Jesus Wholly God, Wholly Man

Introduction

Christmas is a very special time of year. For many Christmas is the only time when we get to see the extended family. It is a time for love, peace and harmony. Some believe Christmas is about getting presents from Santa Claus. Christmas is also the time when we recieve all those gifts we didn’t know we wanted. Christians, on the other hand, come together at Christmas to celebrate the birth of a baby. Not just any baby, of course, but the eternal, incarnate, Son of God.

All four Gospels speak of Jesus deity, but the fourth Gospel spells out the Godhood and manhood of Jesus Christ in clear terms right from the beginning. What John is doing by starting his account of the Gospel in this way is to make a case for Christ’s identity. In 20:31 John explains that he wrote the way he did “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” He is making a case for the Godhood of the man Jesus, as the Saviour, the Christ, worthy of believing in.

Jesus Pre Existent Divinity - with God/ is God

John begins with a profound statement about the pre-existence of the Trinity. He says in 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As we read these words our minds should immediately be taken back to the beginning of Holy Scripture. It mirrors Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning God...” We all realise that if there is a material world something predated it. Secular science tells us that it was cosmic space dust. Genesis tells us that God predated the World. The ultimate source of all that is seen and unseen is God. Where we would expect God to be though John tells us that “in the beginning was the Word.” The Word of verse 1 is shown to be Jesus Christ. We understand this from verse 14, where the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us.

Jesus existed at the beginning, not because He was created first, not becasue He was made like all other creatures, but because He is eternal. Jesus was with God, and was God. Numerous times throughout his Gospel, Jesus explicitly tells His fellow Jews that He is equal with God. One instance of these are the I AM statements we read about in John. The seven I AM statements are: I AM the bread of life, I AM the light of the World, I AM the sheepgate, I AM the good Shepherd, I AM the resurrection and Life, I AM the way, truth, and life, I AM the true vine.

But the most controversial I AM statement of Jesus. The one statement that could never have been misunderstood by any Jews can be found in John 8:58-59. It says, “Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” and what do the Jews do? “Then they took up stones to throw at Him.” What made the Jews take up stones to throw at Him? The people understood that Jesus was claiming to be Yahweh, Jehovah. The Jews knew their Hebrew Bible. The punishment for blasphemy was death by stoning. In Exodus 3 we read about Moses and the burning bush. In verse 6 God declares to Moses, ““I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”” and a few verses on, in v14, God tells Moses His covenant Name, “I AM WHO I AM.”

Jesus couldn’t put it any more clearer if He wanted to. Jesus is Yahweh. Long before His birth Jesus revealed Himself to Hagar after she fled from the cruelty of Sarai in Genesis 16:7-15. Not one of the angels of God ever dare allow another creature worship them. But in Genesis 16:13 the Angel of the LORD is worshipped by Hagar, who calls Him “the-God-Who-Sees”.

“And the Word was with God.” Let us briefly look at this little word “with.” The meaning of the Greek word behind the word with is of being face to face with. The Word was WITH God reveals the eternal bond between the co-equal persons of the Godhood, God the Father and God the Son. What is true of God is equally true of Jesus.

Jesus is the Creative Word

Not only is Jesus the eternal God, equal with the Father in majesty and power, but He is also the creative Word. John 1:3 “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” The Divine Word of God, by which everything was created, is Jesus Christ. He is the creative Word of God in Genesis 1. It was the Word of God, Jesus Christ, who commanded, Let there be light, Let there be a sky, let there be land, let there be plants, let there be fish and birds and animals, let there be man. And not once did creation disobey Him and say “no, I don’t want to.” Every single time the Word’s command came out something happened. Every single time the thing commanded into existence came came forth, from nothing.

John 1:3 tells us that nothing was made without Him. This is something that was fully completed in the past. Creation is not still ongoing, like evolution. It was a finished product by the end of day 6. The good news is that although creation is finished God is still at work in His creation to bring the salvation of all who will believe. And we see this played out within the pages of Holy Scripture. John tells us in 5:17, “ “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.””

Before John gets to the life and ministry of Jesus. The works that identify Him as the Saviour. John identifies Jesus as the incarnate Word, for whom, and by whom, and in whom all things were made. RC Sproul says that John is saying, “The One I’m going to tell you about, the One in whom there is life, the One in whom I want you to believe, is the One who created you in the first place. Nothing was made apart from Him.”

Jesus is the Life and Light of Mankind

Jesus is eternally God, and with God. He is the Creator God. Next we see that Jesus is the life and light of men. John tells us in v4, “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Jesus has life within Him, and not one thing exists without Him creating it. This includes all biological life. I don’t think verse 4 is speaking about biological, or physical, life though. I think John is speaking of the life that is just beyond our comprehension. Something that can only be fully understood by those who have been made right by Jesus sacrifice. Jesus is the perfect mirror image of God as He intended mankind to be.

The life that is in Jesus is so pure, so perfect that it shines brightly as the glory cloud of God. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is “the brightness of [God’s] glory and the express image of His person.” Just a few verses on in John’s Gospel we read that the Apostle John is an eyewitness to Jesus’ unveiled glory, no doubt speaking of Jesus transfiguration on the mountain. Verse 14 says that “we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The life that John is expressing to His readers is the life Jesus has as the Saviour of the world. We see this in verses 6-13.

In these verses we read of another witness to the light. John the Baptist came blowing the trumpet of the Messiah, proclaiming the immenent coming of the Saviour. The second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, became part of His own creation. flesh and blood. Born of the virgin Mary, concieved of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t come and take over a blank shell of a body, like some believe. He became a true man.

The Westminster confession of Faith, Chapter 8.2 says,

The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, is truly and eternally God, of one substance and equal with the Father. In the fullness of time He took to His divine person a human nature, with all its essential characteristics and ordinary frailties, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF SIN...

Thus two complete, perfect, and distinct natures, the divine and the human, were inseparably joined together in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus had a real body and a real soul. In this way He was just like us. Except without sin. He didn’t steal a cookie. He never lied. He never went over the speed limit just to get to the Dr’s on time. His life was lived exactly according to the Law of God. To God’s standard of living.

Throughout the Gospels we read of Jesus showing His credentials as the Christ. But His own people, the Jews, did not recieve Him. Why? In verse 5 we told that it is because the darkness did not comprehend it. That word comprehend can also be translated ‘overcome,’ and it is so true. Jesus is the life and light of mankind, but mankind did not, and still does not, comprehend it. Nor will it ever able to overcome it.

Conclusion

In the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve had everything going for them, they fell from their perfect state. The light of the image of God in man was marred, damaged, at the fall (Gen. 3). We could never pay the price of our rebellion against God, and is why Jesus had to come into the world as its Saviour. We needed a second Adam, one that would not fall into sin, but live perfectly. God sent His only begotten Son into the world to live the righteous life, and to die the curse of the Law. Why? So He could save all those who believe on the name of Jesus the Christ. And God sent Him as the most helpless, needy human, of all - a little baby.

The very One who flung stars in space, who spoke creation into being, is the same God we celebrate at Christmas. Jesus came into a world of pain and suffering. A world where, within 2 years, Herod was willing to kill many babies just to kill the One.

John has written this account so we may believe that He is the Christ, the Son of God.

Are willing to place your trust in Him?

Have you seen the glorious light of Jesus Christ and come into it?

One of the most stressful and anxiety driven things in this world is not knowing the future. We cannot really know what the future holds. What will hapen tomorrow? This is one the major things that covid put on peoples minds.

Pandemics, wars, persecution, and the like, will come and go. But at some point in the future Jesus is coming back to take all those who believe in Him, into eternal life. While everyone who does not believe in Him will go to eternal punishment. We do not know when, but we know He is coming, and it could happen at any time. Stop sitting on the fence. Now is the time to believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. Because the time will come when it is too late.

Let us pray.