“The Word became
a human being and lived among us......full of grace and truth” John 1.14 (GNB)
Once again this morning we heard the towering majesty and
beauty of those great words from first chapter of John’s Gospel.
The Word became
a human being and lived among us......full of grace and
truth.
Words that
declare that the living God, who has fashioned time and space, the billions of
suns and stars and moons, sent His beloved Son, who became a human being like
ourselves living on this earth for thirty-three years. Born in a stable,
though He was true God, lived as a
carpenter though He has shaped all that is, dying between two thieves on a
cross, though He is life and holiness itself.
Bishop Ryle wrote of the verses in John
“These verses contain words of
matchless sublimity concerning the divine nature of our Lord Jesus
Christ.........There are heights and depths in these words which are far beyond
our understanding. But there are truths
here which each of us as Christians should treasure in our hearts.”
That the Lord left the
presence of the living God on High, to live among us on this troubled
earth. That He has come among us, in person.
Now, down through the
centuries many in the Church have pondered these glorious words in the opening
chapter of John’s gospel......... and have tried to find ways of expressing
these deep things in simple language.......in story, in parable, in picture
The Word became
a human being and lived among us......full of grace and
truth.
and these stories, parables,
pictures usually tell us of a king who leaves his palace to be among his people
There is one story like this from
In
1528, James V of
James
wanted to be a king who knew his people.
There is a
story that one day, dressed as a farmer as usual on a road near Cramond where
he often went, he was suddenly confronted by three robbers, just in the nick of
time another farmer came to his help and the robbers
fled. James later granted this farmer the one thing he wanted - a farm of his
own near Cramond.
James
- The gudeman of Ballengeich
Now, until the day that he granted that land in Cramond, if
someone had asked round the area who the gudeman of Ballengeich: the country
folks there would have said - oh, he’s a farmer !
But if someone had asked at the Court who is the gudeman
of Ballengeich:
the courtiers would have said - he
is the King !
Actually, the truth is that he was both - both king and farmer, the man known
as gudeman of Ballengeich was king James
V but when he was out in the
countryside travelling, learning how the common people lived, what their
troubles were, they knew him as an ordinary farmer
Two
different ways of looking at the same person.
You know, down through the
ages according to different circumstances, people have looked at Jesus in two
different ways.
When asked Who is Jesus ? there have sometimes been
two answers
Some have said, He is God, He is
the Son of God.........
Knowing only too well what we are like as human beings,
some have said: Jesus is fully God, so Holy that He could not be possibly be human like us, sinful as we so obviously are.
On the other hand, some have said Jesus must be really human
like us, if He is to share with us in this troubled, trialled, life of
ours.....
In some way, He left behind all the power of God, to be a
human being like ourselves
Some have said, He is the Son of God, above all,
some have said He is a man, a
human being like us.
But John’s gospel says: He is both !
He is both Son of God, and a human being like us.
Right at the beginning, the
gospel of John tells us that the Word who was with God and was God became a
human being, Jesus. The Eternal Son, became a man, a
human being, like us, with a life, and a human nature, like ours.
And if we read right through
the whole New Testament, we find that our salvation hinges on this. Our
salvation depends on this - that as Jesus, the Son of God took on our human
nature, with its frailty, weariness, - the Son of God came right down into
our life itself at His birth in the stable
As Reginald Heber’s great hymn says
low
lies His head with the beasts of the stall
Maker and
Monarch and Saviour of all !
He has taken on our human life
with its burdens, He has taken on our human nature
with its weakness, frailty and sin. He has taken on the human nature that Adam
bequeathed us, as we see it in the opening pages of Genesis in both Adam and
Eve. Adam and Eve, do not listen to God, refuse to
accept what God says, choose their own way - and so cut themselves off from the
source of life - the living God.
Jesus Christ has taken on the
human nature that Adam bequeathed us.
And our salvation depends on this.........
Jesus Christ has taken our old sinful human life - the old
life of Adam,
Jesus Christ took on our old
human nature, with its frailty and sin.
He is baptised at the Jordan,
one with all the rest of the sinful men and women there. Just as we men and
women have our challenges, our struggles, our deep and testing times, Jesus is
tested - sifted by Satan in that agonising struggle on the mountain .
But Jesus Christ has taken our old sinful human life - the
old life of Adam,
and has made it holy, restoring,
re-created human life.
Just as an old, muddied, polluted poisonous spring in a
dark and shaded valley might be sealed off,
and a fresh spring of water is dug
high up on the sunlit slopes, to be the source of clear, sparkling, refreshing
waters,
So Jesus Christ has taken our old sinful human life - the
old life of Adam,
to
the Cross, says Paul.
There at the Cross He has
taken our old human life, our old human nature to death. Sealed it off, you
could say.
And Jesus offers to us new life as His gift to
us,
for
He is, declares Paul,
the
Second Adam.
A new Adam,
From Him, and only from Him as the source
flow the clear, sparkling,
refreshing living waters of life........
holy, restored, re-created human
life.
In this New Year of 2009 that
has just begun may we be cleansed in the living waters He gives, may we drink deeply of the living waters He gives.
May we continue to find from Him, and only from Him, and
in Him and only from Him living waters, the source indeed, of Life itself.
AMEN
Would we know, for another thing, the strength of a true
Christian's foundation for hope? Let us often read these first five verses
of John's Gospel. Let us mark that the Savior in whom the believer is bid to
trust is nothing less than the Eternal God, One able to save to the uttermost
all that come to the Father by Him. He that was "with God," and
"was God," is also "Emmanuel, God with us." Let us thank
God that our help is laid on One that is mighty.
(Psalm 89:19.) In ourselves we are great sinners. But in Jesus Christ we
have a great Savior. He is a strong foundation-stone, able to bear the weight
of a world's sin. He that believes on Him shall not be confounded. (1 Peter
2:6.)
We see, secondly, in these verses, one principal
position which our Lord Jesus Christ occupies towards mankind. We
have it in the words, "He was the true light which lights every man that
comes into the world."
We see, lastly, in these verses, the vast privileges
of all who receive Christ, and believe on Him. We are told that
"as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become you sons of God,
even to those who believe on His name."
The second Adam is
far greater than the first Adam was. The first Adam was only man, and so he
fell. The second Adam was God as well as man, and so He completely conquered.
Let us leave the
subject with feelings of deep gratitude and thankfulness. It is full of
abounding consolation for all who know Christ by faith, and believe on Him.
Did the Word
become flesh? Then He is One who can be touched with
the feeling of His people's infirmities, because He has suffered Himself, being
tempted. He is almighty because He is God, and yet He can sympathize with us,
because He is man.
Did the Word
become flesh? Then He can supply us with a perfect pattern and example for our
daily life. Had he walked among us as an angel or a spirit, we could never have
copied Him. But having dwelt among us as a man, we know that the true standard
of holiness is to "walk even as He walked." (1 John 2:6.) He is a
perfect pattern, because He is God. But He is also a pattern exactly suited to
our needs, because He is man.
Finally, did the
Word become flesh? Then let us see in our mortal bodies a real, true dignity,
and not defile them by sin. Vile and weak as our body may seem, it is a body
which the Eternal Son of God was not ashamed to take upon Himself, and to take
up to heaven. That simple fact is a pledge that He will raise our bodies at the
last day, and glorify them together with His own.