Gospel of John, 1:3-13

Who asked me about Gnosticism last week? Was that you? Anybody know about Gnosticism? I spent some time looking into that. Basically it's a teaching that humans are divine souls tapped in material bodies, in a material world, and that anything material was considered by most sects of Gnosticism to be evil. Some of them only went as far as purging. They had a deity called the Demigre, who they would identify with the Abrahamic God, and he is the embodiment of evil. A guy you wouldn't want to meet. imperfect, he existed alongside another remote or unknowable supreme being who they thought was good. And the idea was to free yourself from the material world, one needs to have Gnosis, which is knowledge, or esoteric spiritual knowledge that you learn from a few of these elite spiritual people.

So it was popular in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions in the first century before Christ. Some of the basic tenets are there's a notion of a remote supreme monadic divinity, the introduction by emanation of future divine beings which are nevertheless identifiable as aspects of God from which they proceed. The subsequent identification of the fallen man is an occurrence which is with its ultimate foundations within the deity itself that the fallen man was in God rather than occurring entirely and indeed through human agency. They introduced the idea of a distinct creator God who is named as the Platonist tradition. The estimation of the world owing to the above is flawed or the production of air that but nevertheless is as good as its constituent material might allow. Now some sects said yeah it's got good material others said no it's totally evil and you've got to get away from it and out of it.

That's probably enough. I made the comment, what's the contemporary Gnosticism, the most popular one? Anybody know? It's Mormon. They believe in this spiritual graduation, that material is evil. that Jesus was a highly spiritual character but he wasn't the son of God. Like you know we lived in Salt Lake City for a few years and they believed that they could become world gods. That's right. Exactly right.

And what's interesting about that is that they don't believe in reincarnation do they? No. But the subtlety of one of the lies that never stops that Satan tells is there's no death consequence for your sin. People that believe in reincarnation, that's what that's all about. They bought this idea that there really isn't consequences for sin.

But they do believe that even if you're dead that you can still be saved. Oh sure. We came out of Catholicism and we believe that in this concept of purgatory Now isn't that slick? Buy those masses. And if we would spend enough money buying these masses, we could buy people out of purgatory. Purgatory was the same thing as hell, except it wasn't permanent.

Which says what? That the Lord Jesus Christ did not pay the full penalty for your sins. He's still got some residual to pay. Okay. Lesson two. Hopefully you read verses 2 through 13. As we talked about last week, the gospel of John really begins before Genesis, doesn't it? In the beginning, when we talked about that.

The book of Genesis gives us the history of the world and time, and John gives us the word who existed in eternity before time. Who when man can speak of beginning was and consequently did not begin to exist. The Lord Jesus did not begin to exist. When time began he was already existing. In Genesis 1 we are talking about the creation and the creation of time. In the beginning God created, see, that's the beginning of time. John tells us that Christ existed before the beginning. He was in the beginning.

My first question was, is life a greater thing than creative power? Actually, let's do this. Let's read 2, 3, 4, and 5, somebody, and then we'll discuss them and keep going until we get through 13. So, somebody read 2, 3, 4, and 5, please. And the same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Okay.

So my question is, is life a greater thing than creative power? Or is that just sort of a mundane question? What do you think? Life is a greater thing than creative power? How could it be? How many think, yeah, it is? How many think, well, maybe creative power is greater? Oh, chickens. Come on. You've got to get your hands on it. Gordon thinks that creation is a greater power. The problem with creation is, if you have the power to create the way God did it, it was subject to turning away from him or subject to death.

His life could never be subjected to corruption. All natural life and spiritual life come from him. His life is the only life that could shine in the dark world. So life is it. Well Jack said God is life. That's right. And he has a capacity within himself to create. So life is a greater thing than creation, the ability to create. Because there is a demonstration of power greater than creation in the word of God. What is it? The resurrection of Christ. That took more power than it did to create.

In 1 John 5.12 it says, He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life. So the issue is life. Now, the Word of God does talk about different kinds of life, but when it refers to God, it refers to uncreated life. There's a lot of references in the New Testament where the focus is on just God's light himself, uncreated deity. So, can all things be made by him, but not exist in him?

What do you think about that? Yeah? What do you think? Yeah, no problem. Can all things be created by him, but not exist in him. Like you said, creation can be corrupted. So if he can create and it can corrupt, how can it be in him? We say, well, you know, God is everywhere and creation is instant. The point that I'm making with a question like that is, I want you to think about, as we go through this class and get closer and closer to John 17, and it starts to talk about being in Him, that you think about the fact that there is a huge difference between God creating the heavens and the earth, and everything in that sense is inside of God, and the fact that you and I are uniquely placed into Christ. We are the only creatures that's ever happened to. There's a union between us and Christ that does not exist with men in the world.

Right? Maybe put it this way. Christ with the three persons of God had created the old creation. Right? They were all involved in it. But we talk about this thing called a new creation. What's a new creation? Same old thing, just took the sin out of it and started over. What is it? What is the new creation? You can tell me what the new creation is with two words. Christ Himself. Yeah, Jesus Christ is it. He is the new creation. He created the old one. He is the new one.

Sometimes that's a concept that's a little difficult to get your arms around, but the fact that we are in Christ Means that we are united to him with his resurrected life We are so identified with him that we can say that we are in him 200 or 130 times in the New Testament it talks about Believers being in Christ in him in the beloved And that's different than just being created by him. Because everything is created by him, but none of that is the new creation.

None of it. Is that a difficult concept? You have a wrinkled brow on me. Well, I guess I felt that if all things were made by someone, it would have to exist within them, and I'm not understanding that concept. Okay. Anybody else want to take a shot at that?

It's new and totally new and kind. So the old creation is one, and then we're new creatures, which is something new and kind. And the new and kind is life in him. And it's a life, not almost a creation. You know, instead of something made, it's a life. I don't know. It's new in him, I guess is the Greek. It's new and kind. It's not like anything else.

There's a difference between God communicating life to you and you being in his very life. Within the confines of the Godhead, there's the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and they are unique in the fact that they have their own life. And they have, through creation, given life to creatures that they've created. They're the giver of all life, but their life can be... They're the ones that gave life to my dog. When I say that, well, gee, he has existence. He walks around and, you know, interacts with me. But he doesn't have divine life. He doesn't have... I wouldn't say my dog, Trickster, is in Christ. But he has life. And where did the life come from? It came from God.

So there's a difference between that and being in the very life of God. See, I think in eternity what's going to happen, other than divinity, we get plugged into the Trinity. And we're the only ones that do because we're the bride of Christ. And that doesn't mean that the saints that will live here for all eternity aren't totally blessed and have resurrected life given them by God. They do. But there's a difference between that and having the very life of God.

Is that because our corruptible self, our endemic nature has died? No, I don't. If Adam would not have sinned, then is he qualified or is there any sense in which he just if he continued to exist the way he existed, that he would be in Christ? I don't think so, because I mean, I don't know how God would.

It's apparent that his ultimate intention was to have us as the bride of Christ and being in Him. And it's interesting that it doesn't say that it necessitates the fall and then the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Christ in which we're included and identified with Him. But that's the mechanics, how God did it. That's how He got us into Christ. He identified us with Christ's death.

That always goes back to when it makes sense of the garden with God, he needed a helper, or he needed somebody on his level. And then you're walking and talking with God, why isn't that good enough? And he says, you need a helper, which will be going through in Genesis. But that was the two different levels. And now, through being in him, we are on basically the same level without deity to have that relationship. how could Adam, you look at Adam and you need a helper. You know, you're walking and talking with God in the cool of the garden, but it wasn't the same, you couldn't relate on the same level.

And now, through being in Him, we have that relationship, that co-relationship. Well, and that's why I think that the body of Christ is turned to bride of Christ. Because our union with Him is exemplified in this creation by marriage. So that's why none of us will be married in heaven. He stole my point. I was just going to say we're one with Christ.

Yeah. If Adam hadn't sinned, he would still never have been fit for heaven. He was in the first man. That's exactly right. And, you know, all the descendants of Adam redeemed, like the Jewish nation and the earthly saints, where are they going to be in eternity?

On the earth. On the earth. Sure. The new heavens and the new earth, they'll be here. Yeah. That's where that little in him, that in is so important. Yeah, it really is. Because you're placed in him by the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Because he is eternal life. Well, and he's the new creation. When he was resurrected, he was a new creation. I guess deity never changes, but as a man he did. He became the glorified man. We were resurrected with him. We were in him.

I think that one, it's difficult to understand, but on the back side of that, believers hardly ever look at their position in Christ from that perspective. We always kind of see ourselves as sitting in Adam, blessed. We never look at ourselves as being taken out of Adam and put into Christ and what being in Christ really means in terms of, well, when Romans says that old things have passed away, everything has become new, that doesn't mean you moved addresses in the same earth. It means you went from earth to heaven. You went from Adam to Christ.

When we were studying the grace class last time, what we discovered was that the principles of grace are totally different than the good principles of the mosaic law system, any law system, or any goodness on the earth. Grace is a totally different system and it fits with being in Christ. We'll get to that verse next week.

Verse 5, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. So this is does this indicate that is the first time that light was visible on the earth since the fall. Was light just not around until Christ came? No, it's interesting, not to jump ahead, but verse 9 says, that was the light, and the word was there is in the imperfect tense, meaning that there was always that light in the world before, during, and after his incarnation.

But we'll see a problem with that in a second. So, the Holy of Holies contained the light, didn't it? Wasn't the Shekinah glory in the Holy of Holies? I always wondered when the high priest went in there, how come he didn't take a flashlight? Because he didn't need it. But it was hidden behind the curtain.

So what does light do? What does it do? It reveals. Yeah, it makes things apparent or reveals what they really are. It makes things visible, plain, things that were at one time obscured. The word revealed what man was and the condition he was in. Now you and I look at this light as a really wonderful thing. Most men in darkness don't want the light around because it exposes them for who they are.

So do you view the principle of darkness as a second god in equal conflict with the creator? Understand what I'm asking? Yes. You mean we're not going to hunt down the demons of darkness and snuff them out? Does everybody understand that the answer to that question is no? The concept is refuted by the testimony that life was the light. Darkness is really a moral condition without power and it's negative and emissive, which life was manifested in light.

The interesting thing is that if you have truth itself, You don't need to be acquainted with error. How much of a false rabbit we chase when we engage in the study from a theological standpoint or from an error standpoint. We spend a lot of time studying what isn't the truth, hoping that we will arrive at the truth. When in fact what we should be doing is studying the truth, which is Christ himself.

And then everything that's not of him will be apparent. It's the same, you know, how many times have you heard this? If you work for the Secret Service and you're in the Treasury Department and you're a counterfeit guy, what do you study? All the counterfeits? You study the real thing.

And the reason you do that is why. When the phony shows up, you can spot it. So we're to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to know him more than just objectively in the word or to know him intimately and personally, so that when the phony comes along he's instantly spotable. Jack? You know him because you love him. That's right.

First thought, the light shines, the shining is constitutive, it's in the present. The darkness, not comprehending it, is past tense. What do you think of that? It did not then... I think... Does it imply that the darkness gets it now? I think when you add the next verse or two, maybe. The point being is that man, no man, understood the life of who Christ was, I think, at that point. So, that's good.

But then Abraham believed by faith and was basically looking forward to Christ, right? Yeah, and our pal Moses, you know, what is he looking at in the burning bush? What was he looking at when he came down from the mountain? His face was all, you know, he was looking at light, I think.

So what does it mean that darkness didn't comprehend the light? What does that mean? It didn't overcome. Overcome? The light keeps on shining in the darkness. Craig just brought up, gee it seems like the darkness didn't perceive that the light was there. In other words, if you're a blind man and somebody turns on the lights and you know the lights are on. Yeah, I heard a click. You see that? They didn't comprehend it, nor did they receive it.

Because when you're blind, back to my dog. My dog, Trickster, is totally blind. He can't see a thing. And as he was going blind, he would react to a certain light, but now he doesn't. So I laugh in the morning when my wife comes down, the first thing we do is let the dog out. You know what she does? She turns the porch light on. She needs to see where he's going. She needs to see where he's going.

So, the thing about men is that when life comes into the world, The light has been in the world, but now it's here in the embodiment of the word of God and they don't know that he's here, they don't comprehend it, they're not even aware because of their abject blindness. Now, verse 6 says that there was a man sent from God, his name was John. This is John who? John the Baptist. John the Baptist, a man sent from God two people, what's the title of that guy? He's a prophet.

How many years has it been in Israel since they've had a prophet? Over 400 years. It's interesting, you know, here's the chosen people. They've been on the planet for, since God called them, roughly 2,500 years, yet they've gone 400 years without a prophet. without God sending anybody to them about anything.

And here's John the Baptist. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. Now, John's an interesting character. Let's go back to light, darkness, blind men, light comes in the room. Why do you need John? So let's say all you guys are blind and somebody leads you into this class and sits you down and Craig gets up and goes back and turns on the lights. Do you know they're on? How are you going to find it out? Somebody's got to tell you.

Who did God send to tell these Jews, hey the lights are on? It's John the Baptist. The purpose that he's here is to tell people hey the light's here and if you exercise faith in that fact and in the light what will happen you will bear witness to the light that all through him might believe that he is what the light now this sort of this is one of those verses that you can tell your covenant friends now let's see God doesn't turn the light on and then ask me to believe or doesn't make me capable of seeing the light and then I get to believe, right? He tells me the light's here and asks me to believe. Isn't that right? That's the way it goes. Was the light sent to the Jews only? No. The verse says that all, all through him might believe, all men. The true light was that which coming into the world It's shown for all men and not for the Jews only.

He's coming to the world, the world in darkness and the world was blind and they didn't know him. 1st Aids says that he was not that light but was sent to bear witness to that light. So John's purpose is to bear witness to the light. I mean, it's really a simple concept when you think about a bunch of blind people in a room and somebody turns on the light. His job is to say, the light's here and it's on. If they can't see it, the issue is, do they believe him? That's his job. First Diamond, that was the true light which gives light to only the Jewish guys coming into the world. No. To all men. All men. Who is the light? I asked the question, what is the light? When you start to think about what is the light, how would you describe it? What would you say about it if I said, could you describe to me what the true light is?

What words would you use? Word. What's that? Word. Words? Words that are... The Word. The Word. Which you could say, truth. Right? You could say, well, let's see, if I were... The light of God has to be communicated to me via truth, not error. You could say it another way.

The voice of the Good Shepherd is known. And we are sure that there is none other than his voice, because we know his voice and it's truth, it's light. The possession of truth, I think, is, as revealed in scripture, is the answer to all errors to fall in man, innumerable as they are. So the issue is, I think light and truth and life all go together. They all go together. I'm going to kind of cover this with question 11.

What was what is give gives life to every man signify. And I probably could have asked this question a little clearer because I was after The Lord Jesus Christ, he comes into the world, he is the only truly holy man that's ever been here. And he comes into a world of darkness. And wherever he is, he casts light on every man that he's around. Or every man who comes near. And when that happens, what's the effect that it has on a man? In other words, If I'm a son of darkness and I come into the light, what's it going to show up?

Bears witness to true redemption? Well, not that far yet. It's going to bear witness to who I am. It's going to bear witness to my needs, to my sins, to my imperfections. That's the first thing the light does is point out that I'm not quite up to the caliber of what the light exposes. That's the very first thing that happens. When you move into the light, it points out the imperfections. That's the first thing.

The second thing the light brings with it, though, is the fact that the one who is the light is also the one who is the savior. He's the same. He does point out the imperfections, but he also is the one He himself is man's solution or savior. That make sense? Save from and save to. Yeah, save from and save to.

I think it's chapter 3 that John talks about men that wouldn't come to the light because their deeds were evil. They hated the light. Verse 10. He was in the world and the world was made through him And the world did not know him. Now, in what respect did the world not know him? They were blind.

I got to thinking about this verse and I went over to Romans chapter 1. Let's go over there. Romans chapter 1 verse 18 and 21. And it seems like it's a contradiction, but we'll take a look and see what the Romans would. It's Romans chapter 1 verse 8. And this is our brother Paul talking about man not having an excuse.

And he says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And I'll watch this next part. Because that which is known, and that's the word Gnosko, about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made. so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened."

Now, how do you balance this verse against the fact that verse 10 of John says, he was in the world, the word was made through him, and the world knew him not. How do you balance those two? Because it's clear with John that God goes to every single man and says, look, my wrath is revealed from heaven against you because I have revealed myself to you in your conscience and in my creation. You know that I'm God and you know that I exist and I require of you that you honor me as God and you be thankful. If you don't, I'm going to turn you over to a dark mind. Yet, before you get the Romans, you read in John, wait a minute, he was in the world, the world was made through him and the world didn't know it.

He didn't recognize him as a Christ. Didn't recognize him as a Christ? Okay. What does he mean by the Christ? To do what? For redemption. Didn't recognize him as that. He's a man. Didn't recognize him as man, as God incarnate in man. Okay, what else? They're waiting for their worldly kingdom. They're waiting for their worldly kingdom, yeah. And they do, they do come and ask him about that. They come and ask John the Baptist about that.

So, Under the heading of Romans 1.18, how many men pass the test?

None. What do you think? You think so? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. None seek after God. No, not one. So they all flunk. So if they flunk, where are they? They're living in darkness. So, when the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate, comes into the world, there's no one here who has the capacity to recognize him for who he is, unless they're told. Unless they're told. Now, just because they're told, doesn't mean they, one, believe it, or even comprehend it.

You'll find that John the Baptist knew who he was, but I'll have a question later, how well did he know? There's also another difference between the two verses, where in Romans 119, it's saying, that which could be known about God. So those things about God could be known by what we observe. But in John, it's talking about knowing him. So it's knowing him personally, not knowing his little attributes. That's good. Everybody hear that?

Or a similar thing, in Romans as a general rule, revealing of God. But you don't know Christ from looking at creation. You don't look at the mountains and say, ah, Christ. It's a general revealing of God. There is a God. Therefore, no one is with that excuse. There is a God. That's what we need to go to. We always think, you know, all these religions always know there's a God, and we've got to appease Him. They all know that there's a God. There's no true You are the God, Creator, Seer, Savior. That's really good.

So, who were his own? The Jews. The Jews, they were his own people. But you could also expand that and say, well, he came to his own world, his own country, his own city, his own temple, and his own people. Because all of that belonged to him. His chosen people and nation and all that had to do with that.

Now, another thing I want you to keep in mind as we go through this and sometimes we do comparisons between John, the Jews and Paul and Christianity. God always dealt with the nation of Israel as a nation. He deals with us individually and personally. Lots of times we look at the Old Testament and we think, You know, the king was a dog, how come the whole country went down? Well, they did because the whole country lined up behind the king.

And so, there are things that God does to the nation of Israel because he dealt with them on a corporate level. He does not deal with us that way. Even though we're members of the body of Christ, he deals with each one of us individually as sons. So, you can be a real slug and the whole church isn't going to go into captivity. You can be really holy and the church is still tripping along.

What is meant by receive him? The verse says he was in the world, the world was made through him. The world did not know him, but as many as received him. What does receive mean? I'll show you a little bit in my Greek. Verse 12 said, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God.

Receive is this word, Paralambano. And it can mean a lot of things. It means to receive near, to associate oneself in a familiar or intimate act or relation. It means to accept alongside, it means to trust Him to open your heart to him, or to take him at his word.

So, it's very interesting, he comes to the nation of Israel, and to the people, and to the temple, and also to the world, and nobody knows him, or will receive him, but then he makes this statement in 12, but as many as received him, To them he gave, what's your version say? Power, mostly? Right. Right's a better word. To become children of God to those who believe in his name. So, here's another.

Are men God's children by natural birth? Well, weren't we all created by God? So, he's the creator, he's not the father. Aren't we his children? We were born in Adam. In this case, if you talk about sons in Paul's writings that have to do with Christians, Paul places us in connection with Christ himself. We've been redeemed and we've been placed in a position with God as his sons.

One of the words I really like to describe that is to be a legitimate, organic offspring of God. I like the word organic. So, and Paul is full of phrases like we cry Abba Father because we are his sons. Sometimes I think we look at that sonship as like belonging to a fraternity or, you know, we're all brothers in the Lord, it means we all hang out together.

But I, you know, I think the concept of what being a son of God really is, it means that we share exactly the same resurrected life that Christ is. We have exactly the same relationship to the Father as Christ does. We have exactly the same life, inheritance, grace and blessing that the Lord Jesus Christ has and has known, as He has and knows right now.

That news is so good that most of us will say, well, I don't know if I really believe it's that good. It is that good. Like we learned in the grace class, when all of this grace comes towards you, what do you do with it? Thank you. You say thank you and you take it. So when God begins to describe to you through the spirit and the word, what it means to be a son of God, what do you do? Say, well, I got to think that over. You say thank you and you take it.

So being a son of God here, the right to become the children of God. Now, he gives them the right or the liberty or the authority to take their place as children as a new race. That's what this verse means. Mike, doesn't this also go to the fact that John was writing this in the time of the Roman Empire and as natural children you could be disowned, whereas if you were adopted you could never be disowned. Yeah. And that's how salvation is.

And that culture, the Jewish culture, the Roman culture, and the Greek culture, they all three had different times and who made the decisions about who was going to be adopted. In the Roman, I think in the Roman it was a determination by the father alone. He decided that, you know, my son is now of an age and we're going to go through this adoption ceremony and I'm going to make him my legitimate heir and offspring. Judaism, God, I think Judaism was at a certain age that they, at 13 or 14, I think that's what they do with it by Mitzvah now, that that's an adoption ceremony. The Greeks, I forgot about the Greeks, but all the cultures had this sort of ceremony or this thing where sons were legitimately, legally adopted in as heirs and offsprings and in the Roman culture, got all the rights and titles to the father's, his title, his money, his everything at that point. And we don't think like that, you know, in those cultures, the father didn't have to die for the son to inherit. In our culture, that's, you know, the IRS won't let you give me so much a year. How many of you have seen this and probably didn't recognize what you were looking at? What the heck was the name of this movie?

Ben-Hur. Everybody see Ben-Hur in their life? If you didn't see it, Ben-Hur was a Jewish guy. who was, I think, an upper middle class Jew in Jerusalem and he, through an accident, the Roman guy sends him to be a slave in the ships and he's rowing boats, you know, for the Navy. And they get in a battle, the boat, you know, there's a catastrophe, the boat gets torn to pieces and he saves the head of the army.

And Through the process of the movie, the guy takes him back to Rome and they have this adoption ceremony and he becomes the son of Arius. And when he goes back to Jerusalem, the guy that sent him to jail, he goes to have an audience with the Roman guy and he sends him in his ring from his father and says, the son of Arius is here. And the Roman guy says, bring him in.

But when he comes in, he says, wait a minute, not the same guy that I know. But that's the way adoption works. You know, an adoption from a New Testament standpoint is not, you know, we're going to see if we can adopt a baby. It's not that way in the New Testament.

So here, if those who believe will receive him, he gives them the right, the liberty, the authority to take their place as children. of a new race. And then he says in 13, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. So, what are the three ways that are stated in which you cannot become a child of God? The first one is, you can't become by blood, because if that were true, all of us who are When we had our children, they would be saved just by virtue of the fact that they came from our blood.

By the will of the flesh. Can you make yourself a child of God by your own will? How much evangelical efforts or evangelistic efforts today are based on your, you've got to do it. Or by the will of man. No one on earth can make you a son. God alone produces divine life in a human.

Now, so that means that I have no chance? Or I don't have any responsibility? What's your responsibility? The responsibility is to believe what? Believe the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you exercise faith in the person and work of Christ, God alone produces the divine life in you. You don't get credit for your faith. Faith is a non-meritorious act. You can't go to God and say, look, I'm bringing this, you owe me.

But there are some who received him of these things too are said. They received the authority to become the children of God, to take their place as such. And secondly, they are in fact born of God, natural descent, the will of man, meant nothing here. So far, and this is the end of the section, so far we've seen several things.

One, we've seen the Lord Jesus in his nature, kind of abstractly, he's the Word of God. As life, the manifestation of divine light in man, with the consequences of that manifestation. That this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the one who willed and does express God has come into the world and he's manifesting who God is. If there was no word, would you know who God was? Would you know anything about him other than in his creation? Not a thing. Not a thing.

So the second person of the Trinity, the Word of God who became flesh The reason that he's called the word is that he's the one who will reveal to the creation what God is and what he's like. When that revelation comes, there are consequences. And the consequences are, because it's God's creation, anything that's not like him will be exposed. And the third thing we learned is how he was received when he showed up, which means he wasn't received at all.

Even though he sent a herald to announce that he's here, the light's here. I'll read a quote from John Darby Daniels. The general part in regard to his nature ends here. The spirit carries on the history of what the Lord is manifested as a man on the earth. So that as it As it were, we begin again in verse 14 with Jesus on the earth, what the word became, and not what he was. We talked last week about there's a difference between, you know, when he became, the word became flesh, does that mean he started, he became the son of God at that point? No. As light in the world, there was an unanswered claim of what he was on man. Not knowing him or rejecting him, where he was dispensationally in relationship was the only difference.

Now next week we're going to talk a lot about grace. Grace is a life-giving power when it comes and it leads man to receive it. So we'll spend lots of time talking about grace. Let's quote your father. How we thank you for your word and how we thank you for your son the Lord Jesus and the fact that we have not only the right in a sense But we have the privilege to grow in the knowledge and the grace of Him. We pray in His precious name. Amen.