Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 4 Study # 4
December 11, 2022
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: Jesus Christ came to address the "T"heological distortion that had been initially introduced in the Garden of Eden.
Introduction: In our studies in the Gospel of John, we have seen that Jesus Christ, as the Creator of all things created,
actually came into the world that He had created garbed in the "flesh" of humanity. This is
the declaration of the Christmas season. As Creator, He was, is, and always will be "God";
Infinite Deity.
But, long before His coming, garbed in "flesh", a "problem" had entered His creation that, itself, became a "creator" of sorts: it created a situation in the hearts of men so that their knee-jerk, but powerful, response to Him was "rejection".
However, Author-John had come to know and believe that Jesus Christ had addressed this "problem" by His coming. This morning we are going to look into the second of two "results" of Witness-John's "loud cry" regarding The Word as "Infinite Deity". When men treat the claims of The Word as if they are simply assertions of men for the purpose of creating a new religion on the earth, they prove the "knee-jerk, but powerful" tendency of their hearts to reject their Creator God as if they, and not He, are the final arbiters of "Truth". Men are so arrogant: they propound the existence of "quarks" which they cannot see, nor create, and reject the Infinite Deity Who is required by reason to explain an entire universe of "quarks" made into every visible created thing that they accept and use every moment that they live and breathe. How did we get here in this beyond enormous arrogance of almost total blindness, and what solution is there for us?
- I. Author-John Put Forth Two Declarations That Arise Out Of Witness-John's Statement.
- A. First is the declaration that we considered in our previous study: certain men on this earth "received" of the "fulness" of the Infinite Word in the specific form of experiences that carried them along within the reality of "Grace" followed by "More Grace".
- 1. Men, as blind and useless as they are, will only be changed by "Grace" followed by "More Grace".
- 2. Thus, the pattern of God for all of His rescued ones, whose eyes He has opened and who have become useful to Him, is to respond to Grace given and seek Grace for every circumstance of life.
- B. Second is the declaration under our consideration this morning: Jesus Christ, as The Only Begotten God, has effectively addressed the "rejection problem" by correcting the God-view of men dominated by blind arrogance.
- II. The Issues Involved.
- A. The insertion of The Law through Moses.
- 1. This "insertion" was made in the context of a great bondage in Egypt and awesome judgments by God upon the Egyptians for the wickedness of enslaving God's people.
- 2. But, this "insertion" was also made in the context of a massive slave/hate mentality that was not resolved by the enormous miracles of the Deliverance: the "delivered" were not changed by their experiences throughout the Deliverance.
- 3. And, The Law, which was given by Moses only made matters worse.
- a. The Law, as a spiritual instrument (Romans 7:14), was holy, and just, and good (Romans 7:12).
- b. But, that Law was imposed upon a small segment of an unchanged humanity: the physical offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- c. And, that Law, given to make "Sin" more "apparent" (Romans 7:13), was terribly distorted by men who did not wish to admit the depths of their depravity so that it became, in the hands of deceived men, an instrument of arrogant self-exaltation; a means of claiming to be sufficiently "righteous" as to qualify for participation in God's Kingdom.
- 4. Thus, The Law, given by Moses, with its roots deeply embedded in Justice, had to be, first, genuinely fulfilled by A Man on the behalf of all men, and, then, set aside from the considerations of men in respect to the questions of how men are to experience the "Life of God".
- B. The counter insertion of Grace and Truth through Jesus Christ.
- 1. This "insertion" could only be made after the Law's "truth" was made indisputable.
- a. The Law's "truth" is that man, if not changed in heart, is irreconcilable to God for one reason: man refuses to "hear" that "truth".
- b. It took several centuries of increasing lawlessness in Israel for this "truth" to become indisputable: God did not send His Son until all the "ducks were in a row": Galatians 4:4.
- 1) Once Israel's possession of The Law was shown to be helpless in the face of man's depravity to the degree that the very people who possessed it were the ones who murdered the Son of The God Who is, was, and always will be "Just" and "Holy" and "Good".
- 2) No one can look upon the facts of the lawlessness of Israel and conclude anything other than "there is no Law that can make a dead man live": Galatians 3:21.
- a) Man's problem is that he is dead to God and alive to Sin.
- b) God's solution is to make him alive to God and dead to Sin.
- 2. Thus, "Grace" and "Truth" were "inserted" into the dealings God has with men.
- a. Jesus Christ, by "Life" and by "Death", cleared the decks of God's "ship of life" by throwing all of the clutter of man's sins into the "sea of God's forgetfulness" (Jeremiah 31:34).
- b. This was not done by a "lawless Grace" or a "distorted Truth": it was done by a powerful Grace that provided man with a Redeemer Who, Himself, fulfilled all of the Law down to the very jots and tittles and by a Dominating Truth that made "salvation" an act of God and not man.
- C. The consequent "correcting revelation" of the truth about God's actual character.
- 1. In the beginning of sin upon the earth, God was maligned by the accusation that He was not the "loving and good" God revealed by His actions toward Adam and Eve.
- 2. But when God sent His own Son to the Death Justice demanded of sinners and satisfied the most stringent demands of Holiness, His "goodness and love" can no longer be challenged by any: the facts stand in real time and real history without any real contradiction.
