Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 6 Study # 2
March 19, 2023
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: The Son of God, being the Lamb of God, is "all about" the impact of The Spirit of God upon men.
Introduction: In our study last week, we jumped to the declaration of Witness-John that Jesus Christ is The Son of God. We saw Author-John persuading his readers that this identity is his "thesis" for his writing of this Gospel ("...that you might believe that Jesus [of Nazareth] is the Christ, the Son of The God"). So far in all of our studies in this first chapter of John we have seen The Son of God identified as: The Word of God; God Himself; The Creator of all things created; The Light of Men; The Only Begotten Son of The Father with grace and truth as His "fulness"; The God of infinite existence; Jesus Christ; The Lord; and The Lamb of God. For our consideration this morning we are going to focus upon "The Lamb of God as The Son of God" with a particular focus upon the "identifying characteristic" as both recipient and dispenser of The Spirit of God as characterized by the image of a "dove".
- I. The Lamb As The Son.
- A. Both before and after being declared "The Son of The God", Jesus was called "The Lamb of The God" (1:29; "the Lamb of God": 1:34; "The Son of The God": 1:36; "the Lamb of God"; and 1:49; "The Son of The God").
- B. And after both instances of being declared "The Lamb of The God", He was called "The Son of The God" (1:34 and 1:49). This is reinforced by 1:14, where He is called "the only begotten from the Father, and 1:18 where He is called "the only begotten God".
- C. Author-John's "point" is pretty obvious: The Jesus of Nazareth (1:45) is "The Son of The God" as the sacrificial lamb which lifts the burden of man's sin off of his back.
- II. The Lamb As The Son Whose "Function" Was To Receive, Live By, And Dispense The Spirit Of God In Terms Of The Dove Out Of Heaven.
- A. It was the identity of Jesus as "The Lamb Of The God" that was the stumbling block to Israel.
- 1. How could a man be The Son Of The God (Who is The Executor Of Power) if He could be nailed to a cross by created, and significantly weak, men?
- 2. But the real question should have been, "How could Jesus be 'The Son Of The God' if He did not give Himself over to weak and sin-ladened men to be put to death?"
- B. The reality is this: The Spirit Out Of Heaven was a manifestation of The God of Heaven.
- 1. At the heart of this issue is the character of God, Who is a spirit.
- 2. The issue of "spirit" has, to this point, not been mentioned by Author-John.
- 3. Thus, when He is introduced by Author-John's use of Witness-John's testimony, His essential characteristic as "like a dove" is emphasized by Witness-John's repetition.
- a. This "like a dove" characterization is the descriptive characteristic of the Spirit From Heaven, not the Spirit of the Executor of Power.
- b. The importance of this is that "doves" were noted by the Levitical sacrificial system as the sin-offerings of those too materially impoverished to be able to offer anything "costly" (Leviticus 5:7, et. al.).
- c. This means that The Spirit From Heaven was to be understood as "dove-like" in that He would reproduce Himself in those upon whom He descended in respect to His self-sacrificing, essential, nature.
- d. This means that Jesus, The Son Of The God, could not represent the God of the Heaven, from whence was the Spirit from Heaven, if He did not display that self-sacrificing, essential, nature of God.
- 1) This was the essence of Witness-John's "The Lamb of The God" thesis: the Son of The God had to be The Sacrificial Lamb of The God of Whom He was "Son".
- 2) It was automatic to Witness-John's "witness" that if sinners had to offer sin-offerings unto forgiveness (from the least -- who offered "doves" -- to the greatest -- who offered bulls and goats), "forgiveness required a sufficient sacrifice to lift the sin of the world off of the backs of the people of that world.
- 3) Thus, the Spirit of Heaven descended upon The Son of The God and took up residence there so that the behavior of that "Son" would be fundamentally "sacrificial".
- C. Jesus' "baptism with the Spirit", then, took on this "flavor": all who were so baptized by Him would be being identified as those who were to live "sacrificially".
- 1. The Spirit of God has been given to every believer with the objective of producing a "sacrificial character" in them.
- 2. This intention is very often powerfully resisted by those in whom The Dove Of Heaven dwells, but His objective remains immutable and He addresses "believers" in the terms of "sacrifice".
