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JohnBlog - Word&Light Day 3
The Word is God but the Word was with God. Jesus is of the essence of God but is not identical to God. There is order here, differentiation and hierarchy even. In revealing God to the world, Jesus did not claim equality with God but acted with God’s authority as one who has been with God since the beginning. He co-existed with God from the beginning as the Word. We may debate theologically and abstractly what this means or does not mean. But what Jesus asks us to believe is actually quite simple: He, Jesus the Word, the envoy, the open book of life, the person embodied within the first century Jewish prophet, was with God from the beginning. This is His credential. This is where His wisdom comes from.
Reading closely what follows in the book of John, there is an overarching emphasis in Jesus’s own interpretation of his incarnation as he discovers who He is and communicates this to others: ‘I came from God and will return to God’.
The disciple:
Now I understand a little more clearly: you were with God from the beginning; you came from God; dwelt among us; went back to God; came back in Spirit; will one day return. The incarnational cycle. Too wonderful for words that this is my inheritance: to join you in your state of eternal oneness with God.
I will open my mind to the knowledge imparted by the only man to have walked this earth having come from God and who had been with God ‘from the beginning’. That is good enough reason to submit to your wisdom and devote my whole life to you.
But beyond that wonder, another and even greater, if that is possible: the Word of God, with God from the beginning, comes and joins his spirit with mine. This is indeed a precious pearl worth selling everything for.
And yet there is something even more precious: the knowledge that at some glorious future point in history, eternity will come to earth and remain there. The Word was with God in heaven in the beginning becomes: God is with the Word on Earth in the end. All despair withers in the light of this hope.
The Word is God but the Word was with God. Jesus is of the essence of God but is not identical to God. There is order here, differentiation and hierarchy even. In revealing God to the world, Jesus did not claim equality with God but acted with God’s authority as one who has been with God since the beginning. He co-existed with God from the beginning as the Word. We may debate theologically and abstractly what this means or does not mean. But what Jesus asks us to believe is actually quite simple: He, Jesus the Word, the envoy, the open book of life, the person embodied within the first century Jewish prophet, was with God from the beginning. This is His credential. This is where His wisdom comes from.
Reading closely what follows in the book of John, there is an overarching emphasis in Jesus’s own interpretation of his incarnation as he discovers who He is and communicates this to others: ‘I came from God and will return to God’.
The disciple:
Now I understand a little more clearly: you were with God from the beginning; you came from God; dwelt among us; went back to God; came back in Spirit; will one day return. The incarnational cycle. Too wonderful for words that this is my inheritance: to join you in your state of eternal oneness with God.
I will open my mind to the knowledge imparted by the only man to have walked this earth having come from God and who had been with God ‘from the beginning’. That is good enough reason to submit to your wisdom and devote my whole life to you.
But beyond that wonder, another and even greater, if that is possible: the Word of God, with God from the beginning, comes and joins his spirit with mine. This is indeed a precious pearl worth selling everything for.
And yet there is something even more precious: the knowledge that at some glorious future point in history, eternity will come to earth and remain there. The Word was with God in heaven in the beginning becomes: God is with the Word on Earth in the end. All despair withers in the light of this hope.
Scripture
About this Plan
A meditation on John inspired by the 15th Century devotional ‘Imitation of Christ.’ In 2011 Chris Webster, a professor with positions at Hong Kong and Cambridge Universities, awoke from a 4 day coma. He started writing JohnBlog as spiritual instructions for his teenage daughter and son should he not return from a second cardiac arrest. This also tells everyone why he exuberantly loves life but considers death as gain.
More
This plan was provided by Chris Webster a proferssor with positions in Hong Kong and Campbridge Universities. For more information, please visit: http://JohnBlog.net
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