The Christian Life and the Incarnation;
1 John 1:1-2
logos [logoj]
isn’t the subject of verse 2; life is the subject of verse 2: “and the life was
manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” That tells us that the
life John is talking about is infinitely connected with Jesus Christ because it
was with the Father and was manifested to us. In the case of our Lord Jesus
Christ the man in the message and the message is the man, and we can’t talk
about the man without talking about the message, and we can’t talk about the
message without talking about the man. But we can talk about either the man or
the message but the other is always present. John’s focus here is on the
message. It is the message of life which was exemplified for us at the first
advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was in His perfect and sinless life that He
was qualified to go to the cross, and in His life He not only fulfilled the obligations
of the Mosaic Law in the Old Testament but He also set the precedent and
pattern for the spiritual life of the church age. 1 John is John’s commentary
and his expansion of the themes in the upper room discourse. It is addressed to
believers to teach them how live that abundant life which was exemplified by
Christ, That is the message of life. It was exemplified by the one who was
life.
In Greek, word order is not
important to the meaning of the sentence because the meaning is defined by its
syntactical ending. The object of the verb is in the accusative case in the
Greek. What we have in verse 1 are four relative clauses that are neuter
accusative and therefore cannot refer to a person, so we know they are not
talking about the person of Christ, they are referring to a thing which would
be the message. They are accusative which means that is where the object of the
verb lies. So, “we proclaim to you what was from the beginning.” We have also
seen that there is this difficult phrase at the end, “concerning the word of
life,” which uses the preposition peri,
and peri is associated with a
verb, translated “concerning the message,” but you can’t see, behold and handle
a message. So concerning doesn’t relate to what John just said, it has to
relate to what he is going to say.
By taking a
more strict translation of 1 John 1:1-4 it comes across as a little complex in
the English and its meaning can be missed. So we could retranslate this differently in order for us to catch the
main thrust in English of what John is saying: “We proclaim to you [that is
bringing right up to the front the main clause] concerning the message of
life.” You can proclaim something related to a message, and that is what he is
talking about. He is talking about its content, the doctrine. He is not talking
about the man, he is talking about the message. He is
talking about how crucial the message is to having fellowship. If you don’t
have the content right, if the doctrine isn’t right, there can’t be fellowship.
Remember, that is the purpose clause: “so that you too may have fellowship with
us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus
Christ.” The point is that if you want to have fellowship with God you have to
have right doctrine.
The point of all this is that
John is talking about how we understand the abundant life. That is, the message
of the upper room discourse: abiding in Christ. Abiding is a key word in this
epistle. If John is talking about living the Christian life and the Christian
life is exemplified for us by Jesus Christ’s life during the period of His
incarnation, and he really wasn’t a man but an illusion, then that destroys the
whole witness of His life as an example setting the precedent for the spiritual
life and it is a subtle assault on the unique Christian life for the church
age. That is the underlying issue here, and he is basically saying we can’t
abide in Christ, can’t have fellowship with God, can’t fulfil the highest
commandment which is to love others as Christ loved the church, of we deny the
reality of the humanity of Jesus Christ. So the humanity of Jesus Christ is
foremost in His thinking and he starts off by using these relative clauses
because he is emphasising the empirical knowledge the disciples had of Jesus
Christ and His message.
Translation: “We proclaim to
you concerning the message of life [the doctrine of the spiritual life], what
was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes,
what we have looked at and touched with our hands, and the lift was revealed [phaneroo /fanerow, which means to reveal, to illuminate], and we have seen and give our
testimony and announce to you the eternal life which is with the Father, and
was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you also that
you might have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” That is a re-translation and it gives us in
English a better understanding of what John is emphasising, what he is saying,
in these first three verses.
He is making three points in
this introduction. The first is that the man is the message and the message is
the man, they are intrinsically and inseparably connected. The second is that
the empirical evidence of the apostles’ witness during the life of Christ, and
specifically John’s own personal contact, substantiates the message. Third, it
is the message, content of the gospel, that is the object of belief necessary
for salvation and ongoing fellowship with God, and it is also necessary to have
right doctrine to maintain fellowship with God.
During the incarnation Jesus
Christ faced every category of testing in every area just as we do and yet He
never sinned. How did He do it? It wasn’t just in His deity. He doesn’t rely on
His deity to solve the problems of life. He does it as a man relying upon the
Holy Spirit and on Bible doctrine. That is what sets the precedent for the
church age. During the time of the hypostatic union on the earth Jesus Christ
is doing two things. First, He is fulfilling all of the requirements of the
law. Bu His reliance upon the Holy Spirit He lives a perfect life, thus
fulfilling the law and qualifying Himself to go to the cross. So He fulfils all
of the mandates in the Old Testament. Second, by doing it on the basis of the
Spirit of God plus the Word of God he sets the precedent for how the believer
in the church age is to live the spiritual life. It is on the basis of the
filling of the Holy Spirit plus the Word of God that the believer grows to
spiritual maturity in the church age. So in His life He fulfils the Old
Testament mandates and He sets the pattern and precedent for the church age. If
He is not true humanity, facing those problems just as we do as a genuine human
being, then it is all fraudulent and there is no precedent for the spiritual
life in the church age. The spiritual life of the church age is not based on
the spiritual life of the Old Testament; it is not based on the Mosaic Law.
Christ fulfilled the law and He is the end of the law, Romans says. The church
age spiritual life is based on the precedent of Christ living the spiritual
life during the incarnation on the earth when He faced all the trial, all the
testings in His life under the power of God the Holy Spirit.
John uses phrase like “from
the beginning” and “logos” to
cause our thinking to automatically go to the Gospel of John chapter one: “In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God…” This is because he wants
us to be thinking about the person behind the message, and that you can’t take
the person away without destroying the message. John makes it clear to us that
life is intimately, intrinsically and inseparably connected with the person of
Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,
no man comes to the Father but through me.” He makes three statements; He
identifies Himself with life. This is confirmed by John 1:4, “In Him was life,
and the life was the Light of men.” It is His life that illuminates us; it is
what reveals God to us. John
The phrase “in Him” is a
phrase that is particularly unique to John. It is not to be taken as “in Christ,”
that is a Pauline term. In John’s writings “in Him” is not talking about
positional truth. “In Christ” for Paul is positional truth, our eternal reality
in Christ, but John’s writings “in Him” is used and it is a relational term. “In
Him” is relational; “in Christ” is legal. When John talks
about being “in Him” he is talking about being in fellowship or not in
fellowship. This emphasises for us the whole doctrine of the hypostatic union. The
word “hypostatic” comes from the Greek word hupostasis
[u(postasij] which means essence or substance. So it is talking
about the essence of God, that there is a union of essence, union of being, two
things united together. It describes the union of two natures: undiminished
deity and true humanity in the one person of Jesus Christ. These natures are
inseparably united without loss or mixture of separate identity—when Jesus
became man He didn’t lose any divine attributes; when Jesus was incarnate on
the earth there was not a mixture of human and divine attributes, they do not
bleed into one another; they are distinct natures, they maintain their
distinction, so He is true humanity and undiminished deity—without loss or
transfer of properties or attributes, the union being personal and eternal.
Jesus Christ will always be in hypostatic union with humanity. The second
person of the Trinity is united with true humanity forever and ever and ever,
and thus He can be seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven right
now. We see this exemplified in Hebrews 1:3 NASB “And He is the
radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds
all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He
sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Only true humanity sits
down.
An aside: Because He is
seated at the right hand of God the Father in His humanity—His humanity is what
went to the cross and died for us—He is localised in His humanity on high and
He cannot become localised in an ongoing communion service, therefore there is
no physical presence of Christ in the Lord’s table (or the Mass, which is the
Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation). He cannot be localised in
Heaven and then each time the Mass is celebrated have His body become ubiquitous
on earth.
The doctrine
of the incarnation
Definition: “Incarnate” comes from the Latin carne, meaning flesh, matter, and it means
to be made in flesh, that God became human flesh.
The
incarnation was not some afterthought of God, the incarnation was determined by
God in eternity past at the council of divine decrees. It was first prophesied
in the Bible in Genesis 3:15 NASB “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her
seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” Here
we see that the Messiah would be “her seed,” the seed of the woman, true
humanity. Genesis 12:1-3, we find out that the Messiah would come through the
line of Abraham. Genesis 49:10 NASB “The scepter
[sign of a ruler] shall not depart from Judah, Nor the
ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh [Messiah] comes, And to him
{shall be} the obedience of the peoples.” It is further clarified in 2 Samuel
7:12 in the Davidic covenant NASB “When your days are complete and
you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your
descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his
kingdom.” We get a further indication of the miraculous quality of His birth in
Isaiah 7:14 NASB “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:
Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son [genuine humanity], and she
will call His name Immanuel [God with us].” So here there is a clear indication
in the Old Testament that God would be united with humanity in the person of
the Messiah. Isaiah 9:6 NASB “For a child will be born to us, a son
will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His
name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father [Correctly, Father of eternity, a designation of His eternal
attributes], Prince of Peace.” There are four titles in that verse and they are
only applied to deity in the Old Testament. Further, the
prophesies in the Old Testament define the birthplace of Messiah. Micah
5:2 NASB “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
{Too} little to be among the clans of Judah, From you
One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” The
fulfilment of these prophesies is given in Matthew 1:18 NASB “Now
the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been
betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child
by the Holy Spirit. [19] And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not
wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. [20] But when he
had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,
saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for
the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. [21] She will
bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from
their sins.’ [22] Now all this took place to fulfill
what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: [23] ‘BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR
A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,’
which translated means, ‘GOD WITH US’.” John
The
incarnation had two purposes. The first was salvation. Jesus Christ had to be
true humanity to die as our substitute. But what is more important for this
epistle is that Jesus Christ was true humanity not just to die for our sins but
in order to exemplify for us and set the precedent for the spiritual life of
the church age. If He is not true humanity than He could not
handle the problems, the testings, the temptations, the adversities in life on
the same resources that we do. But Jesus is true humanity in order to
demonstrate for us the power of God the Holy Spirit, so that no matter what we
face in life, no matter what the problem is, Jesus Christ has faced it all, and
on the basis of the filling of the Holy Spirit and the application of doctrine
from the Word of God Jesus Christ was able to face that, yet without sin.