Year 2, Week 29, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 29, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of John 1.

Today’s reading starts with the Book of John. John’s Gospel account is probably the last of the four Gospels to be written and contains the most material that is unique from the other three Gospel accounts. Thus, John’s Gospel account provides a lot of supplemental information about Jesus that particularly highlights the Deity of Jesus. John was a close companion to Jesus, being a disciple of Jesus and later an apostle. So, John’s material is a first hand, eyewitness account of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection written to prompt trust in the Lord Jesus Christ leading to the experience of eternal life: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31). Unlike the birth narratives found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, John 1 introduces us to the arrival of Jesus from a very different vantage point: “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 1:14). Jesus is the Word who took on flesh. Jesus is God who became a man. With rich and deep imagery taken from the Old Testament, Jesus, the God/man is announced as, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29b). Jesus, the Son uniquely from the Father, is the One through whom people become well-loved children of God: “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” (John 1:12-13).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the emphasis upon the Deity of Christ from the outset of John’s Gospel account: “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” (John 1:1-3). John profoundly links his Gospel to the creation account in Genesis 1 with the words “In the beginning.” In Genesis, God made all things through the agency of His Spoken Word: “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good” (Genesis 1:3-4a). No less than nine times, the statement, “God said,” is mentioned as all that exists comes into existence. The Psalmist underscores God’s Word as the agent of creation: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host” (Psalm 33:6). Just as through was not anything made that did not come about apart from the Word, we are now being shown that what this means is that there was not anything that came into existence apart from Jesus. The Father created through the Son. Now, John connects the Word, who was the agent of creation, with Jesus. John stresses that even though Jesus took on flesh and entered this world, He has always existed in close connection with the Father, and yet is distinct from the Father. Jesus is the Son of the Father, not meaning He is less God, but that there are distinctions of persons within the Godhead.

As Jesus took on flesh and became the God/man, it is likened to how the presence of the LORD was manifested in the Tabernacle and later the Temple: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14a). The phrase “dwelt among us” could just as well be rendered “tabernacled among us,” for John uses the verbal form of a word that referred to the tabernacle. And as with the Tabernacle and later the Temple, so now in Jesus, “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14b). When the Tabernacle was complete, God’s glory took up residence: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34-35). The same is said at the completion of the Temple that Solomon built: “And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 8:10-11). Just as the manifest presence of God was resident in the Tabernacle and Temple, so now in Jesus the glory of God is on full display. In fact, it is on display in an unprecedented manner: “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” (John 1:17-18).

John finishes out the opening of his Gospel account with a bold acknowledgement: “Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:49). Nathanael’s confession connects two Old Testament titles for Israel’s Messiah to Jesus: “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” (2 Samuel 7:14); and: “I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7). Nathanael’s answer provides a fitting description of what John is beginning to describe what it looks like to “receive him, who believed in his name” (John 1:12a).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe