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By Mike Chaffin
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
When God wants us to remember important messages in the Bible it is usually set in a song, given as a list, or recorded as poetry. These three ways of communicating are Mnemonic devices. They help us recall information readily and retain it easily. John starts his gospel in poetic fashion.
John equates the Word of God to the name of Jesus. Literally John is saying God’s Word, His essence, became flesh in the person and they saw Him, lived with, and learned from Him.
We know from the first 18 verses of John’s gospel that Jesus is God. He came to Earth to live among us so we could trust and believe Him. He portrayed grace and truth.
God has sent many prophets to tell His people the way and the truth. In most cases the people either didn’t listen, or worse, they killed the prophets for telling them they were living in sin and should repent. Since his people weren’t listening, he sent His Son to provide a way of salvation and tell us how to have abundant life.
Jesus told the pharisees a parable about why He came. It is recorded in Matthew 31:33-46 . He told a story about a vineyard the master built. He leased it to people to take care of. When he sent representatives to collect the fruit they were mistreated or killed. He decided to send his son to talk to them. He expected them to respect him. However, they rejected the son and killed him, thinking they could take the vineyard for their own. Jesus goes on to explain the master is God, the representatives were prophets, and He is the Son of God. The pharisees quickly understood Jesus was talking about them as the sinful tenants and wanted to arrest Him. Eventually they did, crucifying Christ. They did it in defiance, but God used it to redeem all mankind.
As Jesus told them in verse 43, God would call all men to him through Jesus and not just those born Jewish. A new people, those who accept Jesus as Savior, would be grafted into the vine. If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you are part of vine.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1-3
* There is a website that conducted a search for Bible verses. They compiled a list of the verses in order of the magnitude of hits they got in their search. Some of these verses probably qualify as ‘people’s favorites’, while others might be on the list because they are some of the most important and most teachable words of God.
