Jesus: The Lamb of God and Son of God (John 1:29-34)

The Old Testament sacrificial system served as an illustration of substitutionary atonement. An innocent, spotless, unblemished lamb would be sacrificed as a substitute in the place of sinning Israelites. This served only as an illustration because it was impossible that the execution of an innocent animal could legally and actually be a substitute for guilty capital offenders.  The Bible says, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). We all understand this. We know that it would be wrong to set free a death-row-convict by executing an animal in his place.

No one was ever saved simply because he participated in the Old Testament sacrificial system. Only those that understood and believed that the lamb being sacrificed was an illustration of an innocent, sinless, perfect man who would come and die for their sins were saved. These were saved by grace through faith in the coming Christ. By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice (Hebrews 11:4). What was Abel’s offering? Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock . . . . (Genesis 4:4). Abel understood and believed that the lamb he offered was an illustration of an innocent, sinless, perfect man who would come and crush the devil’s head and whom God had promised to send (Genesis 3:15).

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . . He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type” (Hebrews 11:17-19). Abraham understood and believed that the Lamb of God would be an innocent, sinless, perfect man. As Abraham and Isaac were walking to Mount Moriah where Abraham was going to offer Isaac as a burnt offering by God’s command, Isaac asked his father, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering” (Genesis 22:7)? “Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son’” (Genesis 22:8). Abraham was not speaking of the ram caught in the thicket that day (Genesis 22:13) but of the Lamb who some 2000 years later would be an innocent, sinless, perfect man walking up the same spot carrying the wood for the offering on His back (Genesis 22:6; John 19:17). And instead of a ram caught in a thicket by his horns that would be offered up in His place, this Man’s head was caught in a thicket with a cruel crown of thorns pressed around his brows because He was the offering (Genesis 22:13; John 19:2-5).

It was this Man, the innocent, sinless, perfect man, with a crown of thorns on His head and carrying His own cross that Abraham believed in. Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Isaac asked, “Where it the lamb?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb.” Then some 2000 years later, John the Baptist was confronted by a committee from the religious leaders wanting to know if he was the Christ, Elijah, or the Prophet (John 1:19-28). He confessed that he was not but that the Christ indeed was among them (John 1:26). And, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’” (John 1:29). This Man, Jesus, the innocent, sinless, perfect man – the Son of God (John 1:34), would be the sacrificial Lamb not for believing Israelites alone but also for any non-Israelite who would believe (John 3:16).

How did John the Baptist know that Jesus was the Lamb of God and Son of God? Remember, Jesus and John the Baptist were physical cousins. There was nothing so extraordinary about Jesus at first-glance that would cause anyone to know and understand that He was the Christ. Twice, John the Baptist said that he did not recognize Him (John 1:31, 33). He did not mean that he did not know that Jesus was his cousin and that he did not know him in that manner. What John the Baptist meant was that he did not recognize Jesus as the Christ, the Lamb of God and Son of God, until God revealed it to him (John 1:31-33).

The Man who would be the Lamb of God would have to be innocent, sinless, and perfect. In order for this to be true of Him, He would have to have a sinless nature and be born into the human race without the agency of a human father. The Son of God would have to take on flesh in order to be the Lamb of God (John 1:1-14). Jesus is the Lamb of God and the Son of God (John 1:29, 34).

Isaac asked, “Where is the Lamb?” Abraham answered, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb.” John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb.” Then in Revelation 5:1-14, the apostle John said, “Worthy is the Lamb.” We could summarize the progressive revelation concerning the Lamb of God like this: Where is the Lamb? Wait for the Lamb! Watch the Lamb! Worship the Lamb!

John the Baptist: A Man Sent From God (John 1:19-28)

The prologue to the Gospel of John (John 1:1-18) serves as an introduction and outline to the main truths that the apostle John wanted to communicate to his readers. First, the apostle John mentions the deity of Christ (John 1:1-5). He is co-eternal and co-equal with God and He was coming into the dark world of sinful men to be the light of men. Second, the apostle John mentions the witness of John the Baptist (John 1:6-8). John the Baptist was sent from God to testify about Christ so that all might believe through him. Third, the apostle John mentions the incarnation of Christ, different responses to Him, the new birth, and Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Tabernacle (John 1:9-14). Fourth, the apostle John mentioned the testimony of John the Baptist for a second time (John 1:15). Fifth, the apostle John mentioned the ministry of Christ in explaining God as Father (John 1:16-18).

How does this outline work itself out in the rest of the Gospel of John? First, all through the Gospel of John the deity of Christ is established. I mean He turned water into wine and not over months or years but in an instant (John 2:6-10). He told a Samaritan woman everything she had ever done on His first encounter with her (John 4:29). He healed a royal official’s son from many miles away just by speaking three words, “Your son lives” (John 4:53). He healed an invalid of thirty eight years simply by saying, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk” (John 5:8). He fed five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:9-13). He walked on water during a storm to rescue His disciples (John 6:15-21). He healed a man born blind (John 9:1-11). He raised a man from the dead that had been dead and buried for four days (John 11:39-44), just to name a few. Second, John the Baptist witnesses about Christ (John 1:19-34) as a parallel to John 1:6-8. Third, the different responses to Christ begin to be revealed. Christ’s first converts are mentioned (John 1:35-51). Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Tabernacle is mentioned (John 1:29, 36), along with many other references to His fulfilling all the other elements of the Tabernacle. Jesus discussed with Nicodemus the necessity of the new birth and how it happens (John 3:1-15). Fourth, John the Baptist testified about Jesus again (John 3:22-36). Fifth, Christ revealed God as Father, willing to forgive, over and over through John’s Gospel.

Here (John 1:19-28) we have come to the portion of the Gospel of John that begins the first testimony of John the Baptist. This is very important for several reasons. First, the Bible makes it plain that every fact was to be confirmed by the testimony of at least two witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6; John 8:17). John the Baptist was a witness to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light (John 1:7-8). God saw to it that Jesus was not alone in testifying about Himself (John 5:31). So, to confirm the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, John the Baptist testified to the truth that Jesus is the Christ; the works of Jesus testified to the truth that He is the Christ; the Father testified to the truth that Jesus is the Christ; and the Scriptures testified to the truth that Jesus is the Christ (John 5:33-47).

A second reason the testimony of John the Baptist is very important is because it reveals the characteristics of true witnesses about Christ.

I.                   True witnesses do not seek their own glory (John 1:19-23).

A.    He is not the Light –  (John 1:19-21)

1.      The Jews expected the coming of Christ (1:19-20; Malachi 3:1)

2.      The Jews expected Elijah to precede the Christ (1:21; Malachi 4:5-6)

3.      The Jews thought John the Baptist was surely the Christ (1:21). Asking the Baptist if he was the Prophet meant that this delegation sent from the Pharisees (1:24) thought for sure he was the Christ because that is what the Pharisees at the time speculated. If he was the Christ, the Pharisees were sure that he would need them to put their stamp of approval on his ministry and through that get his stamp of approval on theirs.

B.     He is only a lamp – (John 1:22-23) see also John 5:35

1.      The committee had been sent by the Pharisees, who speculated that the Baptist might be the Christ, to verify their speculation and get his stamp of approval on their importance (1:22). Having thoroughly deflected the accolades the religious establishment was willing to lay at his feet, the committee insisted upon an answer from the Baptist– “What do you say about yourself?”

2.      His answer was that he was not the Light but a lamp. He was not the Word but a voice. He was not the Prophet but a preacher. John would not receive their glory nor would he give them any glory. The Jews were willing to rejoice for a while in his light thinking that he would give them glory (John 5:33-35). The temptation to receive glory from the religious establishment and stay in good standing with it by giving it glory is more than many supposed witnesses can resist. True witnesses do not seek their own glory.

II.                True witnesses do not reverence men they reverence God (John 1:24-28).

A.    They do not bow before the authority of the religious establishment (John 1:24-25)

1.      This welcoming committee was backed with the authority of the most dedicated and most powerful in the religious establishment – the Pharisees (1:24). This was a powerful committee.

2.      The welcoming committee quickly became the cold-water committee questioning the Baptist’s authority (1:25)

B.     They bow before the authority of God (John 1:26-28).

1.      The Baptist told them that they do not KNOW the Christ and therefore they would be unable to accept the origin of his authority (1:26). He did not need their approval to be a minister of God (see Luke 20:1-8).

2.      The Christ is the one to whom the Baptist bows (1:27)

3.      This was happening on the doorsteps of the religious establishment. Bethany was located on the eastern slope of the Mt. of Olives about two miles southeast of Jerusalem – about a 55 minute walk.

Explaining God - as Father

If the human race is going to gain any knowledge about who God is and what He wants us to do, it must come from God Himself. Left to themselves, people produce concepts of God based on themselves. Their gods are images of themselves.

John 1:14 – Trinity and Incarnation belong together. The doctrine of the Trinity declares that the man Jesus is truly divine; that of the Incarnation declares that the divine Jesus is truly human. Together they proclaim the full reality of the Savior whom the New Testament sets forth, the Son who came from the Father’s side at the Father’s will to become the sinner’s substitute on the cross. God sent His Son to save us and the fact that His Son is co-eternal and co-equal (see John 1:1-2), not a created being, shows the great length God will run to throw His forgiving arms around you.

John 1:15 – John the Baptist used a riddle, as it were, to get people to think. John's riddle is, "He who came after me actually came before me." People wondered what he meant by that.

I believe the apostle includes this quotation because that is how he first discovered who Jesus was. Here John the Apostle is telling us that he saw for the first time who Jesus was when he heard John the Baptist (whose disciple he was for awhile), say, "This one who came after me is the one who was before me." Putting that all together, John caught on to the fact that this Jesus of Nazareth, this Stranger of Galilee, was a human tent in which was hidden a remarkable glory, a glory full of grace and truth.

John 1:16 – Jesus is full of glory, full of grace, full of truth, full of deity. That means we have available an unending daily supply of grace. Grace is the generosity of love reaching out toward us, giving itself to us. To those who come to Christ, God's promise is that every day we can take a new supply of his love. We can know that we are loved. We know we are cherished, protected, and blessed. We are strengthened, kept, and supported by his love; grace upon grace, day after day. The experience of grace should be continuous and progressive in the life of God’s people.

John 1:17 - Notice the reappearance in Verse 17 of the words "grace and truth," and the contrast which John draws between them and the Law and Moses. The Law makes demands. It is hard, cold, unyielding, without mercy.

John says that the Law was given by Moses. Moses did not originate it, but he gave it. Moses may disappear, but the Law remains -- cold, unyielding, demanding, without mercy.

But, John says, "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Take away Jesus and you take away grace and truth; he is the channel of them. What John is saying in this section is that law is demand, but grace and truth are supply. Grace and truth are given to meet that demand.

Many people think that law and grace are contradictory, that they are opposing principles. But in the sense in which they were originally intended they are not. Law and grace supplement one another. Law makes its demands, rightfully and justly, and no one can meet them, but grace and truth is given in order to meet that demand. In Exodus 20 there is the remarkable account of the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai; the Law, which came with smoke, thunder, earthquake, fire, fear and trembling. But in the very next section we read the detailed plans for the building of the tabernacle -- God's provision to meet the demands of the Law. That tabernacle is a picture of Jesus, the meeting place where God's demands are fully met in terms of the sacrifice of blood, of a life poured out. Thus John saw in the coming of Jesus the fulfillment of that tabernacle.

John 1:18 – Jesus has revealed, explained (exegeted) God. The only begotten God who dwells at the heart of reality (who lives in the bosom of the Father), has made God known. (The verb is "exegeted" him.) Jesus has explained him and made known that the heart of God is a Father's heart. God is a Father. In John 14:9, Jesus told Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’”

When we come to God through Jesus Christ we discover a loving Father; around us are a Father's forgiving arms; a Father's wisdom guides our way; a Father's power protects us and guards us.

Are you living in the fullness of God’s grace and truth today? What is the basis of your knowledge about God? What is the basis of your relationship with God? 

Jesus as the Tabernacle (John 1:14)

When it comes to knowing God, having a relationship with Him, we must have a proper explanation of who God is, what He is like, and how He must be approached. God is transcendent and so it follows logically that if man is going to know the truth about Him with any certainty, God must condescend and reveal Himself to man.

There has been no greater revelation of God than when His Son, the eternal second person of the Godhead, became flesh and dwelt among men. Jesus Christ revealed the Father. He explained Him (John 1:18). Through Jesus we have the proper explanation of who God is, what he is like, and how He must be approached.

John 1:14 presents Jesus as the tabernacle, the place where holy God and sinful man could meet in intimate relationship based solely on the initiative and grace of God. The Old Testament tabernacle was the foreshadowing of the coming of the Son of God as a man in order to reveal the Father, redeem sinners, and rule in righteousness.

The tabernacle housed the glory of God because it housed the presence of God. We read that after Moses erected the tabernacle that the glory of God filled it and Moses couldn’t enter it because of the heaviness of the presence of God – “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34-35). The same thing happened again when the ark of the covenant was brought into the Temple built by Solomon – “It happened that when the priests came from the holy place [they had set the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies in the Temple (verses 4-8)], the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10-11). This glory of God was referred to as the shekinah glory.

So what can we learn from the tabernacle that would be fulfilled in Jesus?

First, the eternal God would become a man – “And the Word became flesh.” Here we see the biblical teaching of the incarnation – a doctrine that is absolutely crucial to our redemption – God became a man in order to live a sinless life and then die a substitutionary death to fulfill His own holy demands so that He could justly save us from His wrath and enable our relationship with Him. God’s wrath against us is removed through our faith in the work of Christ for us and our love for God is generated through our faith in the work of Christ for us. In order to accomplish the work of redemption for us, Christ had to become a man.

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Second, we learn from the tabernacle that God would dwell among men – “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” The word “dwelt” means “tabernacled or tented.” God became a man and tabernacled among us. He pitched His tent among humanity. The Old Testament tabernacle was where God’s presence was among His people. The tabernacle offered access to God on God’s terms. The tabernacle was the place of sacrifice, the place of cleansing, the place of light, the place of life, the place of intercession, and the place of mercy.

Third, we learn from the tabernacle that the glory of God was revealed there – “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.” The “we” John referred to was those who received Christ in John 1:12. John was saying, “We, the ones who received Him, saw His glory.”

Glory is from the word “doxan” from which we get the word “doxology.” To see someone’s glory is to see his worth, his honor, his majesty, etc. Those who receive Jesus do so because they see His worth, they see His glory! For instance, after water got sunburned by the glory of Jesus and turned into wine at the wedding in Cana, we read, “This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him” (John 2:11).

The glory of Jesus was not a reflected glory but a radiating glory (Hebrews 1:3). We are created to reflect God’s glory, but Jesus radiates God’s glory – “glory as of the only begotten from the Father.” “Only begotten” means unique, only one of His kind. It does not mean that Christ was created (see Hebrews 1:5). He is God’s only Son. “From the Father” shows that God sent His Son, His only Son whom He loves, to redeem sinners. There is no greater demonstration of love than God sending His only Son whom He loves to live a sinless life and die a sacrificial death to redeem us and restore us.

Fourth, we learn from the tabernacle that God is full of grace and truth – “And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Grace is undeserved kindness. While the tabernacle proclaimed that God was full of underserved kindness, Jesus Christ demonstrated it. Truth is absolute rightness. We can say that truth is strict righteousness. Truth is unyielding faithfulness. The tabernacle proclaimed that God was full of truth by proclaiming that access to God had to be on a basis that upheld the righteousness of God and His Law. Jesus Christ demonstrated it.

The kindness of God never nullifies the righteousness of God. Grace and truth are to never be pitted against one another as though one is more important than the other. When God forgives it is only on the basis of the Law upholding work of Christ. Do you see in Jesus that God is full of grace and truth? Do you see the worth of God in the face of Christ?  

We Saw His Glory (John 1:14)

“God is great, God is good,” is not just the beginning of a prayer for God to bless our meals that we teach our children – it is the absolute truth about God that not everyone has seen. Until people have seen the greatness of God they think either they are His equals or that they can manipulate His power. Until people have seen the goodness of God they think either they are as good as He is or that they are better than He is. At the root of mankind’s sin is self-esteem – we value ourselves more than anything else and each one is his own god.

This truth that at the root of mankind’s sin is self-esteem – valuing ourselves more than anything else – may appear that it is not absolute, but it is. Let me try to explain how this works so that we can see that self-esteem is our root sin problem. We readily admit that those with an unmistakable high self-esteem are “full of themselves.” What is not so easily seen though is that those with low self-esteem are also “full of themselves.” The problem for those with low self-esteem is that along the way their self-esteem has been overshadowed, dominated, and depressed by either others that would not acknowledge their worth or their own actions that diminished their self-worth. People with low self-esteem are miserable. They cannot achieve their desired goal – glory from others – ascriptions of worthiness from others.

So, whether one has high self-esteem or low self-esteem (or somewhere in between), he or she desires praise from others – he or she wants to be valued by others. This desire exists in every person because it was the sin that Adam and Eve committed when they disobeyed God and listened to the lie of the devil that they would “be like God” if they ate from the forbidden tree. The desire to be like God (self-ruling, self-sufficient, great, good, worthy of praise, etc.) is so deeply ingrained in fallen mankind that its only remedy is its uprooting by seeing the greatness and goodness of God. We must see His glory!

John wanted his readers to know that the glory of God is seen in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). John selected specific events out of the ministry of Jesus so that we too could see His glory and value Him as our Lord and Savior.

First, the glory of the Lord was seen at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). There both the greatness and the goodness of the Lord were seen. The Lord’s greatness was seen in His ability to turn water into wine. The Lord’s goodness was seen in His concern for a poor family unable to meet the needs of their wedding guests. The worth of the Lord was revealed – “and [He] manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him” (John 2:11). The Lord is great, the Lord is good.

Next, the glory of the Lord was seen at Jacob’s well in Samaria (John 4:1-42). There Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman who was not known for her marital fidelity. She had already had five husbands and the man she was with was not her husband – she was shacking up (John 4:18). What did Jesus do? He told her all about herself and who He was (John 4:18-26). Jesus revealed His greatness through His accurate description of her sin and He revealed His goodness by revealing that He was the Messiah (Christ) who did not come to condemn her but to set her free. What happened? She went and told those in the city and many believed – “From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all things that I have done’” (John 4:39). His glory is full of grace and truth! The Lord is great, the Lord is good.

Then, the glory of the Lord was seen at Cana through the healing of a royal official’s son (John 4:46-54). This man’s son was at the point of death and when Jesus came back into Cana he implored the Lord to come down and heal his son. Jesus simply said the words, “Go; your son lives” and the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him (John 4:50). The next day while the man was on his way home his servants met him and told him that his son was alive. The boy got well at the exact same time that Jesus spoke the words, “Your son lives,” and this caused his whole household to believe with him (John 4:51-53). The Lord is great, the Lord is good.

After these things the glory of the Lord was seen in Jerusalem at the pool of Bethesda through the healing of a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years and had no one to put him into the pool when the waters were stirred up (John 5:1-14). Jesus saw the man lying there and asked him if he wished to get well. The man answered that he had no one to put him into the pool. Jesus said, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk” (John 5:6-8). “Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk” (John 5:9). The Lord is great, the Lord is good.

Then, the glory of the Lord was seen in Jerusalem again when Jesus was teaching at the feast of booths (tabernacles) and a woman caught in adultery was brought to the Lord by the scribes and Pharisees demanding that He uphold the Law of Moses and stone her to death (John 8:1-11). Instead Jesus gave her grace, convicted her accusers of sin, and set her free (John 8:7-11). The Lord is great, the Lord is good.

Later that day the glory of the Lord was seen outside the temple when Jesus healed a man born blind (John 9:1-41). This man had a problem that no one else could heal. Jesus had both the power to heal him and the grace to heal him. The Lord is great, the Lord is good.

The religious leaders wanted to kill the Lord because He was messing with their glory by revealing His glory. The Lord withdrew to the Jordan and ministered there until His friend Lazarus died and He returned to Judea to do the impossible  - He raised Lazarus from the dead after four days in the tomb (John 11:1-45). The Lord is great, the Lord is good.

The greatest revelation of the Lord’s glory was seen when He died as a sacrifice for sin, was buried, and on the third day arose from the dead (John 19:17-18, 28-30; 20:11-16). The Lord is great, the Lord is good!

Have you seen His glory?

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!

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.