January 4, 2019
Your Savior, Your God
By Skip Heitzig
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1-2).
The apostle John decided to start his account of Jesus' life by going all the way back to the beginning, to the pre-incarnate state where Jesus was with the Father in eternity. Why? Because John was the most theological of all the gospel writers. Throughout his book, he underscored and emphasized the deity of Jesus Christ—that His essential character and nature is God.
It's ludicrous for somebody to say, "Well, the Bible never directly claims that Jesus Christ is God." I always respond, "What Bible are you reading, anyway?" Jesus Himself claimed to be God over and over again (see John 8:58; 20:27-28.) Even Jesus' own enemies knew what He was saying (see John 5:18; 10:31-33). If Jesus is not God, He deserves an Academy Award, because He claimed to be God, He displayed the attributes of God, and His enemies understood that. It's in the language; it's unmistakable. And John wrote that from the beginning, Jesus was indeed God.
John went on to say, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). John made a similar point in one of his epistles: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life" (1 John 1:1).
Can you imagine what it must have been like to be John or one of the other apostles being with Jesus day after day and coming to the awareness of who it was they were walking with? In hearing Jesus give parables and tell stories, they were hearing God speak. In seeing Jesus touch people and heal them, they were seeing God touch and heal. In seeing Jesus weep, they were seeing God weep. In everything, they were seeing God's reaction. "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (John 1:14).
Is that how you see Jesus? I know the subject of God becoming a man and dwelling on the earth is emphasized at Christmastime, but what about during the rest of the year? How will you allow that to impact your life today?
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