"I Believe - Fully God, Fully Man"

Scripture: John 1:14-19

The question that has haunted humanity throughout the centuries is this – just who is this Jesus? And quite honestly, there are many today who continue to search for the same answer. So who is Jesus?

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

Nicene Creed

It would seem that there is a lot more about Jesus than what makes sense to most folks. People tend to want things straight forward, concise, and clear. Jesus is anything but that! The Nicene Creed emphasizes that fact that Jesus is Lord and God, but John’s gospel stresses an additional truth, that while Jesus is God, He is also a real live human in the flesh. And we read that He is the Son of both.

Read John 1:14

Sonship implies more than just a presence. Jesus has more than a connection to both heaven and earth – He has a relationship with both, and in that, all of the beings, throughout heaven and earth, also have a relationship with Him. And the opening verse of our passage for today gives us a hint to the importance of this truth – “The Word became flesh”. This process is known as “Incarnation”, and Merriam-Webster tells us that this is “the union of divinity with humanity”. In Jesus’ incarnation, He has become the uniting of God with humanity. And when we add the thought that Jesus is the Word of God, we realize that He is not only God and Man for us, but He is the Truth and Promise and Love and Message of God for every single person of earth.

Jesus brings the full truth of God for our lives, not only as a divine Being, but as a human Being. We are to relate to Him, we are to identify with Him, we are to be comfortable with Him, we need to know that we can talk with Him. We have been told that the Lord left glory behind so He could come to earth for our redemption. But John reminds us that not only did He come so that the people of earth could see Him, but that we might also see and experience His glory!

He didn’t come as a glorified One, but as One of us. He didn’t come to reign over us, but to live as One of us. He didn’t come to shame us, but to bless us, and love us, and teach us, and to make a way for us to shed the condemnation for our sinfulness. Jesus submitted Himself to our needs.

And the grace of Christ? It is revealed to all by faith, through His loving kindness, by His forgiving nature, by the mercy He has shown to us, by the gift of salvation that He completed at Calvary. This wasn’t God’s “Plan B”, prepared in the event that humanity failed to learn initially – it was God at work, on our behalf, from before time began. Grace is given that we might grow within the image of God that came to us at creation. Grace is given that we might become more like our Glorious God.

Jesus, in His humanity, reveals the fullness of our Loving and Almighty God.

Read John 1:15-19

John’s gospel reminds us that even while both Jesus and John the Baptist were still in their mothers’ wombs, Jesus was known to the Baptist. (Luke 1:39-45) John’s testimony is that Jesus is eternal. And even though the Lord would be born into this world after John was, he had existed far before John did, and this is one indication that the greatness of Christ exceeded anything or anyone he had ever known.
It makes you wonder, though, why people today are so reluctant and hesitant to know the Lord for themselves! If an unborn child can recognize and accept the Lord of salvation, why can’t we? I guess that will have to remain a mystery until the day Christ returns!

As John continues in his proclamation of Jesus, he relates the Law of Moses to the first grace that came to us from God, but that the arrival of Jesus would clarify and refine all that the Law had taught us. “Grace upon grace”, if you will, and that which Jesus brings exceeds that which Moses received. For Israel, salvation had always rested in the Law and how well they followed it, but with Christ’s arrival, following the Law as a means to eternal life became obsolete, and is fulfilled by the truth of the Law of God – the intention of Moses’ call to climb Mount Sinai. The Creed tells us that Jesus came down from heaven to fulfill God’s Law, and to be our salvation and the only way to eternity.

And now we can know God by knowing Jesus. Jesus is God. Jesus brings a relationship, not only in Himself, but with the Almighty in total. God from God. Light from Light. True God from true God. One Being with the Father – not separate, not different, not individual, but One together. Now we know, and now we can have a relationship unlike any other.

And in that relationship, we can ask anything of Jesus, and it will be ours.

John 14:8-14 – Jesus and the Father are one, and in that oneness, and when we become one with them, we are enabled to do all that is required of us. And whatever we ask for in the precious name of Jesus, it will be given.

John 15:15-16 – By faith in Christ, we learn all that we need to know about God and what we are called to be and do. And in that, we can bear eternal fruit for the glory of the Almighty.

And in our belief and trust in the one “true God from true God”, we come to the Lord today to seek His blessing of healing. Whatever we ask for in the glorious name of Jesus, will be given.

(At this point in our service, we held a healing service for all who are in need.)