Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
| Media #801 |  |
 |
As we"ll see as we go through this text, the guiding imagery for verses 14-18 is drawn from Exodus 33-34, where God, in the context of giving Torah from Mount Sinai a second time, revealed His character to Moses. There is a connection here between Lazarus' "Word" and Judaism's Torah that climaxes in the section (1:17-18). (The Gospel of John, Craig S. Keener, Volume 1, page 405)
Foremost among the teachings of Lazarus' prologue is the Doctrine of the Incarnation of our Lord. We have been looking for the last two weeks at this doctrine, which is extremely important for us to understand. In the Incarnation the Lord fulfilled Scripture from the Tanakh, which taught that the promised Messiah would be human and divine. It taught His humanity as the descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David. Yahweh, speaking to David said:
"When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. "I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 2 Samuel 7:12-14 NASB
The Tanakh also taught that the Messiah would be divine:
"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity." Micah 5:2 NASB
At the Incarnation, God the Son, the Second person of the one triune God, was forever joined to true humanity. This joining together has been designated as the Hypostatic Union. The Hypostatic Union is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. The Council of Chalcedon put it this way:
"Our Lord Yeshua the Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhoodÉin two natures inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures by no means taken away by the union, butÉeach nature being preserved, and concurring in one PersonÉnot parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Yeshua the Christ."
J. I. Packer defines the Incarnation and Hypostatic this way:
The baby born at Bethlehem was God made man. The Word had become flesh: a real human baby. He had not ceased to be God; He was no less God then than before; but He had begun to be man. He was not now God minus some elements of His deity, but God plus all that He had made His own by taking manhood to Himself. He who made man was now learning what it felt like to be a man. (J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1973), p. p. 50.)
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. John 1:14 NASB
Wayne Grudem says of the Incarnation:
It is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible—far more amazing than the resurrection and more amazing even than the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become man and join himself to a human nature forever, so that infinite God became one person with finite man, will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe. (Systematic Theology [Zondervan], p. 563)
"The Word became flesh"—this is the "Word," of verse 1 who existed from eternity, who was with God, and was God. This eternal Word who existed co-equal with God before anything else came into being, "became flesh." This is the last time Lazarus uses "the Word" as a title for Yeshua in this Gospel. From now on, Lazarus referred to the Word by His historical name, Yeshua, and to the personal terms "Father" and "Son."
"Became"—(Greek egeneto) does not mean that the Word ceased to be what He was before. Rather, to His eternal Deity, He added perfect humanity.
"Flesh"—this is the Greek word sarx, which sometimes is used in a moral sense, deeds of the flesh, like in Romans 8 and Galatians 5. But sometimes it's used in a physical sense, and that's the way it's used here. Romans 1:3 says that Yeshua was the Son of David, "according to the flesh," humanly speaking.
The Greeks had many legends of the gods coming down among their human subjects, pretending to be human. They would frolic and play with their subjects until the charade was over, then they would pull off the masks, revealing themselves as not truly mortals. For the Greeks, the idea of a god becoming flesh would be unthinkable because of their negative view of "flesh." All flesh was evil, in their minds, and only spirit was good. They lived with this kind of dualism.
Well, Yeshua did not masquerade as a human being, He became "flesh." It seems probable that Lazarus was confronting opponents of a docetic type, people who were ready to think of Yeshua of Nazareth as the Christ of God, but who denied the reality of His humanity. They thought of Him as only appearing to live a human life. Since God could not, on their premises, defile Himself by real contact with human kind, the whole life of Yeshua must be appearance only. Lazarus' strong term "sarx" leaves no room for this idea. He is clear on the deity of the Word. But he is just as clear on the genuineness of His humanity.
"And dwelt among us"—if John Eleazar was thinking in his original language (which seems very likely) he may very well have been playing on words. In Hebrew the verb "to tent" was shachan, which was a cognate of the word shechinah, the word often used in the Tanakh for the glory of God. The root idea of shechinah is the presence of God; that is the meaning of glory. The Greek word for "dwelt" is skenoo, which would be literally: "tabernacled" among us. This evokes the command to Moses at Sinai:
"Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. Exodus 25:8 NASB
The Septuagint translates this: "that I may be seen in their midst." The word "seen" derives from skene, the Tent or Tabernacle, and does not necessarily imply a temporary dwelling. It alludes rather to how the LORD had been present in the Tabernacle/ Temple and how He was expected to return. Yahweh met with them in the Tabernacle. And John Eleazar is presenting Yeshua as Yahweh: it was Yahweh who dwelt in the Tabernacle:
"It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. "I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by My glory. Exodus 29:42-43 NASB
God's "glory" was once displayed by means of the Tabernacle:
He erected the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the veil for the gateway of the court. Thus Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Exodus 40:33-35 NASB
When Moses had completed the Tabernacle, "the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle." The Septuagint has skene each time for Tabernacle. So too when Solomon consecrated the Temple:
It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. 1 Kings 8:10-11 NASB
Again we see, "the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh." After the Temple had been destroyed in 586 BCE, Jeremiah took the skene, the ark, and the incense altar and hid them in a cave. According to 2 Maccabees 2:4-5, they would be restored, he said:
No one must know about this place until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy. 8 At that time he will reveal where these things are hidden, and the dazzling light of his presence will be seen in the cloud, as it was in the time of Moses and on the occasion when Solomon prayed that the Temple might be dedicated in holy splendor. 2 Maccabees 2:7-8
This text was written about 100-50 BCE and so the story was known in the time of Yeshua. Yahweh and his skene were linked to the glory and the cloud, and they would return. Ezekiel had seen the glory of the LORD and the bright cloud leaving the polluted Temple (Ezek. 10.3-4; 11.22-23) and in a later vision he saw it return through the Eastern gate (Ezek. 43.1-5). Yeshua is the fulfillment of this vision. For John Eleazar, the skene of the Word is Yahweh with His glory coming again to His holy place as a human being.
Solomon thought it incredible that God would dwell on the earth:
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! 1 Kings 8:27 NASB
But that is precisely what He did in Yeshua. As God's presence dwelt among the Israelites in the Tabernacle, so He lived among them in the person of Yeshua.
"And we saw His glory"—glory is a term reserved for God. It is His weightiness, His honor, His praise and renown. In Yeshua, the glory of God is seen and known. That same glory that filled the Tabernacle, that same glory that filled the Temple, that same glory that caused the seraphim to sing continually, "Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts," that same glory before which Isaiah felt threatened with extinction, that same glory that the prophets foretold would fill the earth when the Messiah came —we have seen that glory of God in the incarnate Word.
By using the word that was used of the Tabernacle, coupled with seeing Yeshua's glory, John Eleazar wants us to make some connections. Moses in Exodus 33 says:
Then Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory!" Exodus 33:18 NASB
This is Moses' request of Yahweh. Watch Yahweh's response:
And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" Exodus 33:19-20 NASB
God's "name" is the embodiment of all His attributes. So, what is God's glory? It is the embodiment of all His attributes. God's glory causes worship:
The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. Exodus 34:5-8 NASB
God showed Moses His glory, which was His goodness, grace, mercy—His attributes.
When Lazarus says, "We beheld His glory," he's not only talking about the representation of that glory in light, he's talking about the reality of those attributes which were manifest throughout the ministry in the life of Christ. We saw all those things that the Lord listed back in Exodus 33 and 34.
When Yeshua turned water into wine, His glory was seen:
This beginning of His signs Yeshua did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. John 2:11 NASB
But the ultimate display of Christ's glory took place at His crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation. When Judas went out of the Upper Room to betray the Savior:
Therefore when he had gone out, Yeshua said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; John 13:31 NASB
The cross displayed God's perfect justice and love like no other event. The "glory" that Lazarus and the other disciples observed as eyewitnesses refers to the god-like characteristics of Yeshua.
"Glory as of the only begotten from the Father"—"only begotten" is the Greek word monogenes. The use of the word "only begotten" is important because it is only used 5 times in the New Testament of Christ as the Son of God, and it is used this way only in the writings of Lazarus: John 1:14; 1:18; 3:16; 3:18; and 1 John 4:9.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 NASB
If you remember back to our study of Genesis 6:1-4, I said that "sons of God" is used here of watchers, members of the Divine Counsel. So how can Lazarus say 5 times that Yeshua is the "only begotten son"? How could Yeshua be the only divine son when there were other sons of God? The answer to this is that "only begotten"is an unfortunately confusing translation, especially to modern ears. Not only does the translation "only begotten"seem to contradict the obvious statements in the Tanakh about other sons of God, it implies that there was a time when the Son did not exist—that He had a beginning.
The word monogenes doesn't mean "only begotten" in some sort of "birthing" sense. The confusion extends from an old misunderstanding of the root of the Greek word. For years monogenes was thought to have derived from two Greek terms, monos ("only") and gennao ("to beget, bear"). Greek scholars later discovered that the second part of the word monogenes does not come from the Greek verb gennao, but rather from the noun genos ("class, kind"). The term literally means: "one of a kind" or "unique" without connotation of created origin. [See The Unseen Realm, Michael S. Heiser, chapter 4]
The word in Greek was used of an only child:
Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. Luke 7:12 NASB
"Only" here is monogenes. Luke uses monogenes of an only son (Luke 9:38) and of an only daughter in Luke 8:42. The writer of Hebrews uses this word of Isaac:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; Hebrews 11:17 NASB
Isaac is called Abraham's monogenes. If you know the story, you know that Isaac was not the "only begotten"son of Abraham. Abraham had earlier fathered Ishmael (cf. Gen 16: 15; 21: 3). The term must mean that Isaac was Abraham's unique son, for he was the son of the covenant promises. Isaac's genealogical line would be the one through which Messiah would come. Just as Yahweh is an elohim, and no other elohim are Yahweh, so Yeshua is the unique Son, and no other sons of God are like Him.
So monogenes means: "one kind, unique or only" (i.e., the only one of its kind).
There is no other Son of God who is a Son of God in the same way that Yeshua is the Son of God. Only this one. All other sons of God referred to in the Scripture are either created or adopted.
"Full of grace and truth"—the word "full" here is pleres, which means: "complete." The coupling of "grace and truth" follows the Hebrew terms hesed (covenant love and loyalty) and emeth (trustworthiness), which are used and expanded in:
Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; Exodus 34:6 NASB
Loving kindness is chesed and truth is emeth. Here these words are used of Yahweh, and in our text they are used of Yeshua because Yeshua is Yahweh.
Both words occur together in:
By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, And by the fear of the LORD one keeps away from evil. Proverbs 16:6 NASB
This describes Yeshua's character in Old Covenant terms.
"Grace and truth"—characterized the glory of God that Yeshua manifested. "Grace" in this context refers to graciousness or lovingkindness, and "truth" means integrity or truthfulness. The Incarnation was the greatest possible expression of God's grace to humankind. It was also the best way to communicate truth accurately to human understanding.
John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'" John 1:15 NASB
The word "testified" here is martureo, which means: "to be a witness." John the Baptist is one of seven persons named in the Fourth Gospel who gave witness that Yeshua Is God. The others are Nathanael (John 1:49), Peter (John 6:69), the blind man who was healed (John 9:35-38), Martha (John 11:27), and Thomas (John 20:28), and Yeshua Himself (John 5:25; 10:36). So we have seven clear witnesses to the Deity of Yeshua.
"For He existed before me"—Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist before Mary was pregnant with Yeshua. John was born first and yet he says, "He existed before me." John is affirming Yeshua's pre-existence, His Deity.
Westcott pointed out that the reference here is not merely to relative priority, but absolute priority. In other words, the "Word" was not just "former" (prior to John the Baptist) but "first" in an absolute sense. (Westcott, The Gospel According to St. John, 13.)
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. John 1:16 NASB
Earlier commentators (including Origen and Luther) took these words to be the Baptist's. Z. C. Hodges also took 1:15-18 as the words of John the Baptist. But most modern commentators take them as the words of the writer of the Gospel.
Verse 16 seems to be explaining verse 14, which said that Yeshua is "full of grace." So I believe that verses 16-18 are the words of Lazarus.
"For of His fullness we have all received"—the word "fullness" here is pleroma, which means: "all the resources of Yahweh are present in Yeshua," which constitute His "fullness." Paul put it this way:
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, Colossians 2:9 NASB
This is a definitive statement of Christ's Deity The "fullness" is defined by the word "Deity." The Greek word translated Deity" is theotetos, an ontological word. What that means is: "it has the idea of essential nature or essential being." The essential ontological nature of Yeshua is what? Deity. He is God.
The word "fullness" is from the Greek word pleroma, and means: "the sum total, fullness, plenitude." Paul says that all the fullness of Deity, not a part of it, dwells in Christ. Yeshua is completely God. He is exactly what God is. Yeshua possesses the "fullness" of God, not certain aspects of God's essence. Yeshua possesses unbounded power, the totality of the attributes of God. He is not merely godlike. He is God Himself.
The fullness of God, "the whole Godhead," comes into your life when you believe in Yeshua!
From His fulness we have received "grace upon grace"—in the Greek this is charin anti charitos. The problem is the meaning of the preposition anti here. Some interpreters believe that John Eleazar was saying grace follows grace as ocean wave follows wave, washing believers with successive blessings. The NIV says, "one blessing after another" effectively expresses this view, and the NASB says, "grace upon grace" implies it.
But another view is that the Greek preposition anti means "instead of" here, as
it often does elsewhere. Here anti seems to mean that one thing is replaced by another or put in the place of another. According to this interpretation, Lazarus meant that God's grace though Yeshua replaces the grace that He bestowed through Moses when He gave the Law. Verse 17 seems to continue this thought and so supports this interpretation.
John Chrysostom and other Church Fathers saw this passage as giving testimony that the Old Covenant economy of salvation giving way to the new economy of grace brought by Christ. In Jewish sources the Law was regarded as a gift from God (Josephus, Antiquities VIII. 338; Pirke Aboth 1.1; Sifre Deut. 31.4 305).
What Lazarus says here is similar to what Paul says in:
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18 NASB
This is from Old Covenant glory to New Covenant glory. The context is the two covenants.
But in our text, instead of glory to glory, it is "grace upon grace." The Law, in this sense, was an act of grace, for the Law pointed to the ultimate grace given in Yeshua. Paul called it a "tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith." (Gal 3:24)
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Yeshua the Christ. John 1:17 NASB
Did the Law not have grace and truth? Yes it did, but Christ is the full realization of grace and truth. The Law was a shadow:
Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Colossians 2:16-17 NASB
"Food or drink"—that food was a major consideration under the Old Covenant is clear from even a superficial reading of Leviticus, chapter 11. The second group of words that Paul uses is rendered: "...or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day,"
representing, respectively, annual, monthly, and weekly celebrations that were tied in with the Mosaic Law. This phrase is indicative of all the appointed festivals of Israel (see Leviticus 23) and is used as such in at least three different places in the Tanakh.
The whole Levitical System was a shadow of Christ, illustrating His person and work that was to come. The Old Covenant Law is a shadow (that is, a "type" or an "illustration") of who the Christ was to be and what His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension were to achieve for all mankind. The animal sacrifices were an illustration of His sacrificial death. They were not the reality of His death. Shadow, however, always reveals that there is reality somewhere.
"But the substance is of Christ"—there may be a deliberate play upon words to not only state that the reality of the shadows belong to Christ, but that the reality is found in the Church, the body of Christ. The Greek word used here for "substance" is soma, which is the regular word for "body." All the ceremony of the Old Covenant, the legalistic system, the Aaronic priesthood, the Tabernacle with its furnishings and ritual all pointed forward to Christ. They were pictures and parables of Christ.
So as Lazarus says, "grace and truth were realized through Yeshua the Christ"—if our understanding of grace as hesed, as God's constant covenant love; and and truth is emeth, God's integrity or truthfulness, is correct, then verse 17 notes that Christ has brought the fulfillment of Old Covenant expectations.
The Hebrew word that is being represented (hesed) has been called the agape of the Old Covenant. In Christ we see God's constant fidelity, His steadfast love regardless of our merit or worth. Yeshua is the full revelation of God, when the Law only partially revealed Him. Paul put it this way:
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Yeshua the Christ our Lord. Romans 5:20-21 NASB
Grace was realized in Christ Yeshua.
John 1:17 is a contrast of the two ages, Moses' first plague in Egypt involved turning water into blood (Exod. 7:14-15), whereas Yeshua's first recorded miracle involved turning water into wine (John 2:1-11). As the writer of Hebrews said:
so much the more also Yeshua has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Hebrews 7:22 NASB
Yeshua is the full embodiment of Torah, completing what was partial (but actually present) in Torah. Yeshua thus embodies the hope of Judaism. In following Yeshua, the embodiment of Torah, His people fulfil the highest demands of Judaism.
"Yeshua the Christ"—this is John's first use of the human name "Yeshua," which means: "Yahweh saves," or more literally: "I SAVE!" Yeshua occurs 237 times in this Gospel, more than a quarter of the total 905 times it appears in the entire New Testament. The compound "Yeshua the Christ," however, occurs again only in 17:3 in John. Lazarus used "Christ" 19 times, more than any of the other Gospel writers.
Yeshua is the One through whom He has manifested abundant "grace and truth." John is making it clear that the Word who was in the beginning with God, the Word who was God, and the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, is none other than Yeshua the Messiah of Israel.
Lazarus has used the word "grace" three times in this prologue (vv.14, 16, 17),but but nowhere else in his Gospel. This is the last time in this Gospel that we see the word "grace."
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. John 1:18 NASB
I think that this verse is also drawn from Exodus:
But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" Exodus 33:20 NASB
"No one has seen God at any time"—does that sound right to you? What about what Isaiah said in:
In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Isaiah 6:1 NASB
This is a throne room vision, and Isaiah says he saw the Lord. There are many passages of Scripture that record various individuals seeing God (e.g., Exod. 33:21-23; Rev. 1:10-18). Passages like Exodus 24:9-11 state explicitly that some men have seen God. Let me just say here that when ever anyone sees Yahweh, it is Yahweh the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity that they see:
"Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. John 6:46 NASB
Yeshua said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? John 14:9 NASB
The Son is the visible member of the Trinity.
But I think that Calvin is right when he says, "When he says that no one has seen God, it is not to be understood of the outward seeing of the physical eye. He means that, since God dwells in inaccessible light, He cannot be known except in Christ, His living image." No man has ever seen God in His essence. That's the meaning.
"The only begotten God"—"only begotten here is monogenes, which literally means: "one of a kind" or "unique." What is strange about this phrase? It doesn't say "unique Son" but "unique God." Young's Literal says:
God no one hath ever seen; the only begotten Son, who is on the bosom of the Father—he did declare. John 1:18 YLT
So which is it God or Son? Why the differences? The ancient manuscripts of the New Testament text vary among themselves at a number of places, but by the science of texture criticism we are able to generally arrive at the correct reading at particular places with a reasonable degree of certainty. We do not have the originals of any ancient writing.
The names for Deity and the common terms like Son, God, Spirit were often abbreviated in ancient manuscripts. They had to be written by hand, and so the result was that there was a good bit of abbreviation, and occasionally in little words, they looked a lot alike. The word for "Son" is the word "huios." It ends with an "omicron" and a "sigma." The word for "God" is "theos." As you can tell it ends in the same way with an "omicron" and a "sigma." When those words were abbreviated, they were simply two letters, usually a line placed above it to indicate an abbreviation and the only difference between the two was in the first letter.
So it's possible that an early scribe having "only begotten Son," mistook it for "only begotten God," or having "only begotten God" before him he mistook it for "only begotten Son." It is more likely that "only begotten God" was changed to "only begotten son," because it is a unique phrase and is more difficult to explain than "only begotten Son." A scribe probably changed the original to "only begotten Son" to correspond to John 3:16.
Fortunately, in this case, it really doesn't make a whole lot of difference because "The only begotten Son" of the eternal God is obviously God Himself because He possesses the nature of Deity. But, on the other hand, if "only begotten God" is the reading, then it's a very striking direct statement of the Deity of the Lord Yeshua.
"Who is in the bosom of the Father"—this is a Hebrew idiom expressing the intimate relationship of child and parent, and of friend and friend. It is used in Numbers 11 to describe a child's relationship with his mother (11:12), in Deuteronomy 13 of a husband's relationship with his wife (13:6), and in Luke 16:22, of Lazarus' fellowship with Abraham in heaven.
"He has explained Him"—the Greek word is exegesato from which we get "exegete." It means: "to explain, interpret, give the meaning." The Son has exegeted, He has explained, interpreted, or narrated the Father to human kind. So you want to know about Yahweh? Yeshua exegetes Yahweh. He displays His glory; He dispenses His grace; and He defines Yahweh.
So don't come to me with the nonsense about Yeshua being a just a man. That's not an option. He's God. And it is only to those who believe in His name that He gives the right to become His children. You can't believe in His name if you don't believe He is Yahweh!
John Eleazar ended his prologue as he began it, with a reference to Yeshua's Deity, closing an inclusio that began in verse 1. He began by saying, "the Word was with God," and he concluded by saying that He was "in the Father's bosom," distinguishing Him from the Father. He began by saying, "the word was God" and he ends by saying, "the only begotten God," forming an inclusio around the Deity of Christ.
| Continue the Series |