THE SON OF GOD: IDENTITY

Sermon Notes, May 29, 2016

Rev. Garry McGlinchy

Pastor Garry continued his series on the Trinity with a message titled “The Son of God: Identity,” based on John 1:1-14.  People are concerned with their identity.  Some spend years trying to find theirs, in relationships, music, fashion, personal interest, careers, etc. And if we aren’t trying to find ourselves, we’re trying to protect our identity, with security codes or passwords or maintaining our reputation, etc.  Jesus knows about identity: he has been misidentified.  Some say he’s just a good teacher, or a magic healer, or that he’s fully human be they deny his divinity; others that he’s divine but deny he was also human.  And some say Jesus Christ never existed in the first place.  But John, the apostle who spent three years of his life with Jesus, begins his Gospel tackling the question of Jesus’ identity.

The Son of God is Divine.  John 1:1-2 says that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  The Son of God is Pre-Existent—He always was with God the Father.  John uses the same phrase that is used to begin the book of Genesis, “In the beginning.”  By doing this he identifies that before the world began, the Son of God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ existed.  John takes us all the way back to the beginning to show that Jesus is not only the Son of God, but that He is part of the Triune Godhead.

The Son of God is God.  Not only was the Son of God with God in the beginning, but He was God.  Jesus is not just a prophet, or teacher or good guy.  He is the divine Son of God in the flesh.  This means He has the nature of God.  He is truly and fully God.  Proclaiming that Jesus Christ is anything less than divine is missing the mark on who He is, and insulting Him.

The Son of God is Co-Creator.  Not only is Jesus divine and is in fact God himself, He is also Co-Creator of everything!  We often think of God the Father as the sole creator of the universe.  However, in verse 3 John notes that “through him all things were made.  The Son, and even the Spirit (see Genesis 1:2), had a vital role with the Father in the creation of the cosmos.

Usually when we tell a story or joke, we save the punch-line for last, but John begins his Gospel with the punch line: Jesus is the Son of God who is God.  Then in the rest of the Gospel, John sets out to support his claim theologically and historically.  Claiming that Jesus Christ is anything less than God diminishes His deity.

The Son of God became Human.  Verse 14 says that the Son of God “became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  Christ left Heaven and came down to dwell amongst us in the flesh. (“God in a Bod” the youth pastor might say.)  Imagine leaving behind your divine privileges and powers in order to become one with your human creation.  Imagine demoting yourself to a low-level job in order to give higher status to those at that level.  That’s what Jesus did for us.  Athanasius, the early church theologian, put it this way, “Jesus became what we are to make us what He is.”   That’s not to say Jesus became human to make us divine.  No, He became one of us and one with us to make us sons and daughters of the Father.  The divine Son of God took upon Himself all the pain, heartache, angst and struggle of humanity in order to redeem and restore humanity to its divinely designed status as sons and daughters of God.

 Remember that we are all created in His image.  It is in this very image that we find our identity as Christ followers.  Unfortunately, many of us have become victims of mistaken identity simply because we have failed to allow our true identity to be revealed.  We do this by the way we treat one another, or what we say about one another, or turning our backs on people who so desperately need to see the face of Jesus in us.

There are only two possible responses to the Divine-Human Son of God: Rejection, or Reception.  Identity is a huge concern in our society today.  That’s why it is so important that we have a clear understanding of Christ’s identity.  If we have a hard time understanding that the Son of God is Divine, God, Co-Creator, and fully human, then we will have a hard time reaching our neighbors that so desperately need to see Jesus in us.  Are we going to continue to hide our true identities by turning our backs on this lost and broken society?  Or are we going to embrace them with the same love that was offered to us through the Son of God, Jesus Christ?