A Biblical Philosophy of Pastoral Ministry (Soteriology)

Pastoral ministry is a serious and sobering undertaking or at least it should be. Over and over pastoral ministry is reproduced for either the better or the worse. Many go into pastoral ministry having had good models for biblical pastoral ministry from their mentors. Many others go into pastoral ministry having had poor models of unbiblical pastoral ministry. For most, what has been modeled is what they imitate. Since discipleship is reproduction and the law that governs reproduction is “each reproduces after its kind,” then most pastors become very much like those who modeled pastoral ministry to them. So the nature of what has been modeled, either good or bad pastoral ministry practice, plays a significant part in the development of future pastors.

May God bless and increase the tribe of those men that are modeling biblical pastoral ministry. But what about those men who are in or going into pastoral ministry that did not receive a good model but yet desire to be good biblical pastors? How can these either go into pastoral ministry understanding their proper tasks or make a midstream corrective in their ministries? Logic dictates that all pastors or soon to be pastors, especially the improperly trained, should devise a biblical component model for pastoral ministry.

Since the goal is to devise a biblical component model for pastoral ministry then the components should be based upon biblical theology. Specifically, a component model for pastoral ministry should include three main theological categories that will provide guiding principles to the pastor. First, the theological category of soteriology should be foundational to the pastor’s component model. Second, the theological category of ecclesiology should be structural to the pastor’s component model. Third, the theological category of eschatology should be apical to the pastor’s component model.

These three theological categories will prove invaluable in constructing a biblical component model of pastoral ministry. They will provide biblical principles that will both guide and guard the pastoral ministry. The purpose is to illustrate how a component model for pastoral ministry based on the three theological categories of soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology provides biblical principles that will guide and guard the pastoral ministry. Each category will be posted separately forming a three-part series.

Soteriology

Soteriology, since it is the study of salvation, is foundational to proper pastoral ministry because ecclesiology, the study of the church, reveals that the church is the gathering of those who have been “called out” by the Gospel for salvation. Primarily then, the church is to be constituted by a regenerate membership. A regenerate church membership cannot be attained through any means that God has not ordained for the salvation of sinners. One’s view of the means by which salvation is obtained depends to a considerable extent on one’s understanding of the nature of salvation.

For example, if one understands salvation as the result of a man’s decision for Christ apart from the enabling unadulterated Word of God, then he will use unbiblical pragmatic means in his evangelistic and missionary efforts.[1] The power for salvation is not in the Gospel but in methodological ingenuity. This understanding describes those with either Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian tendencies. Pelagianism denies original sin and therefore the total depravity of humanity along with it.[2] Pelagianism views total depravity that resulted with Adam’s original sin as “unduly negative of human nature” and as “having an unfortunate effect upon human behavior.”[3] This view is captured in the teachings of Robert Schuller. Schuller said:

The core of original sin, then is LOT—Lack of Trust. Or it could be considered an innate inability to adequately value ourselves. Label it a “negative self-image,” but do not say that the central core of the human soul is wickedness. If this were so, then truly, the human being is totally depraved. But positive Christianity does not hold to human depravity, but to human inability.[4]

Pelagianism attempts to remove the negative teachings about the nature of humanity by emphasizing the idea of free will. By free will, Pelagius meant that “humans are free of any determining influence of the fall.[5] Therefore there is no need for a special working of God’s grace within the heart of each individual. Instead, men by their free will can respond, “by their own efforts,” unaided, to the commands of God.[6]

Such an understanding of salvation (soteriology) leads inevitably to man-centered, pragmatic means in evangelism and missions. This is why Schuller advocated a man-centered approach in his ecclesiology. Schuller taught that the church, instead of being an equipping place for the saints, should be an evangelizing place for sinners. He maintained that a church is interested in theology while a mission is interested in human needs. The preferred methodology for structuring the church then is the utilization of means that attracts unbelievers in a palatable positive manner. The result is an upside down ecclesiology in violation of the Word of God. Schuller said:

For the church to address the unchurched with a theocentric attitude is to invite failure in mission . . . . It was appropriate for Calvin and Luther to think theocentrically. After all, “Everyone was in the church” and the issues were theological, not philosophical. For them, the central issue was, “What is the truth in theology?” The reformers didn’t have to impress the unchurched so there was no need for them to take the “human needs” approach. They were a church after all, not a mission . . . . Time and history have changed all that. Today the sincere Christian believer is a minority. So the church must be willing to die as a church and be born again as a mission. We cannot speak out with a “Thus saith the Lord” strategy when we are talking to people who couldn’t care less about the Lord! We cannot start with “What does the text say?” if we’re talking to persons who aren’t about to affirm respect for our unquestioning obeisance to “the text.”[7]

In contrast to both Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism, the evangelical understanding of the nature of salvation views the Word of God as an indispensable means to salvation.[8] Evangelical soteriology maintains that the Spirit of God must take the Word of God spoken by the witness about Christ and apply it to the hearer for his or her spiritual transformation.[9] The depraved nature of humanity calls for special grace by means of the unadulterated Word of God to enable a person’s salvation. This has several implications for pastoral ministry. 

First, since the Gospel of Jesus Christ applied by the Holy Spirit is the only means by which salvation is obtained by depraved humanity, neither unbiblical pragmatic means nor watered down inoffensive messages will be effectual in regeneration. The Gospel is the only means through which sinners can obtain salvation. Therefore, pastors should not include any means in their pastoral ministry that will in any form water down, pervert, or replace the Gospel.

Second, since the Gospel is the only means that sinners can obtain salvation implies that pastors are to have complete confidence in its power to bring salvation. Confidence in the Gospel will both guard and guide the pastor. Confidence in the Gospel will guard the pastor from incorporating pragmatic, man-centered means as a component of his pastoral ministry. Confidence in the Gospel will guide the pastor in incorporating methods in his ministry that compliment rather than compete with or compromise the Gospel.

Any means other than the Gospel will fail to produce genuine converts. A gathering of unregenerate people, no matter how large, will never constitute a church since a church is primarily constituted by a regenerate membership. Therefore, sound soteriology is essential as the foundation for a component model for pastoral ministry. The theological category of soteriology should be foundational to the pastor’s component model for his ministry.

---

[1] Romans 10:17; 2 Corinthians 2:17.

[2] Total depravity does not mean that a person is as bad as he or she can be but rather that the heart, mind, soul, and will of man has been affected by and enslaved by sin.

[3] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology: Second Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1983), 649.

[4] Robert Schuller, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1982), 67.

[5] Erickson, Theology, 649.

[6] Erickson, Theology, 649-50.

[7] Schuller, Self-Esteem, 12-13, quotation marks in the original.

[8] Erickson, Theology, 1021.

[9] Erickson, Theology, 1022.

Grace and Truth (John 1:14)

Have you ever heard someone say, “If you are going to err, err on the side of grace?” What the person who says that to you is trying to communicate is that he or she believes that grace trumps truth. This is the primary characteristic of the spirit of the age in which we live. Many people are falling prey to the false notion that grace only has some sort of loose connection to truth if it has any connection to it at all. Any who dares to love truth in our day is quickly branded as an unloving Pharisee by the proponents of grace over truth.

Let me explain exactly how this is working itself out in our day. God’s Word tells us that in the last days there is going to be an apostate, harlot church that will be a deceptive counterfeit of the real thing. This harlot church will be the result of an ecumenical movement that gathers various false religions under the umbrella of what many regard as evangelical Christianity.

How can false teaching get confused with truth? How can the leaders of the harlot church get people to believe that an ungodly alliance with false religions and false teachers is OK? This will be accomplished by pushing and stretching the boundaries set by the truth of God’s Word to include and incorporate false teaching and false teachers under the banner of grace. Many mega-church pastors and church growth gurus are telling us that we must not erect boundaries with truth but stretch boundaries with grace. Instead of being divided over truth we ought to be united in grace they tell us.

 The creed of these deceivers is away with truth and in with grace. They see the truth as standing in the way of enlarging the kingdom of God. So they appeal to widening the entry point under the banner of grace. Now, since these heroes of the ecumenical movement see truth as standing in the way of enlarging God’s kingdom and grace as the solution, what do you think they are going to label those who love the truth, won’t compromise the truth, and battle for the truth?

 Lovers of truth will be labeled, “Pharisees,” by these modern day false teachers. These false teachers have wrongly interpreted the problem of the Pharisees as being too rigid with truth. They believe that the Pharisees were big on truth and small on grace. The truth is the Pharisees were small on both!

The problem of the Pharisees was not that they were too concerned with truth, but that they had invented their own truth. Jesus condemned them for replacing and modifying the clear truth of Scripture with their own traditions (Matthew 15:1-9). They were the chief theological false teachers of their day (Matthew 16:6-12).

One thing these modern day deceivers are not are Pharisees. They hate truth loving Christians Pharisees because they wrongly believe that Pharisees love truth. They view truth as the enemy of grace and cannot see that grace and truth are joined together by God and what God has joined together, let no man separate. These deceivers are described in God’s Word as those who turn God’s grace into licentiousness. “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). They use God’s grace as an excuse to disobey God’s truth and commit spiritual adultery with the world and with false religions.

The truth-perverting Pharisees used their appearance of love for the truth as a means to exclude all but the most religious of Jews from the kingdom of God. Jesus told them that they shut off the kingdom from people and did not enter themselves (Matthew 23:13). The grace-perverting church growth gurus use their appearance of love for grace as a means to include people who have not received the love of the truth so as to be saved in the kingdom of God and lead both themselves and others through the wide gate that leads to destruction.

Jesus was full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Grace and truth can never be pitted against one another or else Jesus was a walking contradiction. There was no contradiction in Jesus just as there are no contradictions in God’s Word. Jesus full of grace never once compromised the truth. Have no doubt about it – if Jesus were here in the flesh today these grace-perverting church leaders would label Him as a Pharisee too concerned with truth. Their false notion of what grace is would cause them to mislabel the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus would no more put up with the licentiousness of these modern day grace-perverting church leaders than he did with the legalism of the truth-perverting Pharisees. Just as the legalistic Pharisees thought Jesus had no truth because of His grace, these licentious false teachers would think He has no grace because of His truth.

Heresies are a result of elevating one side of a paradox and downplaying the other. Those who pit grace against truth or truth against grace are in serious error concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is full of grace and truth!

The Incarnation: A Crucial Doctrine (John 1:14)

Biblically speaking, what was the purpose of the incarnation? This question is of utmost importance and is not to be trivialized. To misunderstand the purpose of the incarnation is to misunderstand the righteousness of God and the necessity of penal substitution through a pure and sinless sacrifice for the purpose of legal pardon of sinners. When it comes to giving pardons there are only two possibilities: the pardon will either be legal or illegal. In other words the pardon will either uphold the law (legal) or nullify the law (illegal). Of the two kinds of pardons which one do you believe is the kind God gives?

God never gives illegal pardons. God only gives legal pardons. In simple terms, God is righteous and just and will never do anything wrong or unjust. Therefore God cannot and will not illegally pardon. So the question must be asked: “How can God pardon sinners and remain righteous and just in the process?” The right answer to this question will show that the incarnation is a crucial doctrine and that our pardon came at a great cost to God.

The Gospel of John answers how God can pardon sinners and remain righteous and just in the process. The Old Testament sacrificial system with its tabernacle illustrated that God would provide the only law upholding means of pardon. The innocent would have to die in the place of the guilty for pardon to be extended. The sinner’s death penalty for violating God’s Law had to be paid by an innocent substitute. This is called Penal Substitution, meaning penalty substitution.

Could the death penalty for a man really be paid by an animal? Never! That is why the Bible says, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). The sinner’s death penalty for violating God’s Law would have to be paid by an innocent man. Therefore the incarnation of Christ was a necessity for penal substitution and legal pardon. The Gospel of John shows Jesus as the fulfillment of the Tabernacle because He was God in flesh come to live a sinless life, die a sacrificial death, and experience a supernatural resurrection so that God could be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

This was the primary purpose of the incarnation – to make propitiation (legal pardon) for the sins of the people. It would not and could not be an innocent animal that allowed God to give a legal pardon but only an innocent, sinless man. The uncreated Son of God had to become a man to achieve our legal pardon. John said, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Amazing truth – the Son of God on earth as a man! Even more amazing is the reason He was on the earth as a man – “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)!

According to God’s Word, God could not have pardoned any other way, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendents of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:14-18).

Penal substitution is the only way God can legally pardon. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore the incarnation was necessary for the realization of penal substitution (legal pardon) and that is the primary biblical interpretation for the incarnation. If God could have legally pardoned any other way, surely He would have done it!

Our salvation cost God everything! There has never been and never will be a greater demonstration of love than the truth that God sent His only begotten Son into the world as a man to die as a substitute for sinners (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). The incarnation is a precious doctrine; it is a marvelous doctrine; it is a crucial doctrine. No one can be saved apart from pardon based on faith in Jesus. God does not save any other way – there is no other way.

Of Empty Calories and Empty Gospels (John 1:12-13)

January 3, 1960, three years and forty-two days before I was born, A. W. Tozer preached a sermon entitled, “What does it mean to accept Christ?” You understand if your mind is capable of doing math that Tozer’s message was preached some fifty-two years ago and that I am only one year away from being fifty years old. I mention this not to show you my age but to show you that for more than half a century there have been men of God standing against the modern false gospel of easy-believism or passive “acceptance” of Christ. Tozer lamented that in his day the majority of evangelism in America was of the sort that perverted the gospel by minimizing what it means to receive Christ and believe in Christ.

In other words, even before 1960, a large portion of American evangelism had already degenerated into a wide-gate false gospel of easy-believism. This is the false notion that one can be saved by just “inviting Jesus” into his or her life without entering into Jesus’ death. The wide-gate is one of easy access and easy entry. The wide-gate has no denying of self, death to sin, or any difficult sayings. It’s easy; it’s acceptable; it’s appealing; but it’s deadly. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

So receiving Christ is not just “inviting Jesus into my life” or just “adding Jesus to my life”; receiving Jesus is far more than responding to a minimized, inoffensive, appealing gospel of “just accept Jesus.” Of utmost importance then is the right and biblical answer to the question, “What is it to receive Christ?”

The Gospel of John answers the question, “What is it to receive Christ.” Remember that John 1:1-18 is the prologue to the book. Here John is telling us what the rest of the book is going to be about. In John 1:12 we are introduced to the wonderful truth that among blind and bad humanity there are those who see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” John 1:13 shows us why these believed and received – “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Now we could stop right here in John 1:12-13 and say, “There you have it! All you have to do to be saved is receive Jesus and God will cause you to be born again.” And we would be dead wrong! Let me explain. This is the mistake of a minimized Gospel with no content. It’s like what is known in the health and nutrition world as “empty calories.” An empty calorie is a calorie without any content. An empty calorie is a calorie with absolutely no nutritional value. The sad part about empty calories is their deceptive nature. They cause the body to pack on dangerous and deadly fat while at the same time starving it of needed nutrition. This is why highly processed food (such as is common in the American diet) is so dangerous and deadly. It has been stripped of its nutritional value and substituted in the place of wholesome, healthy food.

To stop right here and ask people to receive Jesus would be to offer a highly processed Gospel empty of all its saving content with dangerous and deadly consequences. This deceitful mistake is made over and over in the evangelism of today. For instance, the peddlers of the wide-gate empty gospel will quote Acts 16:30-31 out of context to remove the Gospel’s content. “And after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Here is the problem. What Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer about how to be saved was true – he was to believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved – but Acts 16:32 supplies some important information that preachers of easy-believism overlook – “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.” Without understanding the content of the Gospel there is no saving belief in Christ.

Notice our text. John is not asking for a response to Christ in John 1:12-13. John has not yet explained the ministry of Jesus proving Him to be the fulfillment of the sacrificial system as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) who would die as a substitute and sacrifice for sinners (John 19:16-30), whose blood would be on the mercy seat (John 20:11-12), and who would be raised from the dead (John 20:15-20) so that a holy God could pardon sinners and remain just in the process.

It is only after John has fully explained the ministry of Jesus that he expects anyone can properly respond to Jesus and receive Him. Notice that it isn’t until John 20:31 that John calls for belief in Jesus – “But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

People are not saved through a gospel emptied of its content. God uses His Word to teach us about the ministry of Christ and our need for Him and everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Jesus (John 6:45). No one can come to Jesus unless he is drawn to Jesus by the Father through the word about Christ (John 6:44). Those who receive and believe are born of God by the Word of God (John 1:12-13; 1 Peter 1:3, 23).

To receive Christ is to receive the testimony of His sinless life. To receive Christ is to receive His death as a substitute and sacrifice for your crimes against God – it is to receive His death as your death. To receive Christ is to receive Him in His resurrection as your life; as your Lord, because of the demonstration of His great love for you. You love Him because He first loved you.

Empty calories are having their harmful and deadly effects on the physical health and physical lives of millions of Americans. Empty gospels are having a more harmful and more deadly effect on billions of people in the world. What kind of Gospel have you consumed? What kind of Gospel will you share?

Will Others Believe Through You? (John 1:6-8)

Let me ask you a question. What do you think is required of a person for others to believe in Jesus through him? Does it mean that the person will have the most pleasant personality of anyone you have ever met? Does it require that the person compromise the truth in order to show compassion? Is it required of a person for others to believe in Jesus Christ through him that he never have conflict with others; never call for repentance; never challenge the false assurance of salvation of others; or never question a person’s commitment to Christ?

Let me ask you another question. What does the Bible say is required of a person for others to believe in Jesus through him? We will answer that question through looking at the ministry of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist was sent from God (John 1:6) – he had a mission. As we read the prologue to the Gospel of John, at first it seems strange that the flow of the prologue is interrupted with the introduction of John the Baptist. However, as we consider what might be the reason for this interruption we can learn a couple of truths from it. First, God had promised in His Word that there would be a forerunner to the coming of the Christ to prepare people for His arrival (see Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1). Second, this is God’s way – He entrusts the Gospel to men. So actually there is nothing strange about the flow of the prologue – it is perfectly in line with the Word of God and the ways of God.

The mission of John the Baptist was to prepare the way of the Lord (John 1:23). This means that the Baptist was to clear the way, make a straight highway, for the reception of the King. When clearing the way to make a straight highway there are obstacles that have to be removed. Trees will need to be cut down, stumps removed, holes filled in and hills lowered. The Baptist was to clear the way for the reception of the Lord.

There are obstacles and stumbling blocks that keep people from receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. One obstacle that keeps people from receiving Christ is their love for their sin (John 3:19). That is why the first word of the Gospel is “Repent.”

Another obstacle that keeps people from receiving Christ is religious phonies – children of the devil who disguise themselves as children of God (Matthew 3:7-8). One of the characteristics of religious phonies is that they claim to be sent from God but God says that He did not send them and that they are not proclaiming His truth but instead are deceiving others (Jeremiah 23:21-22). There are more religious phonies in the world proclaiming false gospels than there are true preachers (1 John 4:1). That is why we must protest against religious phonies.

A major obstacle that keeps people from receiving Christ is their false profession of faith and false assurance of salvation (Matthew 3:9-10). This is why we must be sure that others are not depending upon anything other than grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for salvation.

The mission of John the Baptist was to prepare the way of the Lord and that entailed being sent by God to confront men in their sin and to confront those not sent by God but claiming to be His servants.

John the Baptist came so that all might believe through him (John 1:7) – he had a message. The message of John the Baptist was not his own but came from God. The Baptist did not manufacture the message but repeated only what God said (see 1 John 4:5 concerning the message of false teachers and 1 John 4:6 concerning the message of true teachers).

The message of John the Baptist was Jesus Christ as the innocent, spotless, blameless lamb who would be slaughtered as an offering for sin in the place of death deserving sinners which of necessity requires repentance from the sinner. The sinner is to be sorry for his sin and turn from his sin because of the high cost and wickedness of sin. Our sin required the incarnation of the Son of God to live a perfectly flawless life of obedience so that He would be qualified to die as a substitute to satisfy the wrath of the Father against sinners. So not only did our sin require the incarnation of the Son of God (God became a man), it also required His crucifixion (the living one died). God raised Him from the dead because He had done no wrong and so that He could justify us on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ.

The message of John the Baptist then was, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) and “Repent” (Matthew 3:2). The truth that Jesus is the Lamb of God implies not only His deity (John 1:34) and Lordship (John 1:23) but also the truth that eternal life is in Him alone (John 3:36). The Baptist testified of these things and more about Jesus Christ and we read, “Everything John said about this man was true” (John 10:41).

Others don’t believe in Jesus Christ through us when we are not being true to the message about Him. The mission of John the Baptist was to prepare the way of the Lord and the message of John the Baptist was to proclaim the Word of the Lord.

John the Baptist was not the Light but testified about the Light (John 1:8) – he had a method. The method of John the Baptist was to point to the worth of the Lord. This entailed that the Baptist be careful that he not become guilty of either having a Messiah complex or robbing the Lord Jesus of His glory. For the Baptist it was all about Jesus and not about himself.

John the Baptist confessed that he was not the Christ (John 1:20), that he was not Elijah nor the Prophet (John 1:21), that he was only the herald of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:23), that he was not worthy to untie the Lord’s sandal (John 1:27), that the Lord was the preeminent one (John 1:30), and that the Lord’s ministry was the one that mattered (John 1:33; 3:30). John was constantly pointing people to the worth of the Lord – that was his method.

What does the Bible say is required of a person for others to believe in Jesus through him? (1) We have learned that our mission must be preparing the way of the Lord by confronting men in their sin and by protesting against religious phonies. (2) We have learned that our message must be proclaiming the Word of the Lord by preaching only that which is true about Jesus as revealed in the Word of God. (3) We have learned that our method must be pointing to the worth of the Lord by confessing the superiority of His Person.

The Deity of Christ (John 1:1-5)

The first eighteen verses of John’s Gospel are the prologue to the book. A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting or theme. We know from John 20:30-31 that the purpose of the book is to persuade people to the point of trusting that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God; and that believing (trusting) they may have life in His name. In his prologue John declares that Jesus is God, that He became a man, that He dwelt (tabernacled) among us, and that He explained the Father.

It is my conviction that John was showing Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Tabernacle. John purposefully related events from the life and ministry of Jesus to show Him as the fulfillment of Old Testament concepts moving from Jesus as the lamb of God and culminating in Jesus as the fulfillment of the Mercy Seat (see John 20:12). For Jesus to fulfill these Old Testament concepts He would have to be nothing other than God in the flesh.

The prologue (John 1:1-18) sets the stage so to speak for the unveiling or revelation of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Tabernacle. Since the Tabernacle stood as the heart of the Old Testament sacrificial system and the only way that sinners could approach a holy God, John reveals Jesus as the only way to the Father (John 14:6) because He is the only One who could and did make substitutionary atonement. Jesus is the only hope for man. What you do with Jesus Christ determines your eternal destiny.

The parallel between John’s prologue and the book of Genesis is striking. Just as Genesis sets out in seed form all the major doctrines of the Bible that will be developed later in their mature form so it is with John’s prologue. John will develop the doctrines that he sets forth in the prologue to their full meanings.

In this post, The Deity of Christ (John 1:1-5), we will only cover the first five verses of the prologue to John's Gospel which parallel the beginning of the Bible.

Christ is the eternal Word (John 1:1-2). Christ is the uncreated eternal Son of God. He is equal to God and is God. “In the beginning” means before the beginning began. He is timeless -He had no beginning because He has always been and always will be.

John used the term “Word” for a particular reason - the Jews would have readily understood its background in the Old Testament that God sends His Word to accomplish His purposes (Isaiah 55:10-11). It is interesting that the Old Testament says that (1) God sends His Word in order to accomplish a particular divine purpose, (2) God’s Word unfailingly accomplishes God’s purpose, and (3) God’s Word returns to Him after accomplishing God’s mission. This seed truth will sprout and grow in John’s Gospel as Jesus refers to God as His Father who sent Him (John 3:17; 6:38); as coming to accomplish the Father’s will (John 4:34, 6:38); as having accomplished the Fathers will (John 17:4); and as returning to the Father (John 17:5, 13).

In these first two verses we note three divine attributes that the Word shares with God: (1) He is equal to God in time – He was in the beginning with God. (2) He is equal to God in rank – He was literally face to face with God – that is the meaning of “and the Word was with God.” (3) He is equal to God in essence – “and the Word was God.” The doctrine of the Trinity lies at the heart of John’s exposition. God is one, but his unitary essence is complex, not simple. God is a complex unity, not a mathematical cipher.

Christ is the living Word (John 1:3-4a). Christ is the giver of life – He created everything that has come into being. This verse points out the fallacy of evolution which believes that life arose from nothing – that life came from non-life. Evolutionists and naturalists believe in “spontaneous generation” but they say they do not believe in miracles! The Bible teaches that life came from life – “In Him was life.” Life does not arise from non-life no matter how many billions or trillions of years you allow.

Not only is Christ the giver of life in the physical realm, He is also the giver of life in the spiritual realm and this should be of utmost importance to spiritually dead sinners. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in yourselves” (John 6:53). Once again the seed truth in the prologue is developed into maturity in the remainder of the Gospel.

Christ is the revealing Word (John 1:4b). Both life and light reveal. Life reveals deadness and light reveals darkness. The sinless life of the Lord becomes the light that illumines or reveals our deadness and our darkness. Light will reveal blindness, badness, and beauty. The blindness of men was revealed by the Lord when He came into the world and the world did not know him (John 1:10). The badness of men was revealed by the Lord when He came to His own and His own did not receive Him (John 1:11). The beauty of the Lord was revealed to those who did receive Him and were saved (John 1:12-13). Light reveals.

Christ is the accomplishing Word (John 1:5). Light is powerful. Darkness cannot overpower it. The darkness desires to snuff out the light. John 12:35 uses the same word that is used in John 1:5. There Jesus said, “Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you.” Jesus is the accomplishing Word. The darkness could not overpower Him. John 1:4-5 are the seed truth concerning the epic battle between Light and darkness. Before His crucifixion Jesus told the corrupt religious establishment, “This hour and the power of darkness are yours” (Luke 22:53). Satan and sinful men did everything in their power to snuff out the Light but the darkness did not overpower it. In Him was life and on the third day He got up and walked out victorious over darkness and deadness. Jesus is the accomplishing Word.

Let me show you the striking parallel between the John 1:1-5 and Genesis 1:1-3.

I. Christ is the eternal Word – In the beginning

II. Christ is the living Word – God created

III. Christ is the revealing Word – Then God said, “Let there be light”

IV. Christ is the accomplishing Word – and there was light

Context, Context, Context!

Any time we endeavor to interpret the Word of God we must be careful that we understand the original author's intended meaning. To miss the intended meaning of any text is to misinterpret the text. Proper interpretation of any portion of Scripture always requires that we understand both its immediate context and overall context. The immediate context of any portion of Scripture is found in the verses that are immediate to it - the verses that immediately precede and immediately follow.

The mantra for proper interpretation should be in the hearts and minds of all Christians but especially of those who have the responsibility of preaching and teaching and that mantra should be, "Context, context, context."

Here is a video that gives and example of what I am speaking of using John 3:16 as the text.