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DECEMBER: The Victory of Faith

December 12

JESUS THE GOD-MAN

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
1 John 5:6-8

John is concerned to establish the reality of the Incarnation, to prove that Jesus Christ is really the Son of God incarnate, in the flesh. I believe that he was anxious to do so in order to correct a heresy that was very prevalent at that time. It taught something like this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man, but when He was baptized by John in the Jordan, the eternal Christ came upon Him and entered into Him, so that from the moment of the baptism the eternal Christ was dwelling in the human Jesus, and He continued to do so until just before the crucifixion took place; then the eternal Christ went back to heaven, and it was only the man Jesus who was crucified.

Now that was a very common heresy in the first centuries, and it is a heresy that has also been prevalent during these past centuries. The whole trouble during the last hundred years or so about the person of Christ has been nothing, in a sense, but a recapitulation of that ancient heresy; it puts a wedge between the man Jesus and the eternal Christ. And here John is concerned to assert the mighty fact that the baby in the manger is the God-Man. “Jesus Christ,” and not Jesus only. The Incarnation is a reality, and the One who died upon the cross was not only the man Jesus—it was the God-Man who died. And I believe that John mentions this testimony and witness of water and the blood in order to establish the unity and the oneness of the person; not two persons, but one person with two natures.

A Thought to Ponder
The baby in the manger is the God-Man.

From Life in God, pp. 74-75.




Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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