JESUS

Jesus the Word

Jesus is the Word (John 1:1,14, 1 John 1:1) and is the Word of life (1 John 1:1). The words of Jesus are (Holy) Spirit and are (eternal) life (John 6:63,68). Obedience is referred to as the keeping of the words of Jesus (John 14:24 Revelation 3:8) which are the words of the Father, and if you keep them it means you love Jesus (John 14:24, 1 John 5:2,3). The righteous people obey God because the words of Jesus are in them (John 8:37, 15:7). John 8:37 shows that man can have the words of Jesus in him even when he has not heard of Jesus, and has not read the Bible.

Jesus the Light

Jesus is the light (John 1:4-9, 1 John 1:5,7). In John 1:4 light doesn’t differ from life. In John 8:12, Jesus says that he is the light of the world, and in Matthew 5:14-16 he says that the righteous are the light of the world. The same is repeated in Philippians 2:15.

We will not understand what it means light, if we do not understand what the world means in the Bible, and what darkness means. The Orthodox and Catholic church hint it is the worldly life in combination with the abundance of material wealth, that monks are committed to leave behind in the literal sense. Protestantism has perceived the world as the people who don’t believe in Jesus Christ or as the believer’s life before conversion. Satan is called the prince of this world in John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11 and god of this world in 2 Corinthians 4:4. In John 8:23 Jesus indirectly states that the world comes from beneath, while he is from above. In James 4:4 “whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.“ So the world is not a mixture of good and evil, but pure evil. In Galatians 1:4 the world is specified as an evil world, and we have to be delivered from it. Ephesians 6:12 says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

There is no doubt that the world in the Bible is the world of darkness, the world of wickedness and iniquity. It is the kingdom of darkness, the exact opposite of the kingdom of God. Colossians 1:13 says “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son”. In Acts 26:18 darkness is associated with the power of Satan, and light with God. “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God“. In 1 John 5:19 the whole world is in wickedness, “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” In John 3:19,20 it is even more clarified “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”

Ephesians 2:2 says “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience”. The children of disobedience are described further in Ephesians 4:17-19. They are the fools that walk in darkness (Ecclesiastes 2:14). It is a world of the children of the wicked one, the people who offend and do iniquity “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth and will reach its end at the time of judgment” (Matthew 13:37-40).

In John 7:7 Jesus says that the world hates him because the works of the world are evil. Since the world hates Jesus, it also hates his chosen ones (John 15:19, 17:14,16). It is confirmed again that the world is a world of the wicked who love darkness and hate light, hate truth, justice and their neighbor. 1 John 1:6, 2:9,11 tell us about believers in Jesus who walk in darkness and not in the light. In John 8:34-49 it is clarified that believers in God who walk in darkness do not do so out of ignorance, but because they are children of the devil and servants of sin. They are destined for damnation. Those who love God are called children of light (John 12:36, Ephesians 5:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:5). They dwell in the light and walk in the light (1 John 1:7, 2:10).

The Way The Truth and the Light

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

It is implied, the Father is the way, the truth and the life as well. Father and Son are one (John 10:30), and if you know Jesus, you know the Father also (John 8:19, 14:7,9). I add the reply of Jesus to Philip in John 14:9: “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”

Concerning the truth and the life, there is not much explaining to do. What truth is, is understood by everyone. If you love the truth, hate the lie, and walk in the truth, then you love God because He is the truth. If you love the truth you love Jesus even if you have never heard of him. God calls for people to be honest and upright, in other words to keep his commandments. Being a Christian does not necessarily make you that person. The people you meet in the churches are no different than the people you see outside in the society. The congregation is a microcosm of the society.

Christianity is missing the point with their fundamental teaching that if you believe in a God whose name is Jesus Christ you are saved, and if you don’t believe, you are on the way to everlasting punishment. 3 John 1:11 tells us “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.” We see here that being a man of God doesn’t have to do with someone’s identification as Christian.

The second major doctrine in so-called Christianity that is false is that people who don’t believe in Jesus don’t have the Holy Spirit inside them, only the Christians of their denomination do. The Holy Spirit is inside the righteous people that love truth and justice and are merciful to their neighbor. From the moment they have the Holy Spirit inside them, they have eternal life. What is known as human values, are manifestations of the Spirit of God. Jesus said “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46). Moses wrote the truth, without knowing the existence of the person Jesus. Jesus only revealed himself in the New Testament. The same verse reveals to us that the truth is one and the same, also confirmed in Luke 16:29-31.

The righteous man has truth in him (2 Corinthians 11:10), loves the truth (2 Corinthians 13:8, 2 Thessalonians 2:10), walks in the truth (2 John 1:4, 3 John 1:3,4, Psalm 86:11) and does truth (John 3:21). True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. This is how worship is acceptable to God, coming from an honest heart (John 4:23,24).

2 Timothy 3:8 tells us about men of corrupt minds who resisted the truth: “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.”

John 8:41,44 makes another approach on the same subject. Nominal believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had the devil as their father and did the deeds of their father. They were not devil worshipers. They were just bad people. Jesus would have made the same statement to anybody in any country regardless of the dominant religion. It means that anybody that loves truth and justice and loves his neighbor as himself, has God Yahweh as his Father and he has eternal life. The first and great commandment “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” in Matthew 22:37 is better understood if you replace God with everything that God is, the truth, the way, the light, and that kind of love that is expressed as respect and mercy. This is precisely the meaning of the other great commandment “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” You can replace love with mercy and respect. The wicked person is the disrespectful person. It is clear in the etymology of a widely used word describing the wicked people in the Greek New Testament, asevis (disrespectful). “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40).

That brings us to the next subject. What is the way? At first glance it seems that Jesus is referring to the way of salvation, or the way to God the Father, especially if the next statement is taken into account “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The way should be seen in the context of the other two words, the truth and the life. So it means something else. Deuteronomy 5:33 says “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.”

Deuteronomy 8:6 says “Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him”. Psalm 119:1-3 says “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.” Verses 30-37 from the same Psalm are also recommended reading. Verse 30 identifies the way as the way of truth “I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me”. Psalm 86:11 says “Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”

Acts 18:24-26 says “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”

In Proverbs 10:29 the way is described as the way of the Lord “The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.” Psalm 86:10 says “Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”

The way is described as the way of righteousness in several verses:

Matthew 21:32 “For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.”

Proverbs 12:28 “the way of righteousness is life: and in the pathway thereof there is no death.”

In 2 Peter 1 we learn about the “righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”.

In Psalm 85:10,11,13 truth and righteousness are combined beautifully.

“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven…. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.”  I remind again that mercy is the practical expression of love, and love is God (1 John 4:8). I quote 1 John 4:7,8 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” So, returning to Psalm 85:10-13 we see everything that God is, and is expressed inside the righteous people through His Spirit. Jesus is the way of righteousness. He is also life, meaning eternal life. I quote 1 John 5:11,12 “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Jesus told the woman from Samaria “But whosoever drinketh of the (living) water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14). It is no accident that we learn who God is from John. He was Jesus’ favorite disciple. John loved and knew God more than anyone else.

God started revealing himself gradually to the people of Israel from the beginning, from the book of Genesis. Deuteronomy is a great book where we see who God is and what kind of obedience he expects from people. In the book we see the Israelites who came to the knowledge that God saves, protects, provides, heals and delivers judgement. In Deuteronomy it also appears for the first time that God is Father. He is God of truth, he is your life, and his ways are life. Jesus Christ would reaffirm this knowledge later in his ministry and expand on it by saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life“ (John 14:6).

I quote from the book of Deuteronomy: “… is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?” (32:6). "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (32:4). “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess” (5:33). "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (10:12). “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil” (30:15). “That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days …” (30:20).

In the same book, God repeats many times that what he asks of people is simply to walk in his ways, and keep his commandments. A great synopsis of what God wants is Deuteronomy 10:12,13 “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?”

The command above is an eternal principle of God. When man believes in Jesus, he will still have to keep God’s word in the Old Testament. Not coincidentally, after this beautiful presentation of the requirement for salvation in Deuteronomy 10:12,13, an exhortation follows for the people of Israel to circumcise their hearts in Deuteronomy 10:16: "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked". This message was repeated by Jesus to Nicodemus in other words. In John chapter 3 he told him about being born anew with spirit and water. It’s one of the teachings that, according to Jesus, Nicodemus should have known, since he had the old scriptures at his disposal (John 3:10). With the circumcision of the heart performed by God, man spontaneously obeys his commands and his salvation is secured. Man's objective is obedience to God, not a faith in him devoid of meaning. Belief in Jesus is the way for salvation, but is canceled if the believer continues living in disobedience, in transgression of the commandments of the Lord.

In the gospel of John, Jesus is revealed as the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The verse interpreted, also gives the message that whatever Jesus is, the Father is as well. Jesus confirms the message of John 1:1 by saying in the same gospel that he and his father are one (John 10:30). In John 1:14 Jesus is revealed again as the Word. “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”.

In the gospel of John, Jesus reveals himself as "the bread of life" (John 6:35) and the manna, “the living bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:51). He is the light of the world (John 8:12, 9:5, 12:46). In John 1:4, light is equated with life “and the life was the light of men”. In 1 John 1:5, God is light. In John 10:11,14 Jesus says that he is the Good Shepherd and his elect are his sheep. In John 11:25 he says that he is the resurrection and the life. Being the resurrection is the natural outcome of being the life, since death is canceled by life. In John 15:1 he is presented symbolically as the true vine. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman”.

In the first letter of John it is confirmed that God is light (1 John 1:5) and it is revealed to us that God is love (1 John 4:8,16). Up until then, people knew God as an example of true love, a God of love (2 Corinthians 13:11), but he is love. Prophet Isaiah gives four epithets to Jesus in Isaiah 9:6. He is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah in Isaiah 28:29 uses identical language to describe God the Father himself as “wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working”. Similarly in Isaiah 10:21, the prophet uses the same title Mighty God for God the Father. Jesus is described as Everlasting Father. The term father is applied to Jehovah in Isaiah 63:16 and 64:8 “Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting”. “But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand”. The word Lord in Bible King James Version is not right. It is actually Yahweh or Jehovah.

God was not always known as a father since he was gradually revealing himself to people. He didn’t reveal himself to Abraham by his name Yahweh or Jehovah, but as El Shaddai. “And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them” (Exodus 6:3-KJV). At that same moment God revealed his name for the first time, to Moses (Exodus 6:2,3,6,7,8) and told him to tell the Israelites as well that he is Yahweh (Exodus 6:6). The Names of God Bible (NOG) is a better option to read the passage. It presents all the names of God in the Old Testament in their Hebrew form.

We see Moses using the name Father for God in his song in Deuteronomy 32:6 “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?” God calls himself a father for the first time when talking to David about Solomon “He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever”. Prophets Jeremiah (3:19, 31:9), Malachi (1:6, 2:10) and as mentioned earlier Isaiah, use the name father for God. On several other occasions in the Old Testament, including Deuteronomy 14:1, Isaiah 1:2, Hosea 1:10, 11:1 and Exodus 4:22,23, God’s people are presented as his children.

Finally Isaiah presents Jesus as Prince of Peace. The prophet talks more about Jesus in Isaiah 53:5 foreseeing he would give us peace through his death. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” In another prophecy of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, Jesus is described with these words “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79). I also quote Acts 10:36 “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ…” and Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”.

God is mentioned as God or Lord of peace in Romans 15:33, 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:11 and 2 Thessalonians 3:16. Jesus is the king of peace (Hebrews 7:2). Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, is a type of Jesus (Hebrews 7:1-4). 1 Corinthians 14:33 says “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints”. His gospel is a gospel of peace (Romans 10:15, Ephesians 2:17). Jesus is our peace (Ephesians 2:14, John 16:33). The way of the Lord is the way of peace (Luke 1:79, Romans 3:17). The believers are called to let the peace of God rule in their hearts (Colossians 3:15) and in Hebrews 12:14 are instructed to follow peace with all men. In John 14:27, Jesus says “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”.