”The God Who Becomes a Human Being”

The God Who Is There
Written by D. A. Carson

“The God Who Becomes a Human Being”: Chapter Seven

A God Who Is Coming

• The prophets speak of a time when God would come to his people.
• The mystery is that sometimes this coming of God is also linked with the coming of a man, a Davidic king
• The little child is also the Mighty God, Everlasting Father (Is 9:6).

New Testament

• Matthew and Luke: a child born of a virgin who is the “Son of God” come to “save his people from their sins.”
• Jesus is God’s solution to the sin problem begun in Genesis 3.

John 1:1-18

• John’s gospel does not begin with the story of Jesus’ birth but by thinking about what the coming of Jesus means.
• Jesus is the eternal Word, the eternal God who became human and came to us.

John 1:1

• OT understanding of “Word”
  • God’s self-expression
  • God’s revelation
  • The agent of God in creation
  • The agent of God that comes to save and transform God’s people.
• “was with God” – God’s peer
• “was God” – God himself

The Three-in-One God

• John’s Gospel helps us to understand the complexity of the eternal Triune God.
• Jesus is to be differentiated from God and yet at the same time is God.
• God (Father, Son, and Spirit) sharing eternal love before time.

John 1:2-13

• The Word creates us:
  • The agent of God in creation
• The Word gives us light and life:
  • The same light that brought life to creation brings eternal life to this world of corruption and death.
• The Word confronts and divides.
  • Belief in Jesus by being born of God

John 1:14-18

• The Word became a human being.
• Allusions to Exodus 32-34
  • Tabernacle/Temple
  • Glory
  • Grace & Truth (Love & Faithfulness)
  • Grace & Law
  • Seeing God