The Logos
Back to your program treasures. And we will continue commenting on the gospel of St. John, the first chapter, and the first part of the first chapters, St. John focused on the logos. Logos is Christ logos is the light of God. And without the logos, there was nothing and with the logos, everything was created. He was always there in the world, but people couldn’t know him because he was unseen and people lived as children of man, but God wants them to be children of God. When they believe in Christ, the God that incarnates, they will become children of God.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth .”, So after speaking about the nature of the lord, the nature of Christ himself, he is the light of God, the true light. He is the source of life, he is God of God, Now he’s speaking about the incarnation.
God became man, the Lord himself, and the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us. By the way, when we say that the Lord became flesh, which does not mean that he took just the picture of a man, the frame of a man, the body of a man, but he became a real man, he had both the flesh and the soul of a man. Christ was a real man because he was a real God and became a real man, one person, but of two natures, nature of man, nature of God, fully God, and fully man in one person.
“The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. We could see him now.”, We could see God, but we could never see him without the incarnation. We could imagine him, even though we cannot imagine him easily, but now we could see him. We can touch him. We can speak to him. We can walk with him because he is now among us.
“The glory as of the only begotten of the father” his glory is different from the glory of any kind of man because he had the glory of God himself because he is the real God. “Glory as of the only begotten of the father, the only son of his father, full of grace and truth.”, Christ is the truth. Now we can know God through Christ.
The king of us is Christ
We can understand the nature of God by seeing Christ himself, because he is God seen. We can see God in Christ. We can know God in Christ. We can touch God in Christ because he is the truth. And he is also the full of grace. All grace of God will be given through Christ. He is the source of grace . The one who created us is Christ.
The one who is saving us is Christ. The king of us is Christ. The source of all gifts is the Lord Christ. John bore, witness of him and cried out saying “ This was He of whom. I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me.” So John, the Baptist spoke about Christ even before, you know, seeing his face and the message given by John, the Baptist that the coming Messiah, the coming Lord, he is the real God the true light he is coming soon.
And John, the Baptist is coming to witness to him .” This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me.”, He’s coming after John the Baptist, you know, with like six months. But with his divine nature, the Lord Christ is like much more behind before John the Baptist. So when he speaks about his human nature, he is coming after John the Baptist.
But when he speaks about his divine nature, he is far behind him in age. So he said “ He who comes after me is preferred before me for, he was before. Before him, because Christ is the creator and John, the great John still he was created by the creator.
“ And of his fullness. We have all received and grace for grace.” So Christ is not, a usual man because he had the full grace of God, because he is real God. True God of true God. So even if we will take the grace of God, but we can never say that any other man had the fullness of God. The only one who have this fullness of God is the Lord Jesus Christ.
“ of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace.” So God gave his grace to his spirit. He gave them many gifts. He was compassionate to his people. God created men in his image. God, you know was there to help his people. God was all with the Pantocrator, the almighty God helping everyone. But you know, the full of grace is only in Christ.
Gifts of the New Testament
And now with his coming in our land, we will have more and more grace. We will be gifted with the gifts of the new Testament. That’s why he’s saying.” And grace for grace for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”, So St. John inspired by the holy spirit is telling us that the law of Moses was a gift to men, because God declared his will through the law given to Moses and his people.
That’s a real Great gift of God. But again, that’s the gift of the old Testament, but through Jesus Christ, there was no, just like a written law, another law, but we will have the grace of God. We will have the salvation of God. We will have the gate to heaven through Christ so this is the gift of the new Testament.
“ No one has seen God at any time. “ yes ,God could never be seen. And even in the old Testament, those who could see the picture of God, he was the appearance of Christ himself. So you can never see God, but in Christ, even Abraham, Isaac, Jacob Solomon. All these names of the old Testament, they could see God in Christ. So Christ appeared in the same picture. He was about to come in the flesh in the New Testament.
“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the father. He has declared Him “ , Christ, the son of God, in the bosom of the father, one divine nature with the father, the same divinity of the father.
Why did God come to the man on earth ?!!
He declared the truth. He could reveal the secret of God because people can see now God through Christ himself again,” Grace and truth can come through Jesus Christ. “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him.”
This is like an answer to a big question, why God came to man on earth and how God came to us simply God should come because we couldn’t understand him. We could not know him because he was always unseen.
Our minds cannot identify or recognize God without seeing Him, without touching Him, So God came in the flesh in order for everyone to see him and know him. And also he came for a mission, a great mission of salvation. He came to redeem us. He came to save us. He came to die for everyone.
It was needed that with the incarnation, having the flesh of man, he can, you know, give his human nature as the sacrifice for every.
“ The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him. “, So in the New Testament, we believe in Christ as the son of God. And we know God only through Christ.
Now we speak to God, the father through the son with the name of his only begotten son.
The Levites and the priests are asking John, the Baptist, who are you ??
“Now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you ? “ simply because John, the Baptist was a great man. Everyone loved him. Many thousands of people followed him, followed his sermons.
He was preaching with the name of God, asking everyone to repent, to believe in God, to wait for the Messiah coming soon. So the heads of the people, the Levites and the priests went to John, the Baptist asking him, who are you, why everyone is following you, are you the Messiah ?, So they said : “ He confessed and did not deny.
But confessed. I’m not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? are you Elijah?” Because many of the Jewish people expected that Elijah will come again because in the old Testament, all Jew people understood that Elijah is the only man who did not die. So in their tradition, they expected that this man should come again to live like others and to die like others.
They said are you Elijah ?, because in the book of Malachi, the last book written by the last prophet, like 350 years before John the Baptist, he mentioned that Elijah is coming before the day of the Lord. So they expected Elijah to come. So they asked John the Baptist, “ Are you, Elijah? He said, I’m not, are you the prophet? “
And when they say the profit, it drew people to differentiate between any profit and that profit, because he had many, many profits. They believe David was a prophet. You know, Solomon was a prophet, Isaiah, Jeremiah, so may they had many profits, but when they speak about that profit, they mean just one man, the Messiah, because Moses said that there should come one profit, this profit, the profit.
Everyone should follow him. And for anyone who will reject his teaching, he will go into condemnation. So they knew that the Messiah, one of his names is the prophet for that they asked, John, the Baptist. Are you the Christ? No. Are you Elijah? No. Are you the prophet? No. So who are you: “ Then they said to him, who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us ? What do you say about yourself? “ ,
Because everyone loved John, the Baptist, he was such a strong man teaching everyone to believe in God and to wait for the Lord. “ He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. “ You know, these Jewish people were studying all with the book of Isaiah because the book of Isaiah was full of prophecies related to the new Testament related to the coming of the Lord. So all rabbis, the heads of the people of Jerusalem were interested in the book of Isaiah, and in chapter 40 of the book of Isaiah, there was this clear prophecy that before the coming of the Lord,” There will come a man, he will be the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord.”
The mission of John the Baptist
John, the Baptist knew his mission. He said I’m just the voice crying out everywhere. come, repent, and be ready. God is coming. He said the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight of the way. The prophet Isaiah said, “ Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees, and they asked him saying, Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet ? “, because you know, the Pharisee people and the priests of the Jewish people were not happy with the teaching of John the Baptist, because he pointed at their mistakes at their, you know, they were breaking many commandments given in the law of Moses and they were not a good model for the people.
They did not love John the Baptist, but the majority of people, they felt the purity of this man, they felt the spirituality of this man, and they followed him believing that’s the man of God. They said, if you are not the prophet, Elijah or the Christ, who are you, why you are baptizing people? , this means that the one who is baptizing people, he is like a man of God, guiding people to live a purified life and new life. So as if baptism or the sign expected to be the sign of the Messiah and that’s the truth, but the baptism of John was kind of preparing the idea for everyone.
The difference between Christ’s and John’s Baptism
That’s will be the answer of saint John himself, “ John answered them saying I baptize with water but there stands One among you, whom you do not know it’s he who coming after I am preferred before me whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to lose.” So he said, I baptized just with water. I’m helping people to repent. I’m just teaching people to know the commandment of God. To come closer to come to God, to be ready to see God by their eyes.
But the one coming after me, he will be baptized with the spirit of God. He is much, much, much higher than me. I cannot be like a slave to him. He is the king of Kings, I’m just the man. He is God incarnate. So, John, the Baptist knew very well his mission. And he knew that he is just paving the way to Christ to come and to start the kingdom of God, of the New Testament.
“ John answered them saying I baptize with water, but there stands One among you” because Christ was there at that time. “ Whom you do not know it’s he who is coming after I is preferred before me or Sanders trap. I’m not worthy to lose.”, That’s, you know, kind of a common sentence known by these people. Like when you have a master a high King and a slave, and even this slave cannot touch the sandal of this great man. So, John, the Baptist is saying how much difference between the Lord himself? The one created me and I’m the created one. I’m just serving him. I came before him to point at him and to push people, to go to him.
“These things were done and Bethabara beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing.” John, the Baptist, was baptizing people in nearby the Jordan. Then, you know, the area was like a desert and people tend to travel many hours just to listen to him and be ready for repentance and getting, the baptism through the water by his hands. The next day after this, you know, an Interview happened between the priest and John the Baptist, “
The Interview between Jesus and John the Baptist
The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said after I come to a man who is preferred before me. For he was before me. I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore, I came baptizing with water.” John, the Baptist was full of the spirit and the holy spirit guided him to know him clearly, this is God.
When he saw Christ himself coming to him, he cried out loud. This is the lamb of God. And saying, the lamb of God means sacrifice. The real sacrifice because all the sacrifices of the Old Testament were like symbols because the blood of animals cannot, you know, redeem, people cannot solve The problem, cannot pay the debt, but all the blood of animals is like, you know, kind of, helping people to understand the idea of paying the debt with blood. So the blood of the lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the real sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world.
“This is who he, whom I said after me comes to a man who is preferred before me.”
He is repeating what he said. I told you before the man coming after I was before me because he had created everything. He is God, but he will come at a time in the flesh. So he is like, after me, in the flesh before me being God, “ He was before me, I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel.” Now John the Baptist saying I had done all my service for this minute to direct you to follow Christ himself.
I came just to say, this is the lamb of God. Therefore I came baptized with water. So he answered again, the question about why you are baptizing. He says I’m baptizing. So everyone will come beside the water and can see the lamb of God. So they will know that the witness of John, the Baptist. He’s witnessing to Christ the coming logos for the salvation of everyone.
Glory to God. Amen.
