Tuesday, November 9, 2010

John 4-5--I am who I AM

In these two chapters, we recieve quite possibly Jesus' most complete self-explanation and revelation. It was only on a few occassions when Jesus did not want his identity revealed; John's purpose in writing is to fully identify Jesus. As such, it is in John that we read stories such as Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman. Throughout the course of this interaction, Jesus makes no attempt to hide who he is. He freely declares that he is the Messiah who will proclaim the truth of God. Because of his admission of this to the Samaritans, Jesus identifies himself as not just the Savior of the Jews, but of all people (the Jews and Samaritans hated one another--the Jews felt the Samaritans had not, in the distant past, complied with all God's commands and were therefore excluded from the Covenant and the Samaritans felt the Jews were stuck-up snobs).
Moving into chapter 5, Jesus makes no attempt to hide the fact that he is the Son of God and, as the Son, Jesus does only what God does--as God gives life, so does the son. As the Son, Jesus is also the judge of all people. As the judge, Jesus declares that all who hear and believe his words will inherit eternal life.
So often, humans tend to fall into debate about who Jesus is. Jesus provides the answers for us, though. He is the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and the Son of God. He is the perfect revelation of God for all the world.

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