Focal Passages: Matthew 4:17-24; John 1:1-2, 11-14, 18, 29
Heresies both ancient and modern have arisen over the rejection of the biblical teaching of the person and work of Jesus Christ. John clearly declared His deity as God the Son. Jesus is not one of three gods (Mormonism), a unique created being (Jehovah’s Witnesses), or one of god’s relational modes (Oneness Pentecostalism). Jesus is the unique Second Person of the triune God, coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He has existed from the beginning in His deity so that He did not begin to exist in a stable Bethlehem.
Rather, God began there to display the Son’s incarnation. As a result of divine conception by the Holy Spirit, Jesus took on human flesh in order to tabernacle among us and to display His glory.
Although many people believe that all people are children of God, John 1:12-13 tells us that we as sinful human beings are children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) who may join God’s family only through faith in His Son.
This faith comes from God and allows us to affirm the person and work of Jesus. As people who were not eyewitnesses of Jesus, we are placing our faith in the Bible, the only authoritative and inerrant source on the nature of Jesus. The Bible teaches us that Christ’s atoning death served, as Chris Rice sang, to “rob our sin and make us holy.”
Joining God’s family isn’t about being the long lost cousin or strange uncle that the rest of the family knows but never sees. We must actively meet with the family of God in worship and fellowship, and regularly walk alongside those family members to do the work of evangelism, discipleship and ministry.
We must be walking billboards carrying the eternal message of Jesus Christ as King of kings, and Lord of lords. May God give us the boldness not to cave in to the rising tide of political correctness, but to consistently proclaim the gospel of repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ.