Studies Through 1John - Lesson 2

                   Studies Through 1John - Lesson 2

                     Is Jesus Really God??

                           1 John 1:1-4

    Last week we looked at the purpose, dating, audience, and author of 1John. As opposed to the Gospel of John, this was not written to unbelievers that they "might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you might have life through His name" (John 20:31) but rather to believers that they might fight off false doctrine and be assured of their salvation. Thirty six times the word know appears and 4 times the word confident appears in 1John.
      There are 2 common denominators of all cults or false teachings - they deny that Jesus is God and they preach salvation by good works. This was no different for the false teachers of this day. They were teaching that Jesus could not have been God because to take on a human body would have made Him sinful. Lets look at 1John 1:1-4 from this framework showing 5 reasons John might say that Jesus was and is God.

           That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our joy complete. 1John 1:1-4


         ^{1. From the Beginning
                   One of the traditional arguments for the existence of God is the argument of cause and effect. The following is taken from "gotquestions.com"}
           The Law of Cause and Effect. This law of science states that every cause has its effect and every effect has its cause. This law is the basis of all science. As such, this law bears a relationship to the origin of the heavens and the earth. In fact, scientists agree that the universe has not existed forever, that it had a beginning at some point in time.

The theory of relativity, which is almost universally accepted among scientists, has certain implications for this Law of Cause and Effect. One is that the universe, defined as time, space, matter, and physical energy had a beginning, that it is not eternal. And it is through Einstein’s equations that scientists can trace the development of the universe back to its very origin, back to what is called the “singularity event” when it actually came into being. Science has proven that the universe really did have a beginning. This means that if the universe had a starting point in history, then it obviously began to exist, and it must have a cause for its existence.

Therefore, if the universe needs a cause for its coming into being, then that cause must be beyond the universe—which is time, space, matter, and physical energy. That cause must be something similar to what Christians call “God.” Even Richard Dawkins, probably the most prominent proponent for atheism in our time, admitted in a TIME magazine article that “there could be something incredibly grand and incomprehensible and beyond our present understanding.” Yes, and that is God!

We can best summarize this cosmological evidence with the following statements:
(1) Whatever begins to exist must have a cause for its existence.
(2) The universe began to exist.
(3) Therefore, the universe must have a cause for its existence.
(4) The attributes of the cause of the universe (being timeless, existing outside of space, and so on) are the attributes of God.
(5) Therefore, the cause of the universe must be God

    As we look at some scripture regarding this lets look at the following 2 verses from Isaiah and compare them to a passage in Revelation;

⁴ Who has done this and carried it through,
    calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord (Jehovah)—with the first of them
    and with the last—I am he.” Isa 41:4

“This is what the Lord(Jehovah) says—
    Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
    apart from me there is no God. Isa 44:6

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Rev.1:12-18

     In the Isaiah verses you clearly see that God is claiming to be "the first and last - the alpha and omega" and in the Revelation passage it is clear that Jesus is claiming it. Which is it? Both, because Jesus is God.

    2. The Word
  
  As in the intro to the Gospel of John, John loves to refer to Jesus as the Word or Logos in Greek. What concept is he trying to get across and how is this proof that Jesus is God. First of all look at John 1:1-4

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. John 1:1-4

 You can see a lot of similarities to 1John there. Notice in verse 1, "The Word was God" a clear claim to Jesus being God. But why is He referred to as Word?

    A. The word Logos to the Greeks had become synonymous with "the meaning of life". John is claiming that Jesus is the meaning of life. Both David and Paul give the meaning of life in the following passages

         Save us, Lord(Jehovah) our God,
    and gather us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
    and glory in your praise.  Ps 106:47

  "... in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his (Jesus') glory".   Eph 1:12

        The reason for living is to give glory to Jesus who is God. With that as our basis we find maximum freedom and fulfillment in life.

      B.  Logos is the root for logic. It refers to wisdom. The ultimate wisdom of the universe is God. He is so far above us that we can't begin to know and understand all the things He knows. One of the pleasures of eternity with Him is an eternity of learning from Him. Science today is only scratching the surfaces of His wisdom. All the great discoveries being made were spoken into existence by Him millennia ago in six days.

By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations,
    by understanding he set the heavens in place;
²⁰ by his knowledge the watery depths were divided,
    and the clouds let drop the dew. Prov. 3:19-20

Jesus came to Earth to make audible some of God's wisdom. Just like God's glory could not be looked on without "melting" so a visible form of God came to Earth and we beheld Him without being destroyed, so an audible form of God's wisdom came in the person of Jesus Christ to make knowable a fragment of the unknowable.

      C. The Word is how we get to know someone. If you see someone at a party, unless they have a Pandora bracelet on,(joke) all you can do is make general assumptions/ first impressions about them until they open their mouths. Then we find out who they really are and we can ask questions of them. God is the same way. We can get general revelation about Him through creation (Rom. 1:20) but we can't know for example His love except Jesus came to Earth and revealed it (John 3:16)

       D. The Bible is called "The Word of God" The relation of Jesus to the Bible is seen in John

         ^"You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me (Jesus), ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me to have life". John 5:39,40
 
        Jesus and the Bible are inseparable; in fact the whole Bible points to Jesus.  http://www.jesusplusnothing.com/jesus66books.htm


    3. The Life appeared.

      Not "a life" but "The Life". Think of the audacity of that claim. If you were to say "I am a life on this planet" everyone would agree and probably say, "And your point is...?" But if I were to say "I am THE Life on this planet" people would be incredulous. It is a claim to being the most significant living person on the planet or it is a claim to being the source of life on the planet - the life force from which everyone else is deriving their life. Both are true of Jesus. The Eternal source of life, the giver and creator of life who stands outside of time stepped in to time to reveal how we can have that life in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, "I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" and He says "I come that they might have life and more abundantly." "I am the resurrection and the Life"

    4. Son of God

  This claim meant more to the hearers than it does to us. It is somewhat lost in cultural translation. When Jesus said He was the Son of God that meant to the hearers that He claimed to be the same nature as God and to be in fact God. We see the response to that claim in the gospels. To say He was the Son of God was to blaspheme.

      The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” John 19:7

      And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”
⁶⁴ Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
⁶⁵ Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! Matt 26:63-65

     5. Brings fellowship with the Father

       This is the greatest need of mankind - to commune, know, be one with, partner with or have fellowship with our creator. Back in the garden that was the norm (Gen. 3:8-10). Adam and Eve sinned and suddenly that fellowship with God was gone because a Holy God cannot be in the presence of sin. (Hab. 3:11)When God delivered His people from Egypt, instead of taking them to the promised land, He took them to Sinai. Why? So that they could begin a relationship with Him.

     They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.  Ex. 29:46

     When the glory departed from the temple in Ezekiel, God's presence was finally gone until 600 years later Immanuel (Jesus), God with us arrives on the scene. His name was called Jesus "for He will save His people from their sins".(Matt 1:21-23). He made it possible to come back into fellowship with the Father again by just humbling ourselves before Him and believing, receiving, trusting in His atonement for our sins on the cross. His death tore the veil in the tabernacle signifying once we were kept out of fellowship with God and now we have direct access through Jesus.
       But how does that prove He is God?   David said in Psalms, "Against You only have I sinned" When we sin, all sins are directly against God. When Adam and Eve sinned, they broke God's rule, no one else's. Therefore to get forgiveness, God has to give it. Lets say I invite the youth group over to my house and they start rough- housing, despite me telling them not to, and down falls my $2000 TV and breaks. For Bob to go to Bill and say, "I'm sorry for breaking Doc's TV"  and Bill to say, "I forgive you" wouldn't cut it. Why? Because it isn't Bill's TV and he is not the grantor of forgiveness; I am because I was the one "sinned against". So if Bob comes to me and is genuinely sorry and humbly asks for forgiveness, I would probably say yes and then say "don't rough house anymore." All is better right? Wrong! I now have a decision to make - I have 3 choices; 1) make Bob buy me a new TV which he can't afford so that option is out  2) Live without a TV - who can do that so that option is out  3) buy myself a new TV. You see sin leaves a debt that God had to pay. No one else could afford it nor forgive it. God - Jesus - came down to Earth to offer forgiveness because He was the one sinned against and He alone could pay the debt. When Jesus healed the man lowered through the roof He first said "Your sins are forgiven". The question was, "Who could forgive sins but God Himself?" The answer is "Yes".