Discovering Jesus, the Perfect Image of God | Advent Series

Jesus is the perfect image of God, revealed through John's gospel.

Jesus' uniqueness is shown through four different aspects: superiority to John the Baptist, supplier of all needs, surpassing Moses, and revelation of God's soul.

The revelation of God's soul is a new understanding of God's heart and mind, made possible through Jesus' death on the cross.

Jesus declared the bosom of God, the very essence of God, through his life, death, and resurrection.

All right, verse 18, the last verse of the prologue, the last verse of John's gospel of describing to us the Christmas story. Except this is from a hugely different perspective. It's from John. And this last verse is in a series of ideas that began after verse 14. Verse 14 is the pivotal verse in relationship to the actual Christmas story. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory of the only begotten Son, full of grace and joy. So that is the Christmas story. But of course the previous ideas, the verses 1 through 13, give us all sorts of ideas about God's thoughts about this Christmas story, but mainly explaining to us who Jesus is. This child that came. And this child is the Word. And that's the Word that God uses through John to explain to us who Jesus was. And this, of course, gives us a full understanding of his divinity. A full understanding that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And so what we have is the Trinity being seen, and we find Jesus being called the Word. And so it's a completely different name. It's a completely different idea than all the other Gospels have presented for us. John wrote this gospel last. So he's picking up ideas that the synoptic gospels do not have. So he sees that and he says, this is something that I want to bring that's different, that gives us a bigger or different perspective. Beginning in verse 15, after that particular pivotal verse, that climactic verse, 14, when the incarnation occurred, 15, 16, 17, and 18 are describing us four different things that have to do with the uniqueness of Christ. Here he is. And now there are four different things that basically we've studied and looked at that John gives to us that show us his uniqueness besides the idea that he's God. So that is what we have looked at. The first one had to do with that he was superior to John the Baptist. This is the second time he mentions this in the prologue. Number two, he is the true supplier of all the needs of his people. He is the one who brings grace and truth. Moses brought the law. He brought grace and truth. Something different in terms of our understanding of God. Number three, he surpasses Moses. the true figure of all the Jewish minds as being the greatest man that ever lived upon the face of the earth. Well, not so. Even Moses himself said there will come a prophet in Deuteronomy 18 that will be like me, but he will be greater. And John is saying, this was him, Jesus. And so we looked at that and we saw the meekness of Jesus in terms of Moses and we looked at the rest of the Gospel of John and we saw all sorts of things that John showed us in his Gospel of what Jesus said about himself. I am the bread that comes down out of heaven. Moses gave you manna, but I give you bread that lasts forever. So that is a comparison between Moses and Jesus as to what their value is. So that's what we find. And then the last one is what we're looking at today, and of course that's what you find at the top of your sheet. He is the revelation of the soul of God to man. He is the revelation of the soul of God to man. And what we're going to find is, through Jesus, the final message, the final revelation, the final understanding of who God is, has come to mankind. and that is where we're to look that is where we're to find out the soul and the meaning of God and I was trying to look through in my own mind before Jesus came what did he bring that's different and we don't have time to open that up in the small amount of time that we have but what did he bring that had not been brought before what did he give to us that is the grace and that is the truth. What is it that he brought in terms of the revelation of God that was not there before? And what you will find in this little verse, the essence of it, the essence of the idea of what he brought to us is from the very beginning of the verse, no man has seen God at any time. That's the beginning of this verse. so the essence of what he brought is no man has ever really sinned God at any time what you find now is that he has been revealed and declared through Jesus what did he declare he declared the very bosom of God that's in the middle of the verse at the end is he declared it Oh, what did he declare? What did he declare that we have not known? He declared the very bosom of God, the very soul of God, the very essence of God. That's what he declared that man had little snippets of, but not its full revelation. And what you would then begin to go is through the Gospels and through the men and all the different thinkers that God has given to us through Jesus to declare what that really means. We never understood, nor have we ever seen, the death of God. The death of God occurred on the cross. The death of God in terms of, and what that meant. What does it mean? the death of God has to do with all the sins of mankind being placed upon him where he was forsaken you have not seen that that has never been understood or seen by man it was a secret in the mind of God before he actually created the world Ephesians 1 says Jesus was to die and mind of God and the Trinity before he ever created the universe. That's what it says in Ephesians 1. Before the foundation of the universe was set, the idea that Christ would die for this universe was understood. That has only been hinted at in Isaiah 53, which is the greatest hint of all, and Psalm 22 another hint of that particular idea but not clear it wasn't clear now it's clear and what does that mean behold I have sent my son because I love you now he said he's loved us but this is a testimony of what it really meant to him in the soul of God so there's a declaring of the bosom of the father and the son that we have never seen never understood and you and I sit in this class discussing it and thinking about it and looking at it while the people in the Old Testament never thought about it Never understood it, unless the revelation of God came to them and gave that directly to them. And even then, I'm not sure if Isaiah had any clue as to what he was saying. Or David. As to what that all meant. You and I do. because it's been revealed. Otherwise, it would not have been revealed. In other words, it's not there unless God had given that to us. So the soul, the heart, the bosom of the Father has been revealed. It has been declared. Now the word, as it mentions at the bottom of your page there, the word declared or revealed, and let me give you some other ideas to put beside that. The word declared means exegeted. If you look in the actual Greek, the word declare is exegeted. It's not what we call the word declare. Exegeted means, and it also has some other ideas that are behind it that are mentioned to you there. Exegeted basically means that you tear it apart in all of its facets and fragments and explain it to somebody. so within the phrase or the word or whatever it is that's going to be revealed to somebody what you do is take it you take all of its pieces apart like Carlin does every week and I do and take them all apart and show you all the little essences and facets in it because it's enormous but it's there and if you look you can find it it's been exegeted to you The soul of God has been exegeted to you. All its little facets. And it also mentions to you that the word actually declared means to put forth a narrative. This is number four on your page there. The bottom thing. Put forth a narrative. And what that means is you start the plot. And you finish the plot. And you fill in all the gaps in relationship to the plot. Okay? So the word declared means you're taking all the pieces and put them all together. And you're starting a narrative. You're starting a purpose, a story, an idea. And you put all the pieces together until you come to the end. So you understand it. So you understand it. Okay? So that's what Jesus did. And without him coming, we would not have understood it. We would have had a lot of information in the Old Testament, but not until he came did it come to the final revealing, exegeting of the plot and bringing it to its final conclusion so that we would understand it. And so that's what you find in this verse. That is the incarnation. That's its purpose. It is to reveal and declare the soul of God to man. and it's done through Jesus and all the acts that he did. Okay? So that's what you're saying in terms of what's being said here. Now there's a beautiful verse that many, many of you know in Deuteronomy 29, 29. This verse gives us some hints to this idea and it's very beautiful but it also gives you the hints that until Jesus came There wasn't enough. So let's read that just for a minute. I'll just read it to you. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. Every secret, every idea, every portion of a chemical and its formula, All the power, every element of the universe, every tear that's been shed, every motive behind every single act, the secrets belong to him. All of them. All of the secrets. That's what it's stating. All the secrets belong to the Lord our God. then it states but the things revealed but the things revealed belong to us and to our children there are things that are part of the secrets of the universe that God has decided to give to us so that we would know those secrets and the greatest gift of all of the secrets is what we just read in John 1.18 the bosom of the father has been declared to you the secret of the father's heart has been revealed to you exegeted the end of the story all the pieces that are falling into place what you find in this verse in 29.29 is some of those secrets he has not told us. And the final real revelation of the real secrets of God came through his son. It isn't the complete and total, complete essence of all revelation. In other words, that's yet to come until you and I see him face to face. For instance, let me give you an example. There's the verse that you find in Revelation 21 where it says all tears will be wiped away. Okay? You go to Psalm 56, and it says we are the wanderers. We wander through this life. And we shed tears because of the pain and the misunderstandings and what it is we don't know. We don't know them. We don't understand them. We don't understand why this happened or why this happened or why this happened. We do not understand. But then it says, but every one of those tears, God captures in a bottle. That's a figure of speech. It means he records every single one of the tears. He will know every single tear that you shed over the pains that have occurred in your life that you don't understand. Then it says, in Revelation 21, he will wipe them away. now I'm putting this in because this is the way I think he will wipe them away he'll take the bottle, he'll open the bottle he'll pour every single tear out and you tell me how you're going to ever get one of these things out of your brain or your heart or your life is that he will explain it to you it'll explain to you to where you have joy in it, not tears he'll wipe the tear away now you don't know it's 1 Corinthians 13 now you see through a glass darkly but then you'll see face to face now you know in part but then you'll know completely and so this is a revelation see that's the final and I believe the revelations will continue to come as to what we will have. But in this earth this is the full. This is what God has stated. My soul, I let you see. In terms of what's going on. I let you see that. Yes. Can I ask you a question? If you put them in the model then would you understand that no fear is in a consequence If you put a tear in a bottle then no tear is inconsequential That's true. That's exactly right. What did he say? It is not inconsequential. Not one single tear you shed. That's exactly right. In fact, when I first read that verse, what it really meant to me is my pain counts to God. No matter what tear I shed, it counts to Him. He remembers it. Not only will He remember it, He will solve it. Every single one. That's exactly what I mean. So, that's what you're seeing here. when you're seeing this verse it is no man has really understood God or seen God or his essence nobody's really seen that but when you look at Jesus you're finding the soul of God you're finding his essence you're finding his soul what he is now by the way let me just throw this out to you there is a problem in this verse at the very beginning the very first phrase that we've been looking at where it states that no man has seen God at any time. You have places in the Bible where it says that God has been seen. And I'll give you one. Isaiah chapter 6. And this is what it states when Isaiah sees God in his temple. And he says, my eyes have seen the king. So what's the deal there? Is the Bible incorrect? Is there a problem in terms of that statement? or what? When I was a man of great doubt and I was dealing with God on that doubt level, these things would throw me for loops. I'd studied the Bible very intensely. And when I went to seminary, I was still having troubles with this. Because they would say things in it and in my mind I'd go, there's a verse over here that's contradicting this verse. now if you go into seminary long enough you realize that how much the word of God has been torn apart everything and all these questions have all been asked for centuries and what you have found is that there are answers for these questions you just don't know the answers you do not know that Calvin answered this question or Spurgeon answered this question and so you just don't know all that so here you are in this dilemma and what you need to understand is that the contradictions of the word of God are not contradictions of all what you find in this in this passage because I'm just showing you a little problem here and showing you that this looks like a contradiction what he saw in that temple was what we call a theophany it was not the true essence of God himself. What he saw was the blaze of glory. His eyes saw the blaze of glory. This was literal. This was not a figment of his imagination. And so what we find is that there are time after time after time where God literally steps into the presence of a man in Moses' case all the time. and he saw the glory of God, but then God tells him, you can't see my face. You can't see my inner being. If it did, you would die. You cannot stand its holiness. You cannot stand its beauty, its power, its magnificent. You can't stand it. It'll kill you. You're a man of sin and you cannot see it. now what he's saying here is I have sent my son to declare my soul to you it is in him that you will see me but you still haven't really seen me you've seen the man God you haven't seen the essence of God in terms of all of that but he is me and now you can see my soul through him. So it's a difficult move through that passage and you may not even follow it as I told you but that is an explanation that is clearly the way the word of God is unfolding it to us. It basically tells you that when we are in heaven itself we will see him face to face. Why? Because we can. because we are whole. We are without sin. So we will be able to stand into the abyss of light. We will be able to stand in the middle of that blazing glory and not die. So until that time, you can't get there. But this is what God has given to us. It is the soul of God through Jesus. We now see the soul of God like we've never seen it before. Okay? Any questions on that? Yes? Is there another place in Isaiah where he says that he's seen God face to face? He met God face to face? That's when the... Not that I can recall. It's only Isaiah 6 that I recall. I may be wrong with that. Does anybody... With a burning coal. Yeah, well that was in the same event. That's the same event. Isaiah 6 is where that all hurt. That's right. Okay. All right, let's look at the other verses there. The other parts of the verses. No man has seen God at any time. another phrase that is beautiful but a little bit off in terms of its translation is no man has seen God at any time the only begotten God the only begotten God now what throws you in that passage begotten so what would throw you on that what's that mean that he had a beginning point. That he's not eternal. He's finite. The word begotten would seem as though it would point particularly in terms of the birth of a baby. It's associated with the incarnation. And many, many people, that's why when I was teaching in a Methodist church in a Sunday school class and I said that Jesus had a pre-existence, 90% of the people in that class did not know that. they believed that the baby was when he came. And that's when he started. He was begotten. When he came into being. That's right, when he came into being. That was the first time he came into being. And yet, what you find in John is complete refugiation of that and all the rest of the Old Testament shows that and all sorts of passages everywhere in the Old Testament. New Testament and Old Testament show that he had a pre-existence. And that he was God. in the beginning was the word the word was with God and the word was God so that's what you're seeing the word begotten is a poor translation in English it's monogenes is the name of the word that's the Greek word that's used there mono means only that where we getting the only begotten and the word begotten in monogues does not attach itself to the word begat It attaches itself to the word unique in Greek. So if you're going to use that particular phrase, it's not a good way to translate it, only begotten. It's really the only unique God. That's the way it really ought to be translated. why they continue to translate it that way I'm not sure but that's if you study any Greek group, any person who's a commentary, they're going to tell you that word, there's two Greek words, one of them is beget and the other is unique and the one that's unique is the one that's being used in this passage so that's one of the ways that you would need to be understand how this is interpreted it's interesting too is how John is so strong if you go through the word is God and then you come down the word is Jesus he's become flesh then he comes down at the very end and now he says this son the only unique son is God he wants you to see that at the end he don't want you to miss this that's exactly what it's saying the only begotten God is capitalized in your Bible that's Jesus that's Jesus who is that God, Jesus is in the prison of the Father the other part of God the Father so he is making sure you understand that it is Jesus who is declaring the soul of the father and Jesus is God and the father is God and that's what he's trying to explain as he's finishing up that passage the phrases there it says no man had seen God it also explains to you again that Moses would never bring you this Moses is highly esteemed but he did not, could not reveal what he couldn't see. Moses couldn't see this. God told him, you can't look at my essence, you'll burn up. But who can look at my essence? Me! I can look at my essence and I don't burn up. And I have come to give that to you. I can show you that. But I'm the only one. Nothing in humanity, nothing in the universe is not tainted I'm the only one who can reveal me to you because otherwise I'll burn you up my perfection and my glory will literally burn you alive and so that's what he's saying so Jesus is the only way that this could have come and he came to let us see it and that's what he's explaining in terms of that as Calvin put it when he, John, says that none has seen God it is not to be understood on the outward seeing of the physical eye he means generally that since God dwells in an inaccessible light, he cannot be known except in Christ his lively image the soul, the heart, the bosom of the trinity is explained and revealed to man only by Jesus because he's God and perfect. And he's allowed us to see it. No man has seen this except Jesus himself because he's God. So that's what you say. Now, I'm going to toss one last little thing here and number four for you. The phrase, who is? This is an interesting idea that I've never heard. Okay, so you could take it or not take it. Okay, but what more says, one of the commentaries I use is, he says, when you look at this word, who is, that's explaining Jesus, who is the only begotten in the bosom of the father, who is. Okay, what he's saying is, is the word is means that he is continually controlling all the things he always controlled. now when you go to Philippians 2 it's called the kenosis it says that he emptied himself and came and many people we debate what he emptied himself what does that mean it's not explained so it's very difficult to understand Morse is basically saying all really Jesus did was add things to himself not emptied himself this may be very difficult to follow but I'm just giving it out to you you can read the little passage there what he's saying is when Jesus came he did not give up anything that he was controlling as God when he was God he didn't give up anything in terms of his control whatever he was doing previously he was still doing while he was here okay If you look in Hebrews, it said he was perfected. In Hebrews chapter 1, it says that he was, and you go, how can God be perfected? The idea is, is that he added things that he could not do as God when he became man. for instance God can suffer in his soul but he is not going to he's not going to die on a cross in that form he's just not going to die on a cross in that form he can become a high priest he was not the high priest at that point there wasn't a high priest that would intervene between you and me only the high priest that he gave on earth in the Old Testament but it was not good enough so what did Jesus become he became the high priest he was not the high priest that was added to him it says that he was tempted like we were God is not tempted not like he was when he was a man and yet he did not sin that is the perfection that's being talked about that is the new things that God experienced he knows them but he never experienced them. You follow that? So he can understand every bit of your pain but not experiencing your pain. Because your pain is dwelling in sin. You can't understand. He cannot. He has to become a man to have the sense of all that. And his becoming a man allowed him to sense that. that is a part of the declaration of God in the midst of our own suffering now I've stepped up too high or too far in relationship to this but what I'm trying to tell you is when you study this intensely what you do is open up all sorts of doors to go through to think about the nature of God that you've not normally thought about in terms of what's going on. There are all sorts of things that you can find. And of course, that's why God says, you will never understand me. My ways are too high from your witness. You will never understand totally all that I am. I hope that you've said something over there in those sheets of paper so that I'll have some clue as to what I'm supposed to do next week. We'll see. Thank you.

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