That was the true
light which gives light
to every man coming
into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world was made
through Him, and the
world did not know Him.
He came to His own,
and His own did not receive Him.
But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of
God, to those who believe in His name:
Who were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of
man, but of God.
And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only
Begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:9–14
Man cannot
express his will in any manner that will save him from the punishment of death
and alienation from God. Man must be enabled and called by God and then
exercise that faith given to him by God, then he will by this belief become a
child of God. Many know and those in the beginning saw Jesus Christ, they know
that He existed and was put to death on a cross, but they will not believe that
He is the Savior promised before time. Why? Because God’s children are received
by God, not by their will to be saved, rather by the will of God. Jesus Christ
is not some created being as do the Jehovah Witnesses testify, no is He some
angel sent by God to be a Savior, just another person of the Trinity but not of
the same essence as God as taught by Mormons, Unitarians, and the International
Church of God teach. The book of John
informs that Jesus Christ is God. This John does in the first verse of his
book; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God” (John 1:1). Jehovah Witnesses put the article “a” in front of
God so that this verse reads that the word was “a” god, even using the small
“g” for God. This is poor translation of the Greek and furthermore it is poor
grammar. John tells us that: In the beginning was the Word,” then how
can Jesus say to be created when there is no mention in Scripture that Jesus
Christ was the first beginning and then there was another beginning for
Scripture is clear: The Word was in the beginning, “was” in the beginning, the
only beginning, furthermore, the Word, Jesus Christ, was “with” God, in the
beginning. How then can this be taken any other way? Jesus Christ existed in
eternity; and furthermore, “All things were made through Him, and without
Him nothing was made that was made” (Vs.3). If “all things” were made by
Him and nothing that was made that was made except by Him, then how is it that
Jesus Christ somehow, if you believe those who teach that Jesus Christ is created,
can be the maker of “all things” and not somehow create Himself. As Mormons
teach, Jesus Christ is just another God for Mormonism is polytheistic, even
though they try to teach that they believe in the Trinity, only their Trinity
is not that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all of the same
essence, One, the Godhead. Now, finally there is poor grammatical rendering of
the last part of verse one; “and the Word was God” for the Jehovah
Witnesses, Arianism in theology, put the letter “a” in front of God as though
this is the correct grammar. It is not, for the subject of verse one is the
Word, in Greek the Logos, not God. The word “with God” is the object of “was”
describing the verb which is telling us something about the subject “the Word,”
it is a prepositional clause in the accusative (in Greek) and not the subject.
This same grammatical paradigm “In the beginning was the Word, has as it
prepositional clause, “In the beginning” although place in front of the verb
can be stated this way, The Word was in the beginning for the subject matter is
the Word, therefore the Word “was” in the beginning and not the beginning. Now,
for the word God in the last part of this verse if we were using the word “God”
as the subject and no article “O” Theos, was present in the Greek then it would
be possible to say; “a god”, but this is not the case for the word “theos” or
God is not the subject it is describing the subject, it is a predicate
nominative describing the “Logos”, the Word assigning to the Word to be God.
Life is in the Word, Jesus Christ, life was assigned to Him and by His life
then He was the life of men (vs. 4).
Before time
there was and is eternity, eternity exists for God, the Godhead, and in this
eternity the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit existed, for with God
eternity is a single time. God then sees all from the beginning to the end for
He is God who made all things and controls all things, and has promised all
things, and had promised to His Word, His Wisdom that this very Wisdom of His,
and the life of those who would believe, should come into the world. When we
read this text we can see that which God promised, Who does not lie, promised
eternal ages ago, is not different from God’s Word. In time, by God’s
Providence, His dispensation according to His economy, manifested His own Word,
that which was promised, this eternal One who gives to all those who are His
children, His bride, immortality, an eternal life in which there is no sin, no
death, no pain, or suffering (Revelation 21:4). Jesus Christ is the life for
men, those who believe, those to whom God gave the gift of faith, (Ephesians
2:8). This is the Gospel, this is what is to be preached, not some supernatural
manifestations that are not what any Christian is to subscribe to, rather to
live the life God has given to you, and do this by following His commands,
being then the witness to the world who are destined to die for sin, a sin they
cannot save themselves from, this corrupted nature, not by their will, but
promised punishment, and by your witness they cannot ascribe sin to God, they
come to know that there is God and by your life they can see the grace of God,
a Holy God, a Just God, and that God is Merciful ”High Priest who is seated
at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens”(Hebrews 8:1b), and
for all who He calls and enables to believe on the Savior Jesus Christ He will
be merciful: “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their
sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12).
This being
true then live according to whose you are, a child of God and a the witness of
Him and of His mercy, bringing the Gospel to all His children. This is why we
are here now, to be a living witness for Him.
But this Man, after He had offered
One sacrifice
for sins forever,
Sat down at the right hand of God,
From that
time waiting till
His enemies are made His footstool.
For by one
offering He has
Perfected forever those who are being
Sanctified.
Hebrews 10:12–14
Set Aside Person Desires: Live For Him
Richard L. Crumb
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