In the Beginning was The Word

And the Word was God

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5 ESV)

If we read on down in John 1 to verses 29-36 we will learn that “The Word” is Jesus Christ, who is the living breathing Word of God. Jesus was with God in the beginning, and he is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And he is our creator God. For Jesus Christ, although he was born as a baby to a human mother, was conceived of the Holy Spirit. And so during the time that he lived on the earth he was fully God and fully human (God incarnate) sent to die on a cross for our sins.

Jesus Christ not only gave physical life to every living creature created by God, but he was crucified on a cross, was buried, and was resurrected back to life for me and for you that we might have spiritual life in him by genuine God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in the Lord Jesus. And the way in which God persuades us is as to his righteousness and holiness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to repent of (to forsake, die to) our sins, and to now surrender our lives to Jesus Christ to follow him in obedience.

For the gospel message taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles is not the same as the one so popularized today here in America. What is largely being passed off as “the gospel” today is that we can merely profess faith in Jesus Christ with our lips and now we are guaranteed forgiveness of all sins and of heaven as our eternal destiny, but regardless of how we live. Or even if they teach the importance of repentance and obedience to the Lord, it is often taught more as a recommendation, but not as a requirement for salvation.

And why is it a requirement for salvation? Because that is what God established, and it is what Jesus taught, and it what the NT apostles taught, too. By God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves of sin, but now as slaves of God and of his righteousness. For Jesus said that if we are to come after him we must deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in walks of obedience to his commands.

They Did Not Receive Him

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:9-13 ESV)

But even though Jesus Christ was God incarnate when he lived on this earth, and even though John declared him as such, and he declared himself to be God (God the Son of God), and he performed miracle after miracle, and he taught the Scriptures as no other man ever did, with great wisdom and knowledge and discernment, still his people, who had been looking for him to come, largely did not receive him as the Christ, their Messiah. But they largely rejected and persecuted him and eventually had him put to death.

And to “receive” Jesus is not just to make a verbal acknowledgment of who he was and is, and of what he did for us in dying on a cross for our sins, and of his bodily resurrection. It is not to give lip service to him only. For receiving him involves not only accepting who he is for who he claims to be, but it is accepting what he taught as truth, that it must be applied to our lives if we are to be of genuine faith in him which assures us forgiveness of sins and heaven as our eternal home. For faith without works is dead.

So, you can “pray a prayer to receive Jesus into your heart” and not literally be receiving Jesus into your life to be your Lord (Owner-Master) of your life at all. For God-persuaded faith says that we must deny self, die daily to sin, and follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands. For if we hold on to our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and walk in obedience to his commands, in the power of God, we have eternal life.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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