The Gospel of John is not the easiest of all the Gospel books to read.  It contains many spiritual truths – sometimes hard sayings – that caused many followers of Jesus to stop following Him.

But if we take the time to read it properly, reflect upon it, study it, pray over it… we will find lots of spiritual gems that tells us about the mystery of our faith.  So let’s see what we can discover this month!

Bible Passage:  John 1

Whew!  In one chapter alone, we learn so many things about Jesus.  Here is my list of what I learn about Jesus today:

• Right there from the very beginning (v2)
• He is God (v1)
• He is the Lord of all creation (v3)
• He gives life (v4)
• He is the Light of men, that shines in the darkness (v4-5)
• He is not just the Light but the TRUE Light (v9)
• He came into this world (v10, 14)
• He enables us to be called children of God
• He is the only son of God (v14, 18, 34)
• He is full of grace and truth (v14, 16, 17)
• He is the Lamb of God (v29) to take away the sins of the world
• He is revealed by John the Baptist as the Christ (v30-31)
• He is anointed by the Holy Spirit (v33)
• He is acknowledged as Rabbi, teacher (v37)
• He is the Christ, the Messiah (v. 41)

Did I miss out anything?  Please tell me.

So which of these things of Jesus impressed you today?

For me, it was an old familiar verse found in verse 14:

And the Word became 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.

~ John 1:14

We are told this many times but somehow, if we do not just stop and try to grasp the enormity of this, we will never quite comprehend how wonderful and awesome this statement is.

Jesus, the Word, 100% God… He has now decided to leave heaven (where we all are trying to go to) and come into this world (where we are all trying to get out of) and take the body of a human being (which we all know is weak and frail).

Jesus took a step out of heaven and stepped into literally ‘hell on earth’.  And in so doing, Jesus willingly put aside His Godly rights.

Paul writes:

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

~ Philippians 2:5-7

It is quite amazing.

Jesus clearly knew who He was and is.  YET He did not hold onto this divine right as the Heavenly Father.  Instead, He emptied Himself and came in the likeness of man.  Not only that… as a man, he was taking the form of a bondservant!

He forsook the glory of heaven.  He made Himself just like us – so that like us, He is limited by time and space.

Now since Jesus is willing to put aside His divine rights to come into this world for us, what should our response as followers be?

We should also put aside our self perceived rights and follow Him.

In the world today, we like to stress on not just human rights but increasingly personal rights.

We like to reserve ours right for our family, our careers, our money etc.  While this may be right 🙂 – sometimes we insists on our own rights above that of God’s.  We want God to listen to us and to work around our schedules and priorities.

But Jesus was very clear.  If we choose to follow Jesus, it would cost us everything, including our rights.

Over the last few days of Spiritual Meeting, we have learned that we must be serious about the truth and to be able to contest earnestly for it.  But it comes with a price.

Jesus willingly paid it.  Are we today?

 

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