Our One Hope in Christ By Michael Gillespie

There is only one hope; the same hope that unites us all (Eph. 4:4) — just as there is one God, one lord, one faith, and one baptism. We, as followers of Christ, all share the belief and life in each. 

As we read through the Greek Scriptures, the same hope is again and again reiterated to build up the various congregations, to encourage them to continue walking with God. The hope, as we find in study, is the hope of the life of the age to come in the Kingdom, to attain the promised inheritance of the earth with Jesus and the rest of the anointed ones. This is a shared goal, the longawaited expectation of every believer. 

If we take the view that we do not belong to this hope, that we are not “born again” or “anointed of God,” we lose out on the many beautiful promises of Scripture. We distance ourselves from many passages of Scripture; we distance ourselves from others who are “called”; and we deny that we are God’s children, thereby denying that He is truly our Father. By denying these promises, we also deny the spirit, we deny Christ as our mediator, and most integrally, we deny our salvation, God’s grace, His undeserved gift offered to us. 

My proof of this will begin with Romans 8:14-17: “For all who are led by the spirit of God are the children of God.
[In Romans 8:9 we read that we are in harmony, not with the flesh, but with the spirit, if God’s spirit truly dwells in us. But if anyone does not have Christ’s spirit, this person does not belong to him.]
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ — if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” 

1 Peter 5:9-10 speaks of suffering being experienced together with the entire association of brothers in the world: “But after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His everlasting glory [the hope] in Christ, will finish your training [perfect you, establish you, strengthen you].” This beautifully corresponds with the end of Romans 8:17; see also Hebrews 12:6. 

This is one of the most beautiful truths that we personally can put our faith in; we are called to be God’s own sons and daughters. At the beginning of almost every epistle, the Apostles greet their respective sharers of the faith by the loving words such as: “to the holy ones,” “to all those who are God’s beloved ones, called to be holy,” “to you who have been sanctified called to be holy ones.” This is true unity, the shared brotherhood of a single eternal Father. There is no doubt in the Apostles’ minds that those whom the letters are being written to are called by God, God’s chosen, and in union with Christ for the simple fact that they share the unifying bond of common faith. 

When we get to Ephesians, written by Paul, we see this concept laid out coherently and exhaustively. 

Ephesians 1:4-13: “As He [God] chose us to be in union with him [Christ] before the founding of the world, that we should be holy and unblemished before Him in love. For He foreordained (predestined) us to be adopted as His own sons through Jesus Christ, according to His own good pleasure and will, in praise of His glorious undeserved kindness that He kindly bestowed on us by means of His beloved one. By means of Him we have the release by ransom through the blood of that one (the beloved one), yes, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. This grace He caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding by making known to us the sacred secret of His will. It is according to his good pleasure that He himself purposed for an administration at the full limit of appointed times, to gather all things together in the Messiah, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. Yes, in him with whom we are in union and were assigned as heirs, having been foreordained according to the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things as he decides according to his will, so that we who have been first to hope in the Christ should serve for the praise of his glory. But also you hoped in him after you heard the word of truth, the good news about your salvation. After you believed, you were sealed by means of him with the promised holy spirit.” 

We are given this spirit as a token of what is to come (2 Cor. 5:5). What is to come is the promised inheritance of the Kingdom of God, when the powers of the spirit will be made fully manifest, when paradise will be restored on earth, where death will be no more, and when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God. 

All have sinned and deserve to die. But our hope is the gift of a new birth to a hope of life, living in an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance; life forever on earth in the Kingdom. “It is reserved, stored up in the heavens for you,” and it will never be forgotten, stolen, or corrupted, for it is in God’s perfect plan for us who are called (1 Pet. 1:3-4). Even if the world turns against us, and our bodies are slain, we know this hope is kept safe in the heavens with God, and will come to us in the age to come (see John 1:4, 12; 20:31). 

How do we know if we are God’s children? If we believe Jesus is the Christ and in his Gospel of the Kingdom, we have been born from God (1 John 5:1). All who believe that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah are children of God. Everyone. But, of course, we must put away sin (1 John 3:9; Heb. 10:26), continue in learning (John 17:3; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 1:3; Acts 17:11) and disown ourselves and follow Jesus, our King (Mark 10:30; Matt. 10:37; 16:24). 

John in his first epistle speaks of love. If we are indeed God’s children, we then love our brothers and sisters. What could unite us more than the bond of blood? But our blood is not the blood of flesh, but the blood of Christ. It is the bond of spirit, which guarantees us the hope of eternal life together. 

It is this hope, this faith in the promise of God through His Messiah, that signifies our being born from God (1 John 5:4). The promise of God goes back to the time of Abraham, before the Law. Now, because of Christ, we may be justified by our faith in him and the promise of the Kingdom. And then, as we read in Galatians 3:26-29, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” 

The promises were made “to Abraham and his seed” — the promise of Genesis 12:7; 17:7; 22:18; see Romans 4:13. We are his seed, if we belong to Christ and believe his Gospel. 

This promise was an oath by God, made before the Law, and not by a mediator (Gal. 3:19-20). This oath by God was a guarantee, greater than any sworn statement of men, any contract drawn by men. Jesus and his anointed ones, we who believe, will sit with Christ at the banquet table and feast with him and Abraham in the coming Kingdom (Matt. 8:11; Luke 13:28-29). 

Christ, Our Mediator 

“Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:16-20). 

Hebrews 9:11-28 explains how Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, thereby a greater sacrifice than what was needed for the first covenant. Specifically we read in verse 15, “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

 If we are not called to receive the promised eternal inheritance, we are not set free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Christ died for those who believe in him, as it says in verse 28: “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” 

More importantly, “he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (Heb. 9:24). This “us” is those who are called, those who come to God through Jesus. “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:25). 

Our Lord Messiah is now in heaven, and serves in the sanctuary not built by human hands, acting as priest for us as he intercedes for us before God. But if we deny that Jesus is our mediator of this new covenant, we deny the salvation offered to us. “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?” (Heb. 9:14). 

In Hebrews chapter 11 we read of the great heroes of the faith, namely Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and many more. Yet the writer solemnly declares, “they were all commended for their faith, yet not one of them received what had been promised.” This is because “God planned something better for us so that only together with us will they be made perfect”
(11:39-40). 

We share this same hope with these heroes of faith. As Jesus himself says, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God” (Matt. 8:11). And “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out” (Luke 13:28).

He says, “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of God” (Matt. 26:29).

We have this same hope with Abraham, as we are his seed. We are promised the same inheritance of land and eternal life, and to sit down at the feast with Christ and all the heroes of faith, and our brothers who believe in him together as children of the Father. November, 2021 3 

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

The above article was taken from here

Is Jesus God in the Gospel of John? By Kermit Zarley

 

Nearly all Christians have believed Jesus is God. Scholars call them “traditionalists.” And most scholars claim the foremost New Testament (NT) book that identifies Jesus as God is the Gospel of John. It contains the two most formidable NT texts that have been interpreted as declaring that Jesus is God, which are John 1.1 and 20.28. And this is the only gospel that includes two narratives in which Jesus was accused of “making himself equal to God” and “making yourself God” (John 5.18; 10.33). Traditionalists have wrongly accepted that these were correct accusations. On the contrary, both times Jesus refuted their charge (John 5.19-46, esp. v. 44; 10.34-38).

Liberal and historical-critical NT scholars, such as those of the Jesus Seminar, also assert the Gospel of John presents Jesus as God. Since the synoptic gospels do not, most of these scholars deem this gospel a fictional creation of the church and thus historically inaccurate. So, they rightly think Jesus was not God, but they wrongly think the Gospel of John says he is God. For instance, Ernst Kasemann called this gospel “naïve docetism.” He sarcastically wrote, “John changes the Galilean teacher into the God who goes about on the earth.”

Further, Albert Schweitzer acknowledged that the first scholars to allege a disparity between the Synoptic Jesus and the Johannine Jesus were skeptics D. F. Strauss and F. C. Bauer. Later, Rudolf Bultmann followed Wilhelm Bousset in proposing the Gnostic Redeemer myth as the primary basis of Johannine Christology. (The Greek word gnosis means “knowledge.”) It is about a heavenly being sent to earth to become man, redeem humankind by imparting enlightenment, and returning to heaven. But it was later discovered that this myth originated in Persia (Iran) in the 2nd century, thus well after the Fourth Gospel had been written and circulated.

So, the Gospel of John has been very misunderstood. Early in the history of Christian faith, Clement of Alexandria rightly described it as “the spiritual gospel.” It is because the Johannine Jesus uses so much figurative language (e.g., John 10.1-6; 16.25-30). Church fathers and scholars ever since have endorsed this description. Yet they often have ignored it in their interpretations of this gospel. That is, they have treated some of Jesus’ words literally when he meant them only metaphorically.

It is a grievous error to interpret the Gospel of John as saying Jesus is God. This gospel presents Jesus’ humanity and his subordination to the one and only sovereign God more than the synoptics do. And it contains the foremost verse in the Bible which shows that Jesus cannot be God. Jesus prayed to the Father, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17.3). So, Jesus here calls the Father “the only true God,” and Jesus distinguishes himself from this God. Furthermore, the Johannine Jesus earlier had called the Father “the one and only God” (5.44). In both cases, Jesus affirms the Jews’ Shema, that God is numerically “one” (Deuteronomy 6.4).

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Over half of the NT texts that traditionalists cite to support their belief that Jesus is God have grammatical problems. The main one is John 1.1c. It usually is translated, “and the Word was God.” But “God” (theos) is anarthrous (without the article). This somewhat unusual grammatical construction is problematic. That is why Jehovah’s Witnesses wrongly translate it, “the Word was a god,” and some scholars render it “divine.” William Barclay is right: the New English Bible translates it correctly—“what God was, the Word was.” This says the Word was exactly like God, not was God.

Recently, narrative criticism has come into the forefront of biblical studies among scholars. This relatively new discipline takes a wholistic approach to a document. It is the antithesis of common biblical interpretation, which can be far too atomistic. It is very important to recognize this in the Gospel of John, which consists mostly of narratives that preeminently present Jesus as the revealer of God rather than God.

The most important way to see this holistic approach to narratives in the Gospel of John is to recognize that its mini-prologue in v. 1, as well as its larger prologue in vv. 1-18, serve as an outline that links its elements to narratives having key statements or clauses that amplify that outline element. For example, using the NEB rendering of John 1.1c, Jesus being like God links especially to Jesus’ saying in John 14.9: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (cf. 6.46; 12.45). Many people have misunderstood this. They think Jesus says he is the Father and that this means he is God. Trinitarian teachers rightly denounce this. In fact, Jesus next explains what he meant by saying twice, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (vv. 10-11; cf. 10.38; 17.21). Scholars call this truth the Mutual Indwelling.

In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist and Jesus seem to say Jesus preexisted. Many traditionalists have insisted this indicates he is God. But some of these texts merely signify rank (John 1.15, 30; 8.58). And in Jesus’ discourse on his being the bread of life come down from heaven, he means that spiritually, not literally (6.32-58, 63; cf. 8.23). Plus, his later mention of his glory is likely the preexisting Shekinah, not himself (17.5).

Ask biblical traditionalists, “Where in the Bible does Jesus say he is God?” They will likely answer, “In John 10.30 he said, ‘I and the Father are one.’” But its previous context reveals that Jesus meant only that they were unified in purpose and mission. And he later explained “one,” saying, “the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (v. 38; cf. John 14.10-11).

Most scholars claim the foremost biblical text which declares unequivocally that Jesus is God is doubting Thomas’ confession to the risen Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20.28). On the contrary, Thomas meant what Jesus taught him and Philip ten days prior, about seeing the Father in him (John 14.9-11). That is, Thomas then understood the Father indwelled Jesus, which is not the same as calling Jesus “God.”

Also, this author records only a few verses earlier that the risen Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “go to My brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God’” (v. 17). She did and exclaimed to them, “I have seen the Lord” (v. 18). This context suggests the author understood Thomas to mean Jesus is Lord and the Father in him is God. And it is unlikely that the author would have Jesus identifying the Father “My God” and Thomas identifying Jesus “my God.”

Two verses later the author ends his gospel by saying, “Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20.30-31). Saying Jesus is the Son of God is anti-climatic if it had just been said that he is God.

In sum, the Gospel of John is very historically reliable. It has been misinterpreted to say Jesus is God due to failure to recognize it as the spiritual gospel. Instead, it parallels the synoptics by declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, not God.

To see posts on the above mentioned texts, click the following: 

• John 1.1c; 
• John 1.18; 
• John 5.18; 
• John 5.18 and 10.33; 
• John 8.58; 
• John 10.30; 
• John 17.3: 
• John 20.28.

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Taken from here

Slightly edited