This is the fifth and final part from I John 5:13-21, which tells us that there are certain things that the true believer can be sure of because God has said so. This by no means covers all the “certainties” of God, but it does as presented by the Apostle John in this passage of scripture. This presents the certainty that Jesus is God, as seen in I John 5:20.
This is somewhat hard for many people to grasp. Personally, I believe that is because it involves the theological doctrine of the Trinity. We have tried many ways to understand this doctrine, and as far as I can see, we have failed miserably. That doesn't mean that I don't believe it; it simply means that I don't understand it. It does not compute in our human minds. This doctrine says that there is one God who exists in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I would like to explain that to you, but I can't. I've encountered people who tell me they can explain it but when they try to do that, in reality they really can't either. It is a faith issue. I see it presented in scripture, so even though I don’t comprehend it, I believe it by faith. Does it not make sense that humans will not be able to understand many things about God? I bring this up because our certainty say that Jesus is God and that is contained in the doctrine of the Trinity.
I John 5:20 says in the New America Standard Version, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” The word "know" means to see and understand something. "True" is genuine as opposed to what is false. So, we have an understanding of what is genuine and what is false. What is genuine here is that Jesus Christ is the true or genuine God. Jesus Christ is God.
Another place I almost always go to on this topic is John 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." The context tells us who the Word is. There are different references throughout this chapter that seem to, without question, tell us that this is Jesus. Verse 14 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." Who does that sound like? Of course, it sounds like Jesus. Back to verse one, it says that He was in the beginning with God, and He was God. Some try to mistranslate that last phrase by inserting "a" into it, so it would say "was a God." There are several reasons that this is wrong, but how it was initially written in the "koine Greek,” the language the New Testament was written in. It reads in Greek, "God was the Word." Jesus is God. That makes it even more apparent that this is what the scriptures teach about Jesus and who He is. He is not a created being of God, as it literally says in verse 3: "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." Jesus was a part of all creation, so He could not be created. He is the eternal God. "This is the true God."
I will discuss why this is important in a future column, but for now, it suffices to say that this is an extremely important certainty of life for the believer to know. Your salvation is based upon Jesus Christ, the eternal God. He cannot change, tell a lie, or be defeated. He will do for you what He has promised to do because you know that He is the eternal God.
Pastor Lynn Rettig
Musselshell Community Bible Church
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