Friday, September 29, 2005
John 1:1-2, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
I BELIEVE IN HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD
When we think of a father-son relationship we automatically realize that the father came before the son. We may even think of the son, especially in his youth of being inferior to his father. The Bible also speaks of a Father-Son relationship between two persons of the Godhead. Both persons used this terminology. When Jesus was twelve years old he said, "Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" (Luke 2:49). Then at Jesus' baptism these words were heard from heaven, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). But when we hear this relationship described in this way we should not apply our human understanding of this relationship and think that Jesus is less God than His Father, or that God the Father existed before God the Son.
In John's gospel we are reminded time and time again that Jesus was true God, and equal to God the Father in all things. In the opening verses of his Gospel John reminds us that the second person of the Godhead (here called "the Word") was with God at the beginning of the world, and is in fact God. John reiterates what the prophets said about God the Son. Isaiah said that Jesus would be "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), and Micah said of the babe who would be born in Bethlehem, "Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting" (Micah 5:2). Jesus though made flesh here in time has been our Mighty God from eternity, along with God the Father.
Being true God with the Father, He became flesh to be our Savior. As our Lord He came to redeem the world He had created in the beginning but which had been corrupted by sin. Through the Word of God we also have beheld Jesus' glory, and have been brought to believe in Him as the Son of God, our Lord and our Savior!
