Our faith hinges on one fact. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16). Jesus, as the Son of God, is divine. As the son of Mary, he also was human.
In this week’s lesson, John teaches if we are truly saved, we must believe Jesus is everything he says he is. We must have no doubt he is both God and man.
Why we need Jesus to be divine and human
According to the Christian faith, our problem is sin. We sinners worship a God so perfect, sin can’t enter his presence.
In other words, we can’t enter his presence.
Sin creates a giant gap between us and our Creator, so we need to be reconciled to God by the removal of our sins. Yet no ordinary man could accomplish this feat. Only a God-man, both divine and human, could span that gap, wash away our sins and reconcile us to God. This God-man must become the sacrifice for our sins and, at the same time, the high priest who offers the sacrifice.
John the Baptist said of Jesus: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The offering must be perfect. It must be a man who has actually overcome sin. As the only man who never sinned, Jesus is the unblemished lamb, the one sacrifice worthy of God.
But having the perfect sacrifice isn’t enough. The offering must be made by someone who is able to enter the presence of God. “… He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of creation” (Hebrews 9:11).
It must be made through the Spirit of God. “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14).
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And it must remove the sins of all mankind for all time. “Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:23-25). Only a priest who lives forever, as Jesus does, can offer the one true sacrifice.
Why the sacrifice was necessary
“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life” (Leviticus 17:11).
Before Jesus’ death on the cross, the blood of animals offered temporary removal of sins. For true cleansing, we needed a God-man, unblemished by sin, to offer himself as a blood sacrifice. Because Jesus’ blood isn’t contaminated by sin, it provides eternal life. His blood offers real atonement and puts us in right relationship with God. But it can only do this if we believe he is who he says he is.
Who do you believe he is?
We live in a world that isn’t comfortable with absolutes. We don’t want to believe a good person may not deserve heaven just because he didn’t believe Jesus was the Son of God. It seems too narrow-minded to say there’s only one way to get to heaven. And it seems gruesome that the one way is through someone’s blood—even the blood of Jesus.
John calls this the spirit of antichrist. Here’s why: Salvation can only be achieved through faith in Jesus. If you don’t understand the truth of who Jesus is, you are anti-Christ. What is the truth? “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
The enemy’s goal is to confuse the issue. If he can cause us to believe there are many paths to God, he can take our focus off Jesus and weaken our faith. So he spreads messages that are anti-Jesus. He makes us think good works will earn us points with God or that anything spiritual is from God.
Nothing could be further from the truth. John tells us not to “believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
All truth comes from God, and it can only be understood through God. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Only those who are pro-Christ will confess that Jesus is from God. Anyone else will reject the truth.
So what do you believe? In order for your faith to be authentic, you must believe Jesus is who he says he is. You must believe he is fully human and fully God.
Food for thought
Throughout the book of John, Jesus uses seven “I Am” statements. How is each one of these statements true? Have you experienced him in one of these ways?
• The Living Bread (John 6:51)
• The Light of the world (John 8:12)
• The Gate (John 10:9)
• The Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
• The Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25)
• The Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
• The True Vine ( John 15:1)
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