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Gospel of John Bible Study: John 1

by Wayne Davies
4/27/2014 / Bible Studies

John wrote this book so that you would know and believe who Jesus is (John 20:31). So it should come as no surprise that this first chapter of John is all about the Person of Jesus.

First, take a few minutes and read John 1, the entire chapter, in one sitting.

Now let's take a tour through John 1 and make a list of all the names, titles and phrases used to describe Jesus:

The Word (verse 1, 2, 14)
God (1)
The creator (3, 10)
The life (4)
The light (4, 6, 8, 9)
The only Son (14)
The only God (18)
The Lamb of God (29, 36)
The Son of God (34, 49)
The Christ/Messiah (41)
The King of Israel (49)
The Son of Man (51)

Truly this is an incredible list! We could do an extensive study of each of these titles and spend much worthwhile time on every one, as Scripture has much to say about the Person of Jesus.

For this lesson, I want to focus on 3 of the names listed above:
1. Jesus is God
2. Jesus is the Word
3. Jesus is the Lamb of God

Jesus is God
Note John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Now jump down to verse 14 and read "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us".

So we know from verse 1 that the Word is God. And who is the Word? According to verse 14, the Word is also a human being, because "the Word became flesh".

John is talking about Jesus in this entire passage. And this Jesus, who became a man, is also God.

This is one of the most critical teachings of Scripture and the belief of orthodox Christians for centuries: the man Jesus is also God. He is the one and only God-Man.

The deity of Jesus Christ is what separates Biblical Christianity from every other religion in the world. Please do not be mislead or deceived by the false teachings of many who claim to know the truth. If a person or group claims to have spiritual truth, but deny this doctrine, they are not to be believed.

John 1:1 can be translated "the Word was fully God." This is taught elsewhere in the New Testament in passages like Colossians 1:15-19, where Paul says "He is the image of the invisible GodFor in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell"; and Hebrews 1:3, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature."

John 1:18 refers to Jesus as "the only God" or "the only One, who is God." John used the simplest language possible to express the most profound truth possible: God became a Man, and His name is Jesus. This God-Man is the Creator of the universe (v.3), the source of life (v.4), and the light of mankind (v.4).

Please stop now and ask yourself this simple yet all-important question: "Do I believe that Jesus is God?" Perhaps you have known and believed that for many years. Maybe you were taught that as a child in Sunday School, or by your parents, and you have never questioned it.

But it is also possible that you haven't yet accepted this teaching. Perhaps you are new to Christianity or have only heard "bits and pieces" of Christian doctrine during your lifetime.

If you were to go to the mall today and take a survey of 100 people, asking the question, "Who is Jesus?", what kind of answers do you think you would get? How many people would answer like this: "He is the one and only God-Man."

C.S. Lewis said it like this in his book Mere Christianity:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Christ: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool; you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

Jesus is the Word
We started this study by declaring that the Bible is the Word of God. Now we are hearing John say that Jesus is the Word of God. Note John 1:1 and John 1:14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was Godand the Word became flesh."

How can that be?

Let's clarify what appears to be a contradiction by saying this: the Bible is the written Word of God; Jesus is the living Word of God.

"The Word of God" simply means God's authoritative and unique message to mankind. And God has graciously communicated His truth to us both in a Book and in a Person.

During his prayer in John 17, Jesus told the Father "Your Word is truth" (John 17:17). But Jesus also said, "I am the truth" (John 14:6).

Both the written Word and the living Word reveal God to us.

Do you want to know God? Then read, study and meditate on His written Word, the Bible. If you do, you will get to know God, for the Bible reveals the character of God (who He is and what He is like), the work of God (how He has provided salvation) and the will of God (what He requires of you to receive salvation).

Do you want to know God? Then read, study and meditate on His living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do, you will get to know God, for Jesus reveals the character of God (who He is and what He is like), the work of God (how He has provided salvation) and the will of God (what He requires of you to receive salvation).

Note John 1:18 "No one has ever seen God; the only God (Jesus), who is at the Father's side, he has made him known." Note also John 14:9 "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

Jesus is the Lamb of God
Obviously, the main character of the book of John is Jesus. But we also meet other people who are part of the story of Jesus' three-year ministry. We will meet Mary, the mother of Jesus, in chapter 2. We will meet the 12 apostles throughout the book. But the first supporting character we meet is John the Baptist, who John the Apostle introduces immediately in chapter 1 as one who is "not the light," but one who "came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe" (1:7-8).

John the Baptist makes it clear to one and all that he is not the Christ (1:20). He also makes it clear that Jesus is the One who deserves all the attention because this human is divine: "for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel" (1:31). "And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God" (1:34).

John the Baptist uses a unique way to identify Jesus as The Main Attraction. Two times in this chapter (v.29 and v.36), John calls Jesus "the lamb of God". Note verse 29: "Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

Remember that John wants not only to tell us who Jesus is (the Person of Christ) but also what Jesus did (the work of Christ). By telling us that John the Baptist called Jesus "the lamb of God", John is now drawing our attention to what Jesus came to do -- His work.

Why did John the Baptist call Jesus "the Lamb of God"? And why does he describe this Lamb as someone who removes the sin of the world?

The answer to those questions is found in the Old Testament. Remember that John the Baptist and Jesus the God-Man are 1st century Jews living in Israel. The Jews were descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the people whom God promised would inherit the land of Canaan (later called Palestine) and be a blessing to all peoples on earth.

God told Abraham: "And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:2-3). Also note Genesis 15:18 -- "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates."

But 500 years later, the Jews find themselves living as slaves in the land of Egypt! God is a faithful God, and He must keep His promise to give the Promised Land to the Jews, so He raises up Moses to lead the Jews out of Egypt and take them back to Canaan. This miraculous event is known as the Exodus, and you can read about it in the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible.

On the way to Canaan, the Jews stop at Mount Sinai and God gives His people the Law that He expects them to obey, starting with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).

Have you ever given thought to the simple fact that it is humanly impossible to perfectly obey the Ten Commandments? Have you ever wondered why God gave the Jews (and us) these rules to live by?

Think about it: Have you ever lied? (Commandment #9). Be honest! How many lies have you told in your life? Dozens? Hundreds?

What is a lie? We like to call it a "white lie" or a "fib" or an exaggeration. The Bible calls it the breaking of God's law, and "sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4).

Have you ever stolen something? (Commandment #8). Maybe you've never robbed a bank, but perhaps you stole something from a store. We call it "shoplifting"; the Bible calls it "stealing".

Have you ever taken God's name in vain? (Commandment #3). You are taking the name of the God who gave you life and using it as a cussword. We call it "slang"; the Bible calls it "blasphemy".

If you've examined yourself honestly, you must now look at yourself as a lying, thieving, blasphemer, and we've only looked at 3 of the 10 commandments. There's 7 more to go!

Ever committed adultery? (Commandment #7). Perhaps not in the physical sense. But remember that Jesus said "anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). So lust is "mental adultery". Ever done that?

How about murder? (Commandment #6). You may not have committed physical murder, but John the Apostle wrote "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). Have you ever hated someone? Then you are guilty of "heart murder".

So again I ask you, why did God give us such difficult rules to follow? No one can obey the Ten Commandments. You've broken them. I've broken them. We have all broken them countless times.

And so Israel, like us, was guilty of breaking God's Law and found itself faced with the terrifying prospect of being punished by God for their disobedience. If Israel could obey God, He promised blessing (Deuteronomy 28:1-6). But if they disobeyed, He promised a curse: "if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you" (Deuteronomy 28:15).

And so we, like Israel, are faced with the fact that we've broken God's Law and we, too, deserve to be punished for our sin. Because God is holy, righteous and just (Psalm 5:4-6, Psalm 7:17, Psalm 11:7), He must punish sin. This is the clear teaching of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Note Ezekiel 18:4 "Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die." Note also Romans 6:23 "the wages of sin is death."

But God is also gracious and merciful, and He provided a way for the law-breaking Jews to receive forgiveness of sins. The repentant Jew could be forgiven by offering an animal sacrifice. He could bring a lamb to the altar and place his hand on the head of the animal, signifying his identification with the lamb and the transferring of his sin and guilt onto the innocent lamb, who was to be without blemish or defect.

The Jew would then kill the lamb and the shedding of innocent blood was deemed by God to be a sufficient sacrifice to cover, or atone for, the sin of the person offering the sacrifice.

The book of Leviticus contains detailed instructions regarding these animal sacrifices, and repeatedly God told Israel that the sacrificial animal "shall be accepted for him to make atonement (covering of sin) for him" (Leviticus 1:4).

1400 years later, John the Baptist saw Jesus and declared "Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (1:29).

Do you see the significance of this statement? At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, God revealed to John the Baptist that this Jesus was not only the Son of God, God in a human body, but He was also the One who would die as a sacrificial lamb to provide the atonement, or covering, of our sins so that God could offer forgiveness to guilty sinners like you and me.

That's why the gospel is Good News!

Questions to Ponder
1. Before you read this lesson, how would you have answered the question, "Who is Jesus?"

2. Having read this lesson, how do you answer the question now, "Who is Jesus?"

3. Do you understand the meaning and significance of each of these statements?
-- Jesus is God
-- Jesus is the Word
-- Jesus is the Lamb of God

In your own words, write down the meaning of each of those 3 statements.

4. Is there anything in particular that you don't understand about these 3 statements? Write down what you don't understand or any questions you have.

5. Right now, examine your heart by answering these questions:
-- Do you believe that Jesus is God? Why or why not?
-- Do you believe that Jesus is the living Word of God? Why or why not?
-- Do you believe that the Bible is the written Word of God? Why or why not?

6. When you read the Ten Commandments, how did you respond to these questions:
-- "Have you ever told a lie?" (even white lies, fibs or half-truths)
-- "Have you ever stolen anything?" (regardless of its value)
-- "Have you ever taken God's name in vain?"
-- "Have you ever committed adultery, either physical adultery or mental adultery?"
-- "Have you ever committed murder, either physical murder or heart murder?"

7. In the light of God's Law, the Ten Commandments, how do you see yourself:
"I see myself as a guilty sinner who has broken God's Law and therefore I am deserving of God's eternal punishment for my sin in hell"
"I see myself as a person who is just as good as anyone else, and therefore I'm not deserving of God's punishment because what the Bible calls 'sin' is not really deserving of eternal punishment in hell"

8. Do you believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the one and only perfect sacrifice that was offered on your behalf to cover (atone for) your sins? Do you believe that only the blood of Jesus is able to adequately cover your sins, thereby satisfying God's wrath against your sin and the only way you can be forgiven of your sins?

9. In order to receive forgiveness of sins through the death of Jesus the Lamb, the Bible says you must do two things, "Repent and believe" (Mark 1:15).

Specifically you must:
-- Repent of your sins, which means to change your attitude and your entire orientation toward sin, no longer being apathetic about it, but confessing it, mourning over it, renouncing it, and hating it. Repentance is an intense desire to turn away from your sinful behavior as you hunger and thirst for God's righteousness. To repent means to experience a radical change of heart, mind and behavior with regard to sin and righteousness. (See Luke 13:3)

-- Believe (put your faith and trust) in Jesus as the only God-Man, as the all-sufficient sacrificial Lamb of God, as the only One who can save me from the penalty of sin, which is the wrath of God and eternal punishment in hell.

Have you experienced repentance and belief as described above? If not, would you like to do so?

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I'd be glad to have a dialogue with you about your answers to any of the questions above. You are welcome to send me an email at GodWroteTheBook @ gmail.com with your answers to the questions above; I'll review them and respond with feedback.

For more Bible reading tips, visit http://www.GodWroteTheBook.com for 2 free gifts: the Resource Guide "Top 5 Free Online Bible Study Tools" and my book "Sweeter Than Honey, More Precious Than Gold: Meditations on Psalm 119," by Wayne Davies, dedicated to helping you read and understand the Bible.

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