Jesus Christ who became a person　John 1: 1-18（Bible）

16 January 2022

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. ⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1: 1-18)　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

In the beginning was the Word (verse 1). The word “logos” is used in Greek. The word Logos is used to describe Jesus Christ (verse 14). In the beginning, before all time, before Genesis 1: 1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth ,” before the creation of heaven and earth, the beginning of eternity. The Word (Jesus Christ) existed.

The Word was with God (verse 1). Jesus Christ was with God the Father from the beginning. Jesus Christ is the same as God the Father, but has a different persona. The word was God (verse 1). Jesus Christ is God Himself.

Through him all things were made(verse 3). Jesus Christ is not a creature created by God the Father. In essence, it is a perfect God equal to God the Father. And Jesus was also involved in the work of heaven and earth creation.

The God we believe in is the God of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit. Christian heretics, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. It lowers Jesus to the Prophet, a creature created by God the Father. This is the greatest feature of heresy. At the time when John’s Gospel was written, around 90 AD, this Gospel was written to protect the church from the heretics of that time.

In Jesus, which is the “Word,” the Word Jesus was “life” (verse 4). The Words of the Bible save people. And there was light. It can be called life itself, light itself. The light is shining in the darkness (verse 5). This world is dark. But the darkness cannot overcome the light, when God proclaimed “Let there be light （Genesis 1:3）” the darkness was removed and the light appeared.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him (verse 10). He came to that which was his own , but his people did not accept it (verse 11). It can be said that this is the same at that time and today. However, those who accepted him (Jesus Christ), that is, those who believed in his name, were given the privilege of being children of God (verse 12).

The Word became a person and lived among us (verse 14). I think it’s one of the most important passages in the New Testament. Becoming a physical means becoming a human being. In theological term, it is called incarnation. It’s Christmas. God was born as a person. Jesus was the true God (100%) and the true human (100%).

The body, according to the Greeks, was dirty and should have been overcome. The body was a prison of the mind, and salvation was thought to be the liberation of the mind from the prison of the body. This incarnation was very unacceptable from the dualistic idea of ​​clearly separating matter and spirit.

Even for the Jews, it was unacceptable. The Jewish God was not a human being, but an invisible God, and all visible Gods were severely removed as idols. They thought that making a person a God was a serious sin that defiled God. That is why Jesus was criticized by the Jews. It was unbearable to accept the human God. However, it is written in the Bible. The gospel is the power of God to bring salvation to all who believe, including the Jews and the Greeks. (Romans 1:16)

John testified that We have seen his glory (verse 14). The apostle John saw Jesus directly, but he must have seen it with the eyes of faith. Many people at that time rejected even if they saw Jesus directly, so the important thing is to see it with the eyes of faith.

What John saw was the glory of Jesus Christ. It is the glory of being the only child who came from his father. He was full of grace and truth (verse 14). We received more grace on top of grace from the abundance of Jesus (verse 16).

No one has ever seen God (verse 18). Jesus Christ, the only Son God at the foot of the Father revealed God. If we want to know God, pay attention to Jesus Christ. This is because the invisible God was born as a person in a visible form (figure), came to this world, and showed and unraveled what God was. Let us pay more attention to Jesus Christ. Keep an eye on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12: 2).

By knowing Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, we can know the invisible God. The Bible is a book written by the Holy Spirit. Only by the Spirit we can truly understand the Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit to help us as we read the Bible.

Jesus Christ is God Himself. He is the one who created all things. But that he, the one who is the light and the one who lives, guides us human beings facing death in the darkness into the light and into life (eternal life) and rescues them. He became a person. This can be difficult to understand by reason. So many Greeks and Jews couldn’t accept it, nor could modern people. But by faith, by belief, and by keeping an eye on Jesus Christ, we can meet God. This is due to the one-step grace of God.

Sponsored Link

【POD】一度は読んでみたい「聖書」　～心身の健康を目指して～ [ 和田一喜 ] 価格：1,210円（税込、送料無料) (2024/7/22時点)

Larger Print Bible-NIV B-NI-BIB [ Zondervan ] 価格：1003円（税込、送料無料) (2022/1/16時点)