In the beginning
God is everywhere. If you can't see, feel or hear God, does it matter where he is?
At the beginning of the story of Jesus, (the one told by John) God is coming into the world in a way that can be seen, felt and heard. God is coming as a person, born and growing up in an ordinary way, becoming a tradesman, and ultimately travelling from town to town. God does not look like God, he looks like a man, and indeed he is. Quite truly God has become human.
So. if God has become human in order to demonstrate himself to humans, who is doing what God does? God is. That great Spirit who is really three spirits in one has sent Jesus to be with humans, and will later send His Spirit to be in humans. Not three Gods, but one God in three divine persons. The Trinity of Divinity has been revealed by Jesus and by the Holy Spirit.
We saw, says John, a man who embodied both the message and the mind of God. He lived with us and we were able to observe him closely. What we saw was divine kindness and ultimate reality. We saw who he truly was and what we saw was glorious.
God in his human personality came to a nation that was taught by God, and to a nation of people who had spent all their national lives keeping laws made from the original laws of God, and who spent much of their time in prayer and in learning. They could not believe, how could anybody believe? They could not believe that this tradesman, walking through their towns with a band of followers was God in human form. Too hard to believe, especially because at that time people understood God only through laws and ceremonies.
Laws and ceremonies: nice concrete visible, understandable things. You could keep the law and feel in charge of your relationship to God, if you broke the law you made sacrifice and apology to God and were once again in relationship to God. Who needed anything more? Religious rituals were wonderful, the truth about God spelt out in music, poetry, fabrics, incense, burning alters and shining lights. How could a travelling teacher substitute for the glory of temple worship?
Jesus called himself, 'The Son of man', but he always talked about God as 'My Father' so it was natural to call him, 'The Son of God' It didn't mean much though because a lot of people called themselves, sons of God. No one called themselves 'The Son of Man' because that was a very important title that the prophet Daniel had used.
John was one of the people who believed that Jesus was God. God who had brought all things into being, Jesus had been with God before the beginning, all things had been made through him. Jesus was with God, Jesus was God. John called Jesus by a particular name: 'Logos,' the word of God.
People who received Jesus as God became aware that something had happened to them. Jesus, it seemed, had presented them to God and God had put his nature in them. They were children born by God. More than adoption, more than an intention, they were alive to God, in a way they had not been before. Jesus the maker and bringer of life had put them into contact with God the cause of all that is.
The life of Jesus was a light for all people. The light shone in the darkness of the world, and the darkness could not banish the light.
The gospel according to John: chapter one verses one to eighteen
Son of Man: Daniel chapter seven verses thirteen and fourteen
At the beginning of the story of Jesus, (the one told by John) God is coming into the world in a way that can be seen, felt and heard. God is coming as a person, born and growing up in an ordinary way, becoming a tradesman, and ultimately travelling from town to town. God does not look like God, he looks like a man, and indeed he is. Quite truly God has become human.
So. if God has become human in order to demonstrate himself to humans, who is doing what God does? God is. That great Spirit who is really three spirits in one has sent Jesus to be with humans, and will later send His Spirit to be in humans. Not three Gods, but one God in three divine persons. The Trinity of Divinity has been revealed by Jesus and by the Holy Spirit.
We saw, says John, a man who embodied both the message and the mind of God. He lived with us and we were able to observe him closely. What we saw was divine kindness and ultimate reality. We saw who he truly was and what we saw was glorious.
God in his human personality came to a nation that was taught by God, and to a nation of people who had spent all their national lives keeping laws made from the original laws of God, and who spent much of their time in prayer and in learning. They could not believe, how could anybody believe? They could not believe that this tradesman, walking through their towns with a band of followers was God in human form. Too hard to believe, especially because at that time people understood God only through laws and ceremonies.
Laws and ceremonies: nice concrete visible, understandable things. You could keep the law and feel in charge of your relationship to God, if you broke the law you made sacrifice and apology to God and were once again in relationship to God. Who needed anything more? Religious rituals were wonderful, the truth about God spelt out in music, poetry, fabrics, incense, burning alters and shining lights. How could a travelling teacher substitute for the glory of temple worship?
Jesus called himself, 'The Son of man', but he always talked about God as 'My Father' so it was natural to call him, 'The Son of God' It didn't mean much though because a lot of people called themselves, sons of God. No one called themselves 'The Son of Man' because that was a very important title that the prophet Daniel had used.
John was one of the people who believed that Jesus was God. God who had brought all things into being, Jesus had been with God before the beginning, all things had been made through him. Jesus was with God, Jesus was God. John called Jesus by a particular name: 'Logos,' the word of God.
People who received Jesus as God became aware that something had happened to them. Jesus, it seemed, had presented them to God and God had put his nature in them. They were children born by God. More than adoption, more than an intention, they were alive to God, in a way they had not been before. Jesus the maker and bringer of life had put them into contact with God the cause of all that is.
The life of Jesus was a light for all people. The light shone in the darkness of the world, and the darkness could not banish the light.
The gospel according to John: chapter one verses one to eighteen
Son of Man: Daniel chapter seven verses thirteen and fourteen
posted by Jessie Coates at 9:58 PM
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