because of their own broken relationships with their earthly fathers which they project onto the Father

Because we don’t understand the Trinity properly

God is Triune

God is a personal being who exists in perfect communion within the Trinity.

He did not create us out of a need for interpersonal relationship—he already had that.

Each member of the Trinity has a different role yet they are all equal and in perfect harmony.

Throughout the book of John, Jesus repeats that he does not seek his own will but the will of the Father. The Father is the one who sends out the Son.

Jesus speaks of the role of the Spirit in comforting and guiding his people after Jesus’ departure

The Son had an active role in creation and atonement

God has revealed himself

God had no obligation to do so—he could have left us in the dark. But he didn’t.

God is not the God of deists. He is involved with his creation.

God is merciful and compassionate

John 1:9–14 ESV

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

God the Son was the first missionary. He came down into his own creation and subjected himself to the indignity of a human body.

All of the difficulties that come with humanity—sickness, tiredness, stress, pain—he took upon himself

He didn’t wait for us to come to him, he came to us and took a form that we could relate to so that he could bring us to him—a people who had rejected him at every turn; he took our form so that he could pay the penalty for our sins against himself.

Hebrews 4:14–16 ESV

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Conclusion

What we think about God is the single most important thing about who we are. There is no room for misunderstanding on this subject. If we, like so many others, create a god in our own image, we will find ourselves facing the true God on judgment day and his wrath and judgment will fall upon us. Not because we just had a difference in opinion or made a mistake in our thinking, but because God has clearly revealed himself to us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. So, if we are ignorant of God, it is because we are willfully ignorant. Those who reject the Son will suffer the wrath of the Father. But, God extends mercy and grace to you if you will but believe in his name and submit to his Kingdom.

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