6. Answer the Question (John 1:15-18)
Posted by:
SeLahGirl on
October 25, 2007 at
2:15PM EST
Answer the Question
(John 1:15-18)
15
(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, "This is he of
whom 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
began to tell people all about this guy -- this God made into a living,
breathing man walking around with us on the earth. He starts "crying
out" -- that means he started publically declaring and explaining with
passion and boldness for people to pay attention to this guy.
John
had become a pretty popular teacher according to later writings, and he
was letting people know that God had revealed to him that someone
incredible was going to appear on the scene. Someone sent directly from
God himself -- someone that God said would come.
Crowds of
people, mulititudes, came out to hear John explain the things that God
had spoken in his word and thru the prophets of old. Here was a nobody
teaching about such things, and thousands of people rushed to hear him
-- rather than to hear the church leaders of the day who were teaching
the very same Scriptures. What was it about this less than average guy
that caused people to crave to hear his teaching?
And yet,
John delcares in this passage that there is someone who was going to
appear on the scene very soon that would far surpass anything that John
had spoken or taught them. He told them to get ready for it. To be
watching and to prepare themselves to respond, because something
amazing was about to happen, something holy, something consecrated and
orchestrated by the very hand of God.
John continues by
speaking of the grace contained in the giving of the law to Moses as a
guide to people. He also speaks of the grace and truth and fullness of
it all that was coming to them in person, God made flesh, God become
man... and then for the first time, John names him by name... Jesus
Christ.
He goes on to make it plain that Jesus Christ is God,
so there would be no question about what he was saying. John explains
that no one has ever seen God, except the Son who existed in the
immediate presence of the Father from before the beginning. He
emphasizes the closeness and unity of the relationship between Father
and Son, to again make it plain that Jesus is God as is his Father.
Verse 18 closes by hinting at why Christ had journeyed to the earth, this place of darkness and decay and everything cursed.
No
one had ever seen him, he was way up there in spiritual places,
heavenly places, so far above us and removed from our awareness... and
suddenly, here he is standing right in front of us as though he were
one of us. Having borrowed a pair of our shoes, he tied the laces
tightly, and set about to walk this mile with us. Not just the one, but
how ever many it would take.
He wanted us to know him,
that's why he came. To understand all that is in his heart. To realize
that though he seemed so far away, he was here all along waiting for
the moment that he could approach us face to face. Waiting for us to
notice him, to hear what he wanted so desperately to say to us. To
recieve all that he wanted to give us. To allow him to kill and cut
loose that thing that held us in a death-grip and choked our joy.
This
was that moment. He had waited a long time for it, he had prepared many
things to bring it to pass. He had worked and managed and hovered over
every detail to free us from everything so he could talk to us for one
brief intimate moment.
There was something he wanted to ask
us. There was a question that only we could answer. Something he needed
to hear from our lips with his own ears. He wanted to spend forever
with us, and he needed to know if we felt the same about him.
He had come to propose.
He had come to invite us into the most intimate and eternal of relationships.
He
didn't come all this way just to stomp the devil, to prove a point, to
flaunt his power and his kingly self and his kingdom....
He came for us.
He came for His Bride.
He came because he was compelled to not live another day without her.
He came because of his unwaivering love for you.
