14 And the Word was made 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 referred to this notably in another place that is worth
examining.
1John 1:1 ¶ That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and
shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us;) 3 That which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly
our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things write we unto you, that your
joy may be full.
This is a confirmation that God walked in the flesh on
earth, that John saw Him, talked with Him, heard Him speak, and touched Him.
Christ said that if we receive Him that He and the Father
will live in us today by the Spirit.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man
love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him, and make our abode with him.
They saw Christ, not only in His humanity but in His glory.
Mark 9:2 And after six days Jesus taketh with him
Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by
themselves: and he was transfigured before them.
He was full of grace, God’s unmerited and unearned favor
toward mankind, and truth, as God Himself speaking to man and woman as His
companion, His brother, His sister, and His neighbor. It is important to note
that grace is an attribute of the giver, not a consequence of the behavior of
the receiver.
It is impossible to say you believe Christ if you do not
believe the Bible. Jesus spoke in Hebrew and Aramaic, not Greek, so He was not
quoting any mythological Septuagint version of the Bible, as some scholars
insist. The Septuagint was a supposed complete version of the Hebrew Bible
created miraculously in Egypt in the third century BC. However, the earliest
complete copy of the Hebrew Bible in Greek extant today does not exist until
the third century AD. The copies of individual books into Greek from Hebrew and
a mythical letter of an Egyptian official are all that suggests to the
unbelieving scholar that such a Greek version of the Hebrew Bible existed
before Christ.
Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled.
Jots and Tittles are markings of Hebrew writing.
Luke 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of
Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto
you, It shall be required of this generation.
This last verse is a reference of events in Genesis and
Chronicles, the last book of the Hebrew Bible but certainly not the last book
of any extant Septuagint version of the Old Testament like Codex Vaticanus or
Codex Sinaiticus which incorporate aprocryphal books originally written in
Greek, not Hebrew.
Jesus used Hebrew and Aramaic terms.
John 1:42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus
beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called
Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.
John 9:7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of
Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and
washed, and came seeing.
Mark 5:41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said
unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee,
arise.
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he
will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Paul spoke in Hebrew to the crowd and they obviously used
Hebrew rather than Greek as their language between each other.
Acts 21:40 And when he had given him licence, Paul stood
on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was
made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,
Having pointed these things out, the fact that we have Greek
texts translating these Hebrew and Aramaic spoken words only means that the
general world the early Christians lived in was predominantly a Greek speaking
world for them. It does not transfer that Jesus and the apostles were quoting a
Greek Old Testament or that the Jews in Jerusalem spoke mostly Greek.
I have said that to say this. In order to believe in Jesus
you cannot call Him a liar. Jesus stated the following things about the Bible
and history. Jesus did not speak of abiogenesis, the spontaneous generation of
the modern atheistic evolutionist. He referred to God being the Creator not the
gradual development of advanced life from a single-celled organism.
Mark 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God
made them male and female.
Mark 13:19 For in those days shall be affliction, such
as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time,
neither shall be.
So, Jesus did not quote or refer to any mythological Septuagint
nor did He allow for atheistic determinism as the origin of the created world.
If you believe in either you are calling Him a liar. If He is a liar or
mistaken or dissembling for the sake of the level of ignorance of His hearers
then clearly you cannot trust Him with something as important as the salvation
of your eternal soul from a burning eternity of agony without God.
If Jesus was the Word, and the Word was God, then the
logical outcome from the verses in John we’ve read so far is that Jesus was God
in the flesh. Without believing this you can hardly consider yourself anything
but a philosophical Christian and would certainly be more comfortable reading a
Rowling novel than what is being written here.
Jesus of Nazareth was the Word, God, made flesh.
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