Tuesday, August 20, 2013

John 3:34

“In other words, the One sent by God speaks the words God gives him to speak—and in doing so, God fills Him with an infinite measure of His Spirit.”  John 3:34 EFP

You cannot accuse John of being anything less than stubbornly persistent in his effort to establish Jesus as the ultimate revelation of the Eternal God.  Every statement anchors in this basic tenet of the soon to be established Kingdom of God.  Jesus is the Son of God sent by the Everlasting Father to reveal the truth about God through his life and his work on behalf of humanity.

There is something quite extraordinary about this passage.  It is unapologetically politically incorrect from today’s standards.  By saying that Jesus is the voice of God would simply place Jesus on the level of the many prophets that came before him.  The Scriptures (and history) are replete with stories of men and women who spoke for God, giving timely and powerful messages from the mind of Almighty to the ears of the intended.  But Jesus, in the words of John (apostle and baptizer as well) is the Word of God, who not only communicates the words God gives him to share, He is the actual Word of God being spoken with every step, every act, and every miracle.  Every encounter is imbued with “an infinite measure” of God’s Spirit.  There is “no measure” to the Spirit inside of Jesus, because He and the Spirit of God are one!

That separates Jesus Christ from every other prophet, seer, divine messenger, or wise man that every lived or is yet to come.  Jesus is not one in the line of great men of God—He is God!  Jesus is not simply another recipient of truth from God to be passed on to the intended recipients—He is the Truth of God.  God reveals himself in many ways and at many times across the annals of human history. (Hebrew 1:1)  But in Jesus, God comes in the flesh of humanity; He breaks into human history and stakes a claim on us through the incarnation of the Son of God. Incredible?  Yes! Unbelievable?  Most certainly!  But it is the power of God to all who believe! (1 Corinthians 1:18)

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