God’s will for you is nothing short of perfection. That fact must be completely understood right from the very start. His will for you is perfect and that is exactly what He has given to you as a gift. Perfection. He has given you Himself. He has given you Jesus, and through Jesus, you are made perfectly justified, perfectly righteous, perfectly redeemed, perfectly holy, perfectly whole and perfectly healed. He paid for these things to be yours in Christ, and for all of those that have received Jesus, this is actually your reality today, as amazing as that sounds.
Why is it then that some never see this reality for themselves? Why is it that for some this reality seems to be nothing more than a fleeting wish. Why do some shrug it off as a fantasy. These are questions that many believers struggle with, these questions have even shipwrecked the faith of some people. And so we will be examining these questions today, and see what God’s Word says about them, in the light of the finished work of Jesus Christ, so that these questions will not stumble people any longer.
Let’s begin today by reading John 1:1-5, a very well-known block of scripture:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
What we see here in verse 1 is that Jesus (being the Word) has always existed. This may seem simplistic, but it is at the very heart and foundation of everything we will study, and by extension it is at the heart of everything. Full stop. Jesus did not just pop into existence at His human birth upon the earth. He was always there. He was there at creation; and we see that in verse 3, all things were made by Him. God spoke the world into existence, and Jesus was contained in every word of creation. This is demonstrated quite beautifully in the Hebrew language, for example Genesis 1:1:
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
Seven perfect words showing in the very center Alef (the first Hebrew letter) and Tav (the last Hebrew letter) standing alone. Jesus is the beginning and the end, and this is a beautiful picture of Him even in the words of creation themselves. Furthermore if you take the first word of Genesis 1:1בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית which means roughly “in the beginning” and combine it with the last word from Revelation 22:21 אמן, which is Amen, (which means so be it, truly, yes), we get “In the beginning is the Amen” another picture of Jesus since He is the Amen mentioned in Revelation 3:14; and in Christ Jesus all the promises of God are yes, and amen (double confirmation) as mentioned in 2nd Corinthians 1:20.
If we take the very first letter from בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית, Bet, and the very last letter from אמן, Nun, we get the word בּן, which means “son”, so the Son encompasses the entire Word of God.
The point of all of this, Jesus is absolute fullness, absolute perfection and encompasses everything. Colossians 1:17 says that in Him all things are held together and in Him all things consist. Jesus literally holds everything together, from the universe itself to the individual particles of your body and beyond! You continue to exist because of Him causing you to consist. This is the scope and the vastness of Jesus Christ. Let these facts enlarge your vision of Jesus, chew on these truths for a while, meditate on them; don’t just rush passed them — because the larger your vision of Jesus is, the more you will be glad about the gift God has given to you.
Look at verse 4, in Him was life. In the Hebrew it reads as Life is in Him. And that life is the light of man. Then verse 5, light shines in the darkness. Light illuminates the dark places, makes it possible to see were before was blindness. Light allows you to see what before could not be seen and allows you to understand what before could not be understood. Jesus is the light of the world, and the light of mankind. Then the rest of the verse, the darkness did not comprehend it as the English tends to read, but if you look at the way the Greek word is consistently used throughout the Bible, you see it is repeatedly used as “taking something”. Jesus came into the world, He was the light of the world and the light of men, but they did not “take” the gift that was offered. They did not recognize the value of the gift. They did not esteem the great worth of what was being offered to them.
Drop down to verse 9:
“That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.”
Take this one statement. Jesus was (is) the true Light, and He lights (gives light) to every man that comes into the world. Now in light of this (pun intended!), does God play favorites? Does God choose to light some but not others? Obviously not, He gives light to every man. His gift and His offer is the same for every single person who comes into the world. He does not show favoritism or pick and choose who He loves and cares for and who He doesn’t. His perfect divine will is to give light to every single person. This right here alone, destroys the theology of some people – because they see a God that accepts some and rejects others; and this filters into every aspect of their belief system. This trickles down into even the smallest parts of their perceptions of God and His gifts and blessings in their life. This is reflected in the way they behave, the way they speak and even the way that they think. Perhaps you have heard it said before (or even thought it yourself):
Well I know that God blessed that one person, but that’s them. He would never do that for me!
If you have ever thought that way, don’t be ashamed or embarrassed; many people have – and that particular image of God gets a lot of attention and focus. It is a favorite image for the devil to use, because it portrays a God that cannot be fully relied upon or trusted… after all, you could never be fully sure if you are one of the ones God has personally chosen or not at any given moment!
However the truth from scripture as we read from this verse is that God gives light to every one. He offers His gift to all. 2nd Peter 3:9 says that God wishes that none should perish but that all would come to repentance. That all would come to change their mind, change their thinking, that they would agree with the truth that their own efforts and works cannot save them but that Jesus can.
Now, question: Are all people saved? Have all people come to repentance? Have they all changed their mind and received Jesus Christ?
Clearly not. So even though it is God’s perfect desire for such to happen, it has not happened yet. Has God gotten weaker? Has He lost His power? Has He changed His mind or said “no”?
I want you for a moment to seriously consider these questions. Because the greatest and most important blessing and gift from God to us is Salvation. The salvation which Jesus came to bring. Every other blessing we can receive, such as prosperity, health, healing, wisdom, peace, all stem from the Master Blessing of Salvation. In-fact both the Hebrew and Greek words for salvation, are all-encompassing words which include the other blessings. So you can think of it as one big package, while being perfectly Biblical.
So now, ask yourself those questions regarding God and His salvation… He wants all to be saved, but clearly not all are saved; so did God get weaker? Did He change His mind? Did He refuse some people?
Of course not. But we must ask the questions, because just as with the earlier idea that God accepts some and refuses others, These questions stumble a lot of people when referring to the blessings of God. When it comes to the blessings of God, including salvation and everything that comes with it, such as prosperity, healing, etc. there are vast numbers of people who do indeed believe that God says “no” that He has lost His power or that He changes His mind. And again, such beliefs do not line up with scriptural truth.
Why then, If God is for such blessings, and wants us to receive the fullness of Himself, complete salvation, do some never receive? Look at verses 10-13:
“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came to his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Jesus was in the world, and the world was even made by Him, but the world didn’t know Him.
Jesus came to His own, and His own didn’t receive Him.
They were clueless. They had no idea who Jesus really was or what He was offering them. The light of the world came down to illuminate and eradicate the darkness, the blindness and bring complete salvation. Yet instead of embracing the light, they complained about the brightness and slinked back into the dark corners.
Look though at verses 12 and 13. But as many as received Him… this is your only requirement. This is the only stipulation. Not any works, not any laws, not any rituals or rites. Receiving Jesus today has almost become a mystical, magical thing. Many people use the phrase but have lost its meaning. Receiving Jesus, is like receiving someone into your house. When you receive someone, you take them in, they live with you and you share resources.
Now in the case of Jesus, you take Him in, (remember, the “dark world” didn’t take Him in) you live through Him, and you receive all of His infinite resources. However most people today only accept a small portion of what I just said. They don’t really factor in the living or the resources. Because the living includes health and healing and the resources includes prosperity of every kind. For a scriptural example of this, you can look up 3rd John 1:2.
Notice how complete this blessing is for all who receive Jesus: as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God. And just so that we can be absolutely certain that this wasn’t only for the apostles, the verse concludes, even to them that believe on His name. That would include you and I today.
If you are a believer in Christ Jesus today, your true reality in Christ is that you are a child of God Himself, with all of the rights and privileges included in that. You stand in the righteousness of Christ. You are born, not of blood, nor of fleshly desire, nor of man’s will. And there are many believers who still think of themselves as their old selves still. They still consider themselves to be nothing but “dirty rotten sinners”. They do not actually receive the truth that they are not who they once were – they still haven’t taken the truth for themselves that they are now totally new creations in Christ Jesus, so they never receive.
The truth is that in Christ Jesus today, you are not of this world, but you are of God (1st John 4:4)
This is your reality in Christ. I encourage you today to receive every thing which He has paid for you to have. Don’t live another second below your rightful status in Him. Believe and receive – look and live. This is your Jesus, and as we see in our last verse today, verse 14:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Jesus, was completely full of Grace and Truth. Some people like to separate these two as if they are polar opposites. I’ve heard people say “well grace is good, but we also need truth.” as if one balances out the other. However this is not the real meaning of the words, for they are not opposing forces balancing each-other out… they are in-fact not separate at all when referring to Jesus.
Jesus came to give us His grace, that fact is even made abundantly clear in verse of 16. He wants us to receive grace for grace. Which is a very Hebrew way of saying wave upon abundant wave of Grace. Jesus’ gift of Grace is vital to our receiving because it is the only way for us to be born again. He came to give us grace and the truth is that we all need His grace. That is the grace and truth that Jesus came to give, and none other than that!
That is why Jesus was despised of the Pharisees, that is why Jesus is contrasted not compared with Moses in verse 17… and for the absolute proof of the super-abounding Grace of Christ, consider what the very first words of John are when he spots Jesus coming toward Him in verse 29: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! Which again is a double-confirmation because the moment he said “lamb” his audience would’ve already instinctively thought of sacrifice for sin. The message and truth of the Grace of God is foundational, vital and absolutely key to receiving your reality in Christ and every blessing that comes along with it.
So, with John, I say to you, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away your sins! Give Jesus the praise!