The Glory of the Word: Full of Grace and Truth

The Eternal Logos

1. “In the beginning…” (Header Slide)

• Last week we covered the first two points
• This Sunday we will look at these next two ideas
• Read John 1:1-2 (Slide 2)
• Brief rejoinder from last week, “in the beginning” capturing the eternality of God the Son
• Before there was any matter, before there was time was the Word – the Son of God

1. The Word: Logos

• John concludes, when looking back on all that he saw in Christ is “He is the very Word of God.”
• God’s self-revelation in His Son, if you want to know what God is like, look to His Son, if you want to see God look to the Son of God
• That is why John wraps this entire concept of the revelation of God in His Son by applying this title to the Son of God – in Jesus Christ God is revealed
• And this “Word of God,” this “Son of God” is eternal
• There never was a time when He was not

1. Was God: The Simplicity of God in the Oneness of God

• There is great simplicity in the understanding of God
• Read Genesis 1:1 (Slide 2)
• Summarized in the Children’s Catechism “Who made you?” “God made me.” “What else did God make?” “God made me and all things.” “Why did God make you and all things?” “For His glory.”
• So when we say God is simple, we mean that there is an easy in understanding this concept - easy enough for a child to understand, easy enough for each of us to understand in the normal use of language without a theology or philosophy degree
• Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (Slide 3)

o   Examples of Simplicity and Oneness from Scripture: Marriage, Nation

o   From a nation, Read Genesis 11:6 (Slide 4)

o   From marriage, Read Genesis 2:24 (Slide 5)

1. With God: The Complexity of God in His Triune Nature

• “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…” and just a few verses later in Genesis 1 we read
• Read Genesis 1:26 (Slide 6)
• Without explanation, the author of Genesis makes this very complex statement
• This verse, just 25 verses after one of the simplest statements in the bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” here the author gives a very complex statement about the plurality of the nature of God
• This approach is repeated in Genesis 3 where we see
• Read Genesis 3:22 (Slide 7)
• Again, in Genesis 19:24, now with the formal name of God used in the same way with total comfort and yet in two places at the same time
• Read Genesis 19:24 (Slide )
• So now back to John’s prologue
• Read John 1:1-2 (Slide )
• When Jesus says, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” And also, “I and the Father are One.”
• There is a simplicity to God. He is absolute being and our existence and reason for living depends on Him. That should produce a simplicity of worship reflective of the simplicity of God. “Thank You God for giving me life.”
• There is a complexity to God. He is Triune and His attributes of power, knowledge, presence, holiness, love, grace, forgiveness, mercy, wrath, justice, righteousness, immutability, gladness, invincibility, and triune nature will take all eternity to even begin to comprehend. This incredible complexity to God should prompt worship. “God, how unsearchable You are and how unfathomable are Your ways.”

1. Conclusion (Blank Slide)

• Conclusions: There is a simplicity with God – Creator, Sustainer, and Purpose of our existence
• The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal and unique Son of God, truly God, of the same essence as God the Father. The Son of God is the greatest and primary revelation of God’s nature.
• Apart from knowing God in this way, there is no knowledge of God
• Apart from the eternal nature of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the eternal LOGOS, there is no meaning or purpose to life

 

 

Eli: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Ana: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

Eli: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Ana: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

Eli: “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Ana: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

Eli: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” 

Ana: “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

 

Eli: “Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain.”

Ana: “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Eli: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”

Ana: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”