Monday 28th November
Read 1 John 5:10-12; 20
“Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life… 20We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (NIVUK)
What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God who has come down from heaven? How would you explain that to someone who doesn’t know much about the Christian faith? For it is essential that we understand what it means – for life is found only in believing the testimony of God about His Son (John 20:30-31).
As we approach Christmas and ponder what it means that God was incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us, we need to reflect on how the Scriptures present us with the truth and provide us with understanding about the nature and glory of the Son. The ‘Son of God’ is an immensely rich, theologically loaded and multifaceted phrase developed deliberately from the very beginning of Scripture so that now, after the time has come, we would understand and believe the witness of God and find life.
Don Carson wrote a short, fascinating book about what it means that Jesus is the Son of God and summarises many of the ways the phrase is used. The early believers understood it in many ways but came to the conclusion that it does not mean less than the Son is the fully divine, eternal, life-giving ruler of the universe (cf 1 John 5:20). He writes that ‘Jesus is not (just) the Son of God by virtue of being the ultimate Israel, nor is he the Son of God by virtue of being the Messiah, the ultimate Davidic king, nor is he the Son of God by virtue of being the perfect human being. Rather he is the Son of God from eternity, simultaneously distinguishable from his heavenly Father yet one with him, the perfect Revealer of the living god.” (Carson, Jesus the Son of God, p41).
Would that by Christmas we each fully understood what it means that Jesus, the Son of God, came down from heaven and could explain it simply and clearly to those who need to know.
