John 1.4-5 - The Light of Men

In the beginning was the Word.  This Word was God - [4] In Him was life], and the life was the Light of men.  The Creator of all life, and the Sole Source of Zoe life: Shalom.  Peace, overall well-being.  Life as it was always meant to be.  Life in the Light, inexpressible joy flowing from a personal abundant relationship with the God Who made us to live with Him forever.  But there is darkness - [5] The Light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  Meaning, the darkness did not eagerly take the Light.  Let’s drill down on this a bit more.

So, IN this One Who was The Word, the Speaking Communicating Relating Creating Word, in Him WAS life, this zoe - the power and quality of enduring abundant glory and overall well-being, and this life WAS the Light of men.  It’s this same imperfect tense, back in the beginning, always was.  He made us with glorious potential, He so wants us to have, to experience zoe, a life of joyful overflowing relationship with Him.  The Light of men.

One overarching theme in John is that the mass of humanity is no longer experiencing zoe, does NOT even have zoe.  WAY too many people do NOT enjoy this overflowing abundant existence, this vital relationship with the only true God.  Our lives are NOT illuminated by the light of His presence and His power, by His love and His joy, by His truth.  This is not new news.  People are walking not in the Light but in darkness.  Their minds are darkened.  But it wasn’t this way in the beginning…

So, WAY BACK in the very beginning, what was the first thing God created with spoken words?  Light [Gen. 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.].  Do a quick google - scientists agree, without the sun (and its light) life would cease to exist.  Without light life never would have been able to exist in the first place.  Medicine tells us that are so many health benefits of sunlight.  Somehow, in more ways than we can even begin to understand, much less appreciate, life and light do go hand in hand.  But light is not only that which makes physical/biological life viable [bios], light also describes a state of spiritual alive-ness.  Intellectual and spiritual awareness.  Light represents understanding [i.e. the light is on].  The life was the light of men.

Think about it: where there is NO light what do you have?  Darkness.  [Gen. 1:2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep]  Have you ever been awake in the dark?  In total black darkness?  No light?  And tried to move around?  How does that go for you?  Physical darkness and the inability to see [blindness] can be quite debilitating.  And there is a SPIRITUAL blindness, where the light is out in our souls.  Spiritually dead.  No zoe life, no overflowing relationship with the God Who so loves us.  Shalom eludes us.  Spiritual blindness, walking in spiritual darkness is just as debilitating as physical darkness, but for God’s image bearers, for people it’s even worse, because we’re tempted to think we CAN see.  This presumption appears in force during adolescence.  We are self-aware, and we believe that we know what time it is - even when our spiritual light is out.  This is bad news…

Darkness.  Is. 59:9  Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, but behold, darkness; or brightness, but we walk in gloom.  Darkness is the term used to describe the downward regression and the broken fallen state of man: Rom. 1:21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Eph. 4:18 ...being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.  The brokenness of man, our state of spiritual separation from the God Who is Life and Light - this is darkness.  And  darkness is now the default condition of humanity.  Life lived apart from our Creator.  In Whom alone is the Light of men.  There WAS a time - back in the beginning, when we had the Light.  The first couple, they enjoyed zoe, this unhindered abundant relationship with their Creator.  The Light was on.  Walking in the Light.  Life as it was meant to be.  But they chose to go their own independent way, turned their back on the light, and the Light of eternal zoe was snuffed out in their hearts.  Now all we their descendants are born with that light OUT.  Darkness for us is unavoidable.  Eccl. 11:8 Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many.  Many times when we’re not sure what to do.  Where we’re going.  Days of darkness.  And without outside intervention, this darkness will consume us.  Luke 11:34-35 “The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness.  Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.”  In other words, it’s not about the light I see out there, it’s about the Light in here.  The lamp of the body - are my spiritual eyes clear enough to see and embrace the truth about the God Who made me?  About Jesus?  That He loves me.  In Him IS life.  And His life is the Light of men.  Do I have His Light?

Now, can there BE life in the darkness?  Yes, yes there can.  But it’ll be a form that falls far short of shalom.  Sub-human.  Life in darkness will invariably be Mis-shapen.  Think Gollum - twisted and broken.  And incredibly selfish - cuz you’re just trying to take care of yourself.  Trying to get through the dark night of a soulless dog-eat-dog existence.  Devoid of the things that make life worth living, far short of zoe, life as it was designed, the Life that God proclaims as very exceedingly good.   Because God is Light, and the life of God, the life He gives, the life He designed us to live, in His presence and full of glory, full of breathtaking goodness, is found in the Light.  In Him.  [In Him was life], and this zoe - His abundant eternal glorious life - was the Light of men.  The Light of men.  [5 The Light shines in the darkness…]  God did NOT design human beings as His special word-wielding image-bearers and then just leave us all to our own devices.  The Light IS shining, is still blazing in the darkness.  Even after we kicked God out of our hearts, even after death set in and we became separated from the life of God, His Light was still shining.  God’s light is always shining, shining to rescue us from darkness. 

Psalm 18.28  “For You are my lamp, O LORD; and the LORD illumines my darkness.“  Is. 9:2  The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.  Whatever your darkness is.   John 8:12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 12:46 “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

Light is the first “God-send” we encounter in John.  Life.  The Light of men.  The Word speaking everything into existence, giving bios-life to all living creatures and imparting the Light of zoe-life to people.  And even after we extinguished the Light in our hearts, God is still faithfully sending out, shining the Light of His Truth for all to see.  Blazing across the heavens.  Ps. 19:1  The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.  And NOW God has sent THE Light, the Word Who created the heavens and the earth and everything in them out of nothing, Who made us to experience this glorious abundant life of zoe with Him forever, sent Him to be our Guide in the darkness, to lead us OUT of darkness.  Out of that place of brokenness, and uncertainty.  The question is, when the Light comes, when the dawn comes, when the Light of God’s Truth is dawning in your heart, what will you do?  Will you harden your heart?  Or will you eagerly take the Light into your heart.  It’s never too late.  Will you believe in Jesus today?

John 1.3-5 - In Him was Life (Pt 2)

We’re looking at this truth that all life came to be, was created, by this One Who Was (& IS) The Word, the Logos.  He spoke into existence everything out of nothing.  Which means that you and I and all life in the universe is contingent.  Our thing and every thing depends upon this Other Thing.  Our life is inextricably tied to this Always-existent One-Who-Was-(and is)-God.  He IS existence.  [I AM —> we are][Acts 17:28 ’For in Him we are living and we are moving and we are].

Last time we considered one of the positions people take vis a vis this idea of a Creator-God, that of Deism.  The thought that maybe God just wound up the entire universe like an old watch, and let it go.  Literally.  Hands-off.  Non-interference.  Which if that were the case would mean you and I are not accountable to Him.  We would owe our existence to Him, but then we’d be on our own.  Maybe He cares, but not enough to get involved.  Not enough to interfere in any of our predicaments, including our biggest one, which is that we ALL fall short of His glory [Rom. 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God].  None of us meet His standard of holy perfection, there is nothing any of us can do to make ourselves perfect AND [Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death].  I.e. NOT life (as God intended), but death.  Spiritual separation from our Maker.  Without some intervention, some interference, we will spend eternity separated from God and His glorious breathtaking goodness.

SO this beckons us to consider the other position, which says, God did NOT just make us and let us go, He really does really care about us.  He cares about what happens to us, because He went to great and marvelous lengths in making us, in crafting us to enjoy an intimate friendship with Him.  People.  We bear His image: Gen. 1:26-27  Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  This Word, the One Who spoke - He is vested in us.  All people, men and women, girls and boys, are made in His image, and we are the apple of His eye*.  God interferes with us, like any loving parent would do. 

Made in His image: People are the pinnacle of God’s creation.  His magnum opus.  Numerous significant things distinguish people from all other living creatures.  But when the Word-Who-was-God created humans in His image, at the top of the list was the gift of speech, this ability to speak and understand and communicate and create using words.  Intelligent speech.  Abstract thought.  Eternal truth.  [Words] are one of the things that set human beings apart from the entire rest of creation.  Nothing else in all of creation uses words to form sentences to convey emotions and lofty ideals and timeless wisdom.  Which express gratitude.  And worship.  

Words communicate.  Words tell me what you’re thinking.  What you’re feeling.  How this day and how life is going for you.  Are you in pain?  Are you happy or sad?  Words communicate.  Words are powerful.  We celebrate baby’s first words.  And as we grow up, our vocabulary increases.  More words, more ability to communicate.  To let others know what we want.  What we like and don’t like.  WHAT we’re like.  And WHO we like/love.  God does this with us - His Words tell us what He is like.  What He likes and doesn’t like.  Who He loves [HINT HINT].  Words communicate.  But there’s more…

Words relate.  Words turn existence and even companionship into relationship.  Lots of things exist.  A few of them can provide companionship.  But words are the building blocks of relationship.  They’re how we get to really know each other.  Words are how we relate to God Himself.  In the beginning was the Word, this eternal God Who made humans in His image, word-based beings - for the purpose of relationship.  Friendship.  Love.  AND when it came time to provide a PERFECT companion for Adam, the first man, God made Eve, the first woman, also made in God’s image, a fellow word-based being.  Remember - none of the other living creatures used words.  Thus they were unsuited as perfect companions [cute loyal companions yes - but unsuited].  Words are the currency of friendship.  Words communicate.  Words relate. 

AND Words give life.  Your words, my words - they give life.  Maybe we finite humans are not speaking physical things into existence out of absolutely nothing.  Maybe we’re not causing life to spring up out of non-life per se.  But the words you and I wield, they do bring ideas to life.  AND Words nurture life.  They build up.  They strengthen.  They sustain.  At least, they have the power to do so:  Eph. 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.  Words give grace.  Favor.  They communicate.  They relate.  Words give life.  And only people do this with words.  We are the pinnacle of God’s creation.  We bear God’s image.  And we wield His life-giving words.  And John says, [4] In Him was life, AND the life was the Light of men.  

This life is not just any life.  It's zoe life.  John loves this word.  He uses it more than all the other writers of the NT combined (36x).  Zoe can refer to the presence of physical life, but in John, zoe is never simply hearts beating and lungs breathing.  It’s something more than just physical existence.  In John zoe refers to a special higher kind of life.  The life you’ve always dreamed of.  Zoe is the principle and the power of divine unending shalom.  A quality of life inseparably linked to its Source.  The Prince of Shalom Himself.  It’s a vital connection to, a relationship with this One in Whom was life.  The fountain of life.  In Jesus.  Always was.  Eternal life.  It’s the quality of an abundant overflowing relationship with the Word Who spoke all things into existence and Who made us to know Him and enjoy Him forever [John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”].  John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 4:14 But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 8:12   Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  In Him was zoe, this abundant eternal life.  It’s this enduring experience of glory.

In Him was life, and this life was the Light of men.  People.  No other creature was given this Light.  No other creature bears the Image.  No other creature relates to God intimately.  With words.  The Light of men.  Life as it was always meant to be lived.  THIS Life, this zoe, and Light go hand in hand.  Such that any life lived apart from the Light, is lived in darkness.  Darkness.  The absence of light.  This is the sad story of humanity - lives lived in darkness, living without the Light.  Lives which fall so far short of the abundant zoe we were made to enjoy.  Lives of loneliness, of confusion and depression and hopeless desperation - cut off from the Light.  [5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  The darkness did not overtake it.  Or, did not take it eagerly.  Many have not taken it at all. John 20:31 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. This is why John is taking the time to write this book about Jesus, about the Word Who was God and in Whom is life.  So that you will believe in Jesus, and that through believing in Jesus you will have zoe, the life you were always meant to live.  In Him was life...

*On being the "apple of God's eye", Spurgeon writes: "No part of the body is more precious, more tender, and more carefully guarded than the eye; and of the eye, no portion more peculiarly to be protected than the central apple, the pupil, or as the Hebrew calls it, 'the daughter of the eye.' The all wise Creator has placed the eye in a well protected position; it stands surrounded by projecting bones like Jerusalem encircled by mountains. Moreover, its great Author has surrounded it with many tunics of inward covering, besides the hedge of the eyebrows, the curtain of the eyelids, and the fence of the eyelashes; and, in addition to this, he has given to every man so high a value for his eyes, and so quick an apprehension of danger, that no member of the body is more faithfully cared for than the organ of sight.”

John 1.3-4 - In Him was Life

What we’ve seen in John's book so far is that - In the beginning was, The Word.  And the Word was God (always was), AND the Word created.  With words.  Heb. 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.  John stresses this point: [3] All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  ALL things, through Him.  The very elements of the universe.  All things, through Him came to be.  John says it 3x here, for emphasis.  It’s the root of the word, [genesis].  Sometimes it means, you come to be something else.  You become a child of God.  The water becomes wine.  But in this case, it means, come to be, period.  Some thing didn’t exist, and then it came to be.  Here, we’re talking ALL things.  No thing, not one blade of grass, not one molecule or quark, not one person has come to be apart from this One-Who-Was-God.  No one.  We all [came to be - through this Word].  Through Jesus.  He made each of us.

Therefore, everything in the universe - including us - is [contingent: kuhn-tin-juhnt, adj, dependent for existence on something else].  Our very existence depends on Someone else, this God of words Who spoke the universe into being.  Now, inanimate objects, and all other living things, ants and algae and antelope - don’t even think about existence [“Who made me?”] - much less [talk] about it.  They’re not self-aware.  But humans - we can/do ask the zillion-dollar question, “How did I get here?  Why am I here?”  We humans use words to consider it and discuss it and write about it.  AND contingent image-bearers even have the freedom to think that maybe I am NOT contingent - as misguided as that idea is.  Maybe I’m an accident.  But John is telling us, look, I saw Him, I know Him.  All things came into existence through Him.

Now some of you smart kids are thinking, well Chris, I actually came from my mommy’s tummy.  My mommy and daddy.  And you’d be right - but where did your mommy and daddy come from?  Well, from their mommy and daddy, and so on and so forth.  All the way back to the first mommy and daddy back in the beginning.  Where did they come from?   The Word.  And He spoke.  ALL things, every [molecule] came into existence as He spoke.  But wait, there’s more.  There’s something else.  Because molecules don’t just come to life.  Not on their own.  That primordial soup that so many unbelievers so desperately want to believe gave rise to life?  That cocktail of atoms and energy - those are building blocks of life, but they are all caused by something/someone, AND there’s STILL something missing.  Life does not spontaneously arise out of non-life.  Which is why… [4 In Him was life…].  4 of the most powerful words in the entire Bible.  [In Him Life was.]  Always.  [Zoe].  That which is alive.  There is an animating power, a supernatural force, which animates and separates all living things from all those which are not.  Life only comes from life.  Always.  In the beginning was The Word.  He was towards God, always was, always will be God, and in Him always was this creative force.  In HIM was life… He had the [spark].

An honest person cannot simply dismiss what John is saying here.  Many people do, of course.  If you grow up in a home where there is no faith and the assumption is that we’re all an accident, then that IS most likely what you grow up believing.  That’s just foolish, the idea of a Creator.  Really?  I like the simple logic of [intelligent design] here.  How did THINGS get this way?  How did THIS happen?  Every time we see [order], we infer intelligence.  EVERY time.  The best, really the only obvious answer is that something intelligent made it that way on purpose.  NOT an accident.  Yet the one glaringly obvious exception happens to be the most important question of all - life.  How did life come to be?  Highly [irreducibly complex] structures, AND this miraculous scientifically-unreproducible force of [zoe].  Life.  Life is no accident.  In HIM was life.  Jesus.  Life comes from Jesus.  That’s where we came from, how we came to be.  And it’s why we came to be: [Col. 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and FOR Him.]  For Him.  He is the Why of life, The Meaning.  Why AM I here, people ask.  And the mind-blowingly simple-yet-profound answer John gives us is, Jesus.  The Word.  [In Him was life].  He gives life its life.  And He gives life its meaning.  Apart from Him, life is meaningless.  Empty.  Life is so much more than [survival of the fittest], just surviving and reproducing.  You and I came to be, NOT an accident - we were designed by the Ultimate Designer of the universe, outfitted with a glorious purpose - to seek out, to enjoy, and to show off the breathtaking goodness of this One Who Created all things.  To make much of Jesus.  All things, through Him, AND for Him.  [In Him was and IS life].

At this point, now that John has declared that there IS a Creator, THE Source of all life in the universe, we can go in one of two directions.  One is a path known as [deism]: God is an absentee dad.  I.E. He is NOT involved with the world He made.  This Word made everything, wound up the clock, and just let it go.  Turned it loose, left it to all to its own devices.  That’s what a lot of people would like to believe.  Because it removes most of our contingence.  Reduces the almighty Creator to a toothless Grandpa.  MAYBE he shows up in a [red suit] once a year?  Worst thing that might happen to you is a lump of coal in your stocking?  But deism is less than that.  It’s the [Prime Directive] taken to the extreme.  Non-interference.  Don’t interfere.  Deism says, God does not care.  Not enough to show up.

Many people do live their lives as practical deists.  There’s even a term for this: [Moralistic Therapeutic Deism].  MTD.  God is a Divine Therapist.  A heavenly butler.  I am not here FOR him - he is here for me.  When I’m in a pinch.  Or whenever it suits my purposes.

But think about it, how does deism jive with the notion of a God Whose lovingkindness is everlasting?  Who is clearly not at all absent?  The Lord always shows up, over and over.  Who called Abraham out of paganism?  Who called Israel out of bondage in Egypt?  Who showed up in the furnace with Rack, Shack and Benny?  Who called Lazarus out of the grave?  And what about this whole idea of [Emmanuel-God-With-Us]?  Deists, saying (or living like) God is not involved, haven’t read their Bible.  Not lately.  Not the best parts.  Sadly they’re just spiritualized examples of those who want less (or no) accountability.  God always intervenes for the good of those who bear His image.  The Word is actively involved with ALL of His creation - and ESPECIALLY with those who bear His image - because He totally loves us.  He interferes.  [In Him was life].  In the beginning was [the Word, He was God].  All things came into being through Him.  And in Him was life.  The power to create, to give and to sustain life.

Think about it - who on earth has this kind of power?  There is NO power on earth that can do this, impart life to that which is not alive.  Breathe the breath of life into so much dust.  And we’ve talked about this before - once extinguished, once the life force, the zoe has been extinguished, there is no bringing it back.  No power on earth.  No amount of medicine, no amount of science can bring the fully dead back to life.  Yes, some life functions can continue on life support for a time.  Those who are clinically dead have been resuscitated, yes.  But you take a bug - a fly, or an ant or a mosquito, and [squish it] - (yes please do that to pests btw) - and it ain’t coming back.  Once zoe has left the building, leaves behind the tent which we call our body, all that’s left is a bunch of life-less molecules.  [Life IS a precious miracle.]  It’s a wonderful impossible.  [In Him was life.]  The Word Who was God.  In the beginning.  In Him is your life, and mine.  We need Him - for all of life.  Will you trust Him today?

If NOT deism then what?  More on this other direction to take next time...

John 1.1-3 - The Word Was God Part 2

Last time we looked at how this One-Who-was, The Word, was WITH God and WAS God!  In the beginning.  This Word was already existing back in the beginning - because, John says, He WAS God.  And He was with God, meaning facing/directed towards God, but also somehow separate.  This is John’s mind-blowing conclusion after doing life with Jesus for three long amazing years.  He hung out with Him, reclined on Him at dinner, had a front row seat - for love, wisdom, miracles, resurrection: somehow this Jesus - He was/is God.

Now.  The deity of Christ.  People have struggled with and have been denying that Jesus is God from the very beginning.  It IS a fair question.  How could a flesh-and-blood person - who bled, AND died - be the eternal God?  How can this finite human being also be the infinite God?  AND if there is only ONE God - which God Himself told all the Jews, then how could one God be two?  How does [1+1=1]?  To any respectable math major, that’s lunacy.  To a respectable Jew, it’s heresy.  Hear O Israel, God is how many?  This is why the Jews eventually DO decide to kill Jesus - because there is no denying, HE was claiming to be God [Jn 10.30-33].  John knows this.  Full well.  But he also knows Jesus.  Very well.  Front row seat, remember?  He knows what he’s writing here - yet John’s inescapable conclusion as THE first-hand witness is that Jesus really is God. 

Of course even Christ-followers have struggled with this truth, that Jesus is God.  It came to an early head [300 years after Christ].  A church elder in [Alexandria] named [Arius] was actively teaching that Jesus was an exalted person but not God.  Emperor Constantine called together hundreds of bishops for a [council in Nicaea].  Together they came up with what is known as [the Nicene Creed].

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, 

the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God;

begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, 

by whom all things were made.

It may not make logical sense - but it makes the best sense of the truths of Scripture.  [The Word WAS God].  God of God.  Always was God.  There was never a time when Jesus was not God.  He was/is not a created being, some lesser God.  In the beginning, the Word was God.  The One Who used words to form everything in existence out of nothing.  Exactly what John says next: [v3: All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.]  And again, He was no [puppet] in this process.  If He was merely a puppet, there’s no need to kill Him as a lunatic heretic.

And this is why John hammers this truth home right from the get go.  He knows we need to understand the truth, in no uncertain terms, that Jesus, The Logos, was in very fact, God.  Always was.  The Word was (and is) God.  This is a foundational truth of the Christian faith.  The truth about Christ, about Who Jesus is.

Because Jesus was tried, and convicted, and executed, He was killed not so much for anything He did, but for Who He was.  For Who He claimed to be.  He was put on trial for His identity - and isn’t that still the case today?  People generally have a lot less angst about His teachings, or His miracles, but when His words and deeds point to the claim that He was - and is - God, then folks bristle.  They begin to protest, and push back.  And why is that?

There’s the obvious intellectual hurdle - how can a man be God, and vice versa?  How can one God be two?  Again, John doesn’t try to explain it for us.  He’s saying, look, I was with Him for three years.  I saw what He did.  I heard what He said.  And I’m telling you the truth.  You know that I’m telling you the truth [21.24].  And this is what WE believe.  These two truths - the [Trinity] and the [Incarnation] - two of the core teachings of the Christian faith, they’re what we call an antinomy [two things which cannot both be true, yet must be true].  This is what makes the best sense of all the teachings of Scripture.  And if you try to hold to only one side or the other, you deny part of the truth.  And you diminish Christ.  You minimize Who Jesus is.

THIS is where we find that there IS something else in play here, something far deeper, far more nefarious.  It goes back to the very beginning in fact, to the Garden - and before.  It’s the age old rebellion against the supremacy of God, led first by the [serpent] of old, and carried out by the masses of rebellious humanity ever since.  All people reject God, and His rule over our own lives - and over creation.  A rising tide.  We’re loathe to be accountable to God in any way whatsoever.  Desperately trying to put anything else in His place in my heart.  I so want to be able to do whatever I want, and I don’t want any consequences.  So I reject the idea that there is a God Who cares about what I do, Who cares about me.  A Jesus Who makes me accountable.  Cuz Jesus primarily came to deal with my sin, to pay the penalty I owe as a result.  And because I resist the idea that I am accountable to any God, I must resist the idea that Jesus is God.  I must oppose that however possible - and the world has been trying to come up with ways to throw shade on that truth, to minimize Jesus for hundreds and hundreds of years.  I doubt that Jesus is God.  I doubt that Jesus is Who He says He is.  Doubting Thomases.  

The world totally tries to minimize Jesus.  They reduce Him to an [afterthought].  Or a curse word.  Look at the non-Christian religions, look at the cults - they all minimize Jesus.  He didn’t die for our sins.  He certainly didn’t rise from the dead.  He’s definitely not God.  Rather than make much of Him they change God’s Word and try minimize Jesus.  But that’s not what God does:

Phil 2.9-11 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Acts 2:33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.  Nor what Paul does:  Phil. 1:20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

Exalted.  Enlarged.  Magnified.  This is what God the Father has done for His Son.  Jesus.  The One-Who-Was.  Exalted Him, magnified Him, made much of Him.  This is what Paul aspired to, in everything he did and said, to magnify Jesus, to somehow turn up the magnification factor on Jesus [like what telescopes can do for things like the orion nebula].  So did John.  This is what John is doing, right out of the gate.  Making much of Jesus, magnifying Him.  Big picture, don’t miss this, make no mistake - Jesus is God.  ALL things through Him.  

Because what happens if/when you begin to say that Jesus is NOT God?  Once and if I ever begin to try and minimize Jesus, to somehow make Him less, to make Him out to be less than Who He is, than Who He always was, always has been and always will be, less than Who He needs to be in my life - then my faith itself will diminish.  My hope of eternal life will diminish.  My joy will diminish.  My world grows dark [v4!].  It all begins here: In the beginning was the Word and the [Word was God].  All things came into being through Him (and FOR Him).  [God With Us] My experience of life grows bigger and brighter as my view of Jesus grows.  How big is Jesus to me?

Is. 44:24 

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the One who formed you from the womb, “I, the LORD, am the Maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone."

Col. 1:16 

For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him.