Jesus is the Christ

Jesus is the Christ

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST
John 1:1-5.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God."
"Word" means revelation. The incarnation of
Christ is the greatest revelation of God ever made to man. Hence, Word
here simply means the Incarnate God.
"The same was in the beginning
with God."
Hence, you see that the Son, like the Father, is uncreated,
never having had a beginning, and can never have an end.
"All things were
made by Him, and without Him there was nothing that was made."
You
see from this, not only the co-eternity of the Son with the Father, but that
He actually created all things; i.e., the Divinity becomes creative in the
Second Person. (Colossians 1)
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light
shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not."
Darkness is the concomitant of death, and light that of life.
TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
John 1:6-51.
"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, that he may testify concerning the Light, in
order that all may believe through him. He was not that Light, but that he
may testify concerning that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world."
John the Baptist clearly and
powerfully preached the gracious possibility of universal salvation,
involving the saving efficiency of Christ from the foundation of the world.
Darkness here means sin, and light means grace. Hence, you see that the
true, saving grace of God in Christ is actually given to every human being,
of all ages and nations, Pagan, Mohammedan, Papist, and Protestant.
Christ died for all, and by His Spirit shines on all. Hence, none will have an
excuse for their own damnation, as all they have to do is to walk in the
light God gives, and in that case, "the blood cleanses from all sin." (1 John
1:7) Hence, people are only lost for rejecting the light, as God only
requires all to be true to the light and the grace given.
"He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not."
The Savior was unknown, misunderstood, falsely accused,
martyrs have added their blood to His for the same reason; i.e., because the
World knew them not. Jesus and the martyrs suffered condemnation and
death as malefactors, while they were the best people in the world. Such
will always be the case till our Lord comes in His glory. The people of this
wicked world will never understand God’s true people. When they
understand and appreciate you, an awful suspicion arises that you have
gotten wrong.
"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not;"
i.e., He came to the Jews, His own consanguinity, and given to Him in an
everlasting Covenant. Because they were carnal and worldly, they
misunderstood, disowned, and killed Him. If He had been carnal, like
themselves, they would have received Him all right, as they did several
false Christs within forty years after His crucifixion. But in that case, He
could not have saved them, but must have failed, like all of those false
Christs.
"But so many as received Him, unto them gave He the privilege to become
the children of God, to them that believe on His name, who were born, not
of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
In
this wonderful and beautiful passage, setting forth so clearly and gloriously
the great fundamental doctrine of regeneration, the word translated
"power" in E.V. is exousia, signifying, not only power, but more properly,
privilege, right, authority. The word most prevalent in the New Testament
and translated "power" is dunamiz — i.e., dynamite, an infinitely stronger
word than exousia. It means the very omnipotence of the Almighty;
whereas, exousia here means the right or the privilege of every one that
receives Christ to become the children of God through faith, salvation
being optionary with the recipient; i.e., you can all believe and be saved, or
disbelieve and be lost. The specification here given on the negative side is
exceedingly valuable, as it is God’s Warning against Satan’s delusion. "Not
from bloods." Until the date of this Scripture, all Church services consisted
in bloody sacrifices. Hence the conclusion, that no one can be regenerated
by water baptism, the eucharist, good works, or ritual ceremonies of any
kind; nor "from the will of the flesh" — i.e., you can not receive the Divine
birth by the carnal will.
"The Ethiopian can not change his skin, nor the
leopard his spots."
Wonderful force in this Scripture! The black man may
Ethiopian sky ever tanned. This certifies the utter impossibility of
regeneration superinduced by everything we can possibly do
. "Nor from
the will of man."
The pope of Rome, and all the interceding priests on the
face of the whole earth, and you may add to them all the apostles, if they
were risen from the dead, can not possibly impart life to the dead soul of
the sinner. As inspired John here well says, none but Cod can possibly do
this work. When God calls you from death to life, He always reveals to
you the glorious fact. How few, comparatively, have the witness of the
Spirit that they are born of God!
"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten with the Father, full of grace and truth."
As depravity, in all its forms and phases, is antithetical to grace, it is
impossible for any one to be full of the latter and contain any of the
former. A bucket is not full of water if it has a quantity of rock or dirt at
the bottom. Hence, we see this statement annihilates a dogma somewhat
now afloat; i.e., that Jesus had depravity, having inherited it from His
mother.
"For we have not a High Priest who is not able to sympathize
with our infirmities; He also having been tempted in all things,
in like manner, without sin." (Hebrews 4:15.)
This Scripture sweeps all controversy from the field. They argue that the
fact of His temptation is a proof that He had depravity. You see this
Scripture covers all the ground, though He was tempted in all things as we
are, yet He was without sin. The Word of the Lord is the end of all appeal.
Consequently this question is settled. Sin and error are Siamese twins,
which always live and die together. Jesus was full of grace; therefore He
had no sin, and no depravity, which is but another word for sin. Neither
did He have any infirmity, which is the normal effect of sin. He was full of
truth; therefore He had no error.
"John testifies concerning Him, and cried, saying, This is He of whom I
the grace of justification.
"Because the law was given by Moses; grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ."
The law never had any power to save, but
only to convict, and thus prepare people for the saving grace and truth
which God gave in Christ.
"No one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, being in the
bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."
Did not Moses stand face to
face with God on Mt. Sinai? Did not the Lord visit Abraham’s tent at
Mamre, and eat with him? These, like the "Form of the Fourth," seen by
Nebuchadnezzar in the fiery furnace, were all manifestations of Christ, the
Jehovah of the Old Testament being identical with the Christ of the New,
and the incarnate manifestations to Moses, Abraham, and Nebuchadnezzar
being adumbrations of His first coming, like His appearing to Paul near
Damascus and in the temple at Jerusalem, anticipatory of His second
advent.
Verses 19-22. Here John relates the history of the Jews sending priests
and Levites to John the Baptist, to interview him directly with reference to
a problem much agitated among them; the learned clergy and theologians
standing on the desert sand hours together, straining their eyes, looking
over the long rolls of prophecies, diagnosing and investigating the
phenomena of John’s ministry, and trying to settle the question whether
he is the Christ; but finally sending their delegation to interrogate him in
presence of the multitude,
"Art thou the Christ or do we look for
another?"
John the Baptist puts a final quietus to all their inquiry by a
candid and unequivocal negation, responding,
"I am not the Christ, but the voice of one roaring in the desert,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said."
(Isaiah 40:3.)
Here, as recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John the Baptist certifies
constantly and repeatedly that his office is to roar out the warning to the
people to repent and make straight ways to the Lord; — i.e., get rid of all
their crookedness, so the Lord can come into their hearts.
Verse 28.
"These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where
John was baptizing."
E.V. has here Bethabara, which is incorrect; Bethany,
which means "house of dates," being the correct reading. "The town of
Bethany was ten miles up the Jordan in Perea, on the other side, the
Baptist having moved thither since our Savior’s baptism."
Verse 29.
"The following day, John sees Jesus coming to him, and says,
Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world."
This
occurred the day following the transactions of the preceding verses, and
after Jesus had been baptized and gone away into the wilderness, spent the
forty days and more, and has now returned to the scene of John’s baptism,
ten miles up the river, and on the other side, at the town Bethany. O that
all the world would take this good, solid, Baptist doctrine! John the
Baptist preaches no shoddy gospel, but entire sanctification all the time.
He does not represent Jesus as suppressing sin or conquering it, and
leaving it, like a rattlesnake, coiled up. and hidden in the deep subterranean
regions of the fallen soul; but he describes Him as taking it away, world
without end. The world is full of counterfeit salvation, multitudes standing
in the pulpit and preaching a counterfeit Savior, who does not take away
sin. Remember that sin here is in the singular number, not meaning simply
sinful acts, but the sin principle; i.e., the body of sin, root, branch, germ,
and seed, the entire entity, without any exception. It is the sin peculiar to
the world — i.e., the depravity — which, though operating in different
ways, is identical with all races, colors, sexes, and nationalities. If you
could leap through the earth, and jump out in China, you would find sin
there just what it is here. Jesus came, not to wash, dress, educate, and
control it, but to take it away. This is simple, unmistakable gospel truth,
preached by holy John the Baptist. Good Lord, help us all to receive it and
preach it to others! O how few this day stand up and cry,
"Behold the
Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!"
Here, again, John
asserts the priority of Jesus.
Verse 31.
"And I did not know Him; but in order that He may be manifest
to Israel, on this account I came baptizing with water. John testified,
saying, That I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and He
remained on Him. I did not know Him, but the One sending me to baptize
with water, He said to me, On whom you may see the Spirit descending and
abiding on Him, the same is the One baptizing with the Holy Ghost. And I
have seen, and I have testified that He is the Son of God."
We are not to
families acquainted. But God had revealed to John that he should have the
indisputable confirmation of our Lord’s identity by the descension of the
Holy Ghost on Him and His abiding there, thus revealing to John, and all
the people, that He is truly the Christ, the only One in all the universe
who baptizes with the Holy Ghost; John, His precursor and introducer,
faithfully preparing the people by not only preaching to them a genuine,
evangelical repentance, which was to be perseveringly perpetuated "unto
remission of sins," but it was his office also to symbolize the baptism of
Jesus with the Holy Ghost and fire by the baptism with water. You see
here in verse 34 that John, like Mark, omits the fire in the record, Matthew
and Luke giving it, illustrating and confirming the fact, as attested by Paul
(Ephesians 5:4) — i.e., the unity of baptism — the fire being a
concomitant of the Spirit, and the water the symbol.
conclude from these statements that John was utterly unacquainted with
Jesus before the baptism, as they were related by consanguinity and the
spoke; He that cometh after me was preferred before me, because He was
before me."
While John the Baptist stood before the people as the
forerunner and introducer of Jesus, he is very emphatic in his testimony to
His uncreated eternity.
"Of His fullness, we all receive grace upon grace,"
or grace in addition to grace; i.e., the grace of sanctification in addition to
exercise all the power of his will, and put forth the greatest possible
resolution to become a white man, and yet his skin remains black as an
unjustly condemned, and cruelly put to death. Two hundred millions of
 
Jesus of nazareth i want to know you and you alone will i serve Father God almighty i submit my life to you and to the authrity of Your Word Jesus and i resist the devil in the mighty name of Jesus the name above all names.Lord God Almighty You are Light and in You there is nodarkness at all i want to walk in Your lIght Your love open my eyes and my heart and speak to me mu Lord Your servant is waiting on You here am i LOrd please show me Your Glory i need You.
 
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