Fully God / 1 John 4:7-19
I’ve got something going on in my life, and I don’t know if you can relate, but one of two things is happening today. Either the colds that are out there are getting worse and worse over time, or there is a real chance that the older I get, the more “weak sauce” I am becoming. Doggone it, Monday I started feeling a cold coming on. I’m thinking to myself, first of all, I don’t get sick. If I do get sick, it’s typically twenty-four to forty-eight hours and then I’m good. But all week I have just been crushed with a cold. So if I’m giving you the fist bump today instead of a handshake, just know I’m hugging you in my heart. I’m also going to break every rule of a communicator: I’ve got a little throat lozenge in my mouth. If you hear something clanging around—which I shouldn’t have said, because now you’ll be listening for it—just know I’m trying to make sure my voice holds for the long haul today.
Last week, if you weren’t here, I highly recommend listening to the message. I am super grateful for our solid team, and Shay is just stupid good. He shared last week, and I was so encouraged. In essence, what he was saying is that we need to raise our affections to Christ. We live in a culture that would love to get to your wallet, and because the wallet is an expression of the heart, they are ultimately trying to get to your heart. Marketing and businesses are constantly trying to move our affections away from the ultimate in Christ toward lesser things. Shay also mentioned a bunch of resources available on our website. He is our resident historian—I call him an old-school scrapbooker—and he has put together some incredible resources for this Advent season.
One of the key things Shay pointed out was from Psalm 16: in God’s presence is where you find the fullness of joy.
Psalms 16:11 (NASB)
You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
He drew our attention to the idea that there are shadows—false or lesser representations of true substance—and then there is the true substance found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Today, I want to talk about Jesus as the true substance of this Advent season and why He is so significant for us.
The Uniqueness of Jesus: Fully God and Fully Man
A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of teaching over at Saint Rest Baptist Church in Southwest Fresno. I love going and sharing over there. I was teaching on the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ from Colossians 1. The gathering was an anniversary service in honor of Pastor DJ, who has done tremendous work in the community, including interfaith work. Sitting on the front row to honor him was a Jewish rabbi and a gentleman from the Islamic Cultural Center.
Colossians 1:15-20 (NASB)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, [both] in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the [Father’s] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say], whether things on earth or things in heaven.
I’m having this internal moment thinking, Okay, I am teaching a strong message from Colossians 1 about the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ with a rabbi and a Muslim leader in the room. But what an incredible opportunity to talk about the absolute uniqueness of Jesus!
When we talk about Jesus, we need to recognize that He is a complete game-changer theologically. There is none like Him. There never has been, and there never will be, because He is indeed fully God and fully man. Jesus is not simply a religious teacher. He is not merely a prophet. He is not just another good leader worthy of being followed who died a martyr’s death. This Jesus, being fully God, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to be seated at the right hand of God the Father. Sitting there looking at those gentlemen, my heart’s desire was for them to understand how incredible Jesus is, because He changes everything.
The historic theological term that defines Jesus being fully man and fully God is the hypostatic union. You only need to know that term if you’re playing Trivial Pursuit, but the truth behind it is foundational. Historic Christianity has celebrated this reality for centuries: Jesus is fully human and fully divine, having two natures in one person without confusion, without division, without change, and without separation. He is in a category entirely by Himself.
The Mechanics of the Story: From Eternity Past to Eternity Future
To understand what it means for Jesus to be fully God and the implications of that reality, we have to grasp two things: the mechanics of the story of God, and the essence of the story of God.
When I first came to faith, I wanted to understand my Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Years ago, my former pastor in Texas taught a fifteen-part tape series called “The Decree of God.” That shows you how long ago it was—fifteen messages on cassette tapes! The subtitle of the series was, What on Earth Is God Doing for Heaven’s Sake? What he did for me in that series was blow out my boundaries. I used to think the story of God ran merely from Genesis to Revelation. He showed me that the true story of God spans from eternity past to eternity future.
Think through the mechanics of that story. God speaks the entire world into existence, creating mankind as the crowning point of His creation, the highest image He could create. Adam and Eve are hand-shaped by God to be His image bearers, enjoying intimate relationship with Him. Everything is beautiful until Genesis chapter 3. In chapter 3, humanity shifts its love from a pure love of God to a love of self. Adam and Eve sin, they disobey God, and distance fractures the relationship between God and His creation.
The wages of sin is death, and our first parents choose to hide in their guilt. By the way, the parallels between what happened then and what happens today are undeniable—when we sin, our natural tendency is still to hide. But God, in His grace, refuses to let mankind live in a religious system of hiding. In Genesis 3:21, God provides a sacrifice. An animal is slain, and God clothes Adam and Eve with skins, establishing the biblical pattern that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Tucked into the midst of the fall narrative is a glimmer of hope. In Genesis 3:15, an undefined, singular male pronoun appears: He will one day come and crush the serpent’s head, destroying Satan’s mastery and reign, bringing us back into a right relationship with our loving Creator.
Genesis 3:15 (NASB)
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’
The rest of the Old Testament reads like a book desperately searching to discover who this “He” is. Adam and Eve think their first son, Cain, might be the one—until Cain murders his brother Abel, and they realize, Nope, not him. Is He Abraham the patriarch? No, but He will come from Abraham’s lineage. Is He Moses the deliverer? No, but He will deliver humanity from something far worse than Egyptian slavery. Is He King David? No, but He will be the King of kings who comes from David’s royal line. Is He one of the prophets? No, but one will come in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way for Him.
When the Old Testament closes at Malachi, it finishes almost like a movie without a resolution. You know He is coming, but nothing in the Old Testament affirms that He has arrived yet. Then come four hundred years of silence.
When the New Testament opens, John the Baptist steps forward as the forerunner paving the way for the “He” of Genesis 3. John points at Jesus and declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:29 (NASB)
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ’Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
That statement connects Jesus straight back to the ancient promise. Sin is a divine offense against a holy God, and the only way that offense can be mediated is for God Himself to provide the sacrifice.
When we talk about the mechanics of the gospel during the Advent season, most people immediately think of the nativity scene: Joseph and Mary, Bethlehem, the manger, three wise men, shepherds, and a star. That’s fine, but the plan of God stretches from eternity past, builds toward the manger, moves to the cross, and continues into eternity future.
Jesus was made like us in all things, yet without sin. He lived the life we were created to live but couldn’t, and He died the death we deserved. Scripture tells us that He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature. He is deity clothed in humanity. Philippians 2 explains that Jesus did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5-8 (NASB)
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus was present at the foundations of the world as the agent of creation. He watched the entire Old Testament unfold, knowing He was the promised One. When the time was right, He stepped out of glory to begin that redemptive rescue.
Sometimes people ask the wrong questions about this story. You’ll hear folks say, “If God is so loving, how can a loving God send people to hell?” Setting aside the self-righteousness in assuming we have the right to critique God’s justice, the far more staggering question is this: How could a holy God put up with you and me? How can an altogether pure, righteous, unblemished God desire a relationship with broken people like us? The miracle of the gospel is that God can be both just—punishing sin—and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus Christ. The more unworthy you feel of the gospel, the more you actually understand it. We do not deserve a relationship with a holy God. Even our finest moments are laced with impure motives. Yet God, in His grace, sought us anyway.
Beyond Mechanics to the Essence: God Is Love
The mechanics tell us what God did. But I want us to look at the essence of the story.
Essence refers to the intrinsic nature of something—that indispensable quality that determines its character. What is the indispensable quality of God? What is the intrinsic nature that drives the entire story from beginning to end? It is love.
A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking at a conference with my friend Chuck Bomar, who pastors a church in Portland. Chuck has a massive brain and thinks on a whole different level, so I love spending time with him because he stretches me. He started talking about God being, in His very nature, a self-giving, loving relationship. I said, “Keep talking, Chuck, but bring the cookies to a lower shelf for me!” God is love. The essence of who He is is self-giving love. He has always been in pursuit of us to reconcile our relationship because He genuinely desires to be with us.
Think about how Scripture weaves this together:
John 3:16 (NASB)
’For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (NASB)
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2 tells us that God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ even when we were dead in our sins. In Ephesians 3, Paul falls to his knees and prays that we would be rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ.
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NASB)
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
In our culture, we get so focused on the mechanics that we lose the essence. We recite the details—the manger, the gold, the frankincense, the myrrh—and turn the gospel into mere historical information. But the gospel is not merely information; it is the ultimate expression of divine love.
Look at 1 John 4. In recent months, I have deeply appreciated the Apostle John. Peter is usually my guy, but John has this beautiful, humble posture. John was arguably Jesus’ closest earthly companion, yet when he writes his Gospel, he simply refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” John understood the love of God in a profound way. In 1 John 4:7–16, the word love appears sixteen times in just seven verses. John wants you to feel the gospel, not merely explain its mechanics.
1 John 4:7-8 (NASB)
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
John makes a foundational point: we love because He first loved us. Our horizontal love for others is simply a reflection of God’s vertical love for us. We are like the moon. The moon has no light of its own; it simply reflects the light of the sun into the darkness.
1 John 4:9-10 (NASB)
By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.
How was the love of God revealed to us? God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. John says Jesus was sent to be the propitiation for our sins. That’s a fifty-cent theological word that means the “satisfaction of wrath.” Just as God refused to let Adam and Eve cover their own sin with leaves, providing an innocent animal’s sacrifice instead, God refuses to let us hide behind self-righteous religion. He sent His Son as the innocent substitute to satisfy His holy wrath against sin, so that from the depths of His heart He could enjoy relationship with you.
God, moved entirely by love, created the world in love. He crafted a plan of redemption in love. He took on human flesh in love, redeemed humanity in love, died on the cross in love, rose from the dead in love, ascended to the Father in love, and promised to return for us in love. That is the essence of the gospel.
How We Respond: Receiving and Resting in His Love
Understanding the essence of the gospel demands a twofold response from our hearts.
First, we need to receive His love.
There are many people who live strictly in the mechanics of religion. They say, “Well, the Bible says if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you’ll be saved. I prayed the prayer, checked the box, and walked the aisle.” But when you ask what that means for their daily life, there is no fruit. They haven’t surrendered their lives to Christ or reflected the Father’s glory; they are just glad they got their religious fire insurance settled.
That is not biblical Christianity. John 1:12 says that to as many as received Him, He gave the right to become children of God.
John 1:12 (NASB)
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe in His name,
When you truly receive Jesus as Lord, He changes everything. You are brought back into a living relationship of love. Many of you are chasing lesser things—climbing corporate ladders or chasing wealth—thinking those achievements will bring satisfaction. They won’t. You will just end up with bigger bills. Fullness of joy is found only in the presence of God when you receive His love through Christ.
Second, we need to rest in His love.
We talk often about preaching the gospel to ourselves. I don’t know how you are wired, but I am a typical Type-A, driven, earn-it kind of guy. My mindset has always been: work first, play later. If you perform, you get rewarded; if you don’t perform, you don’t get rewarded. My kids are sitting right over there, nodding their heads because they know it’s true.
The problem is that when I bring that performance mindset into my relationship with God, it completely falls apart. I project my standards onto the Lord, thinking, If I earn it, God will reward me. If I do enough, God will be proud of me. Do you see the disconnect? If we reduce faith to mechanics, we fall into the trap of thinking, If I am good, then God will love me.
No! The essence of the gospel is that God already loves you. Before the foundations of the world, He set His love upon you in Christ.
Sometimes when I have my quiet time in the morning, it is rich and powerful. And sometimes, if I am being completely transparent with you, it feels dry. There are mornings where the passage doesn’t move me, and I don’t even feel like being there—says your pastor! There are days when my heart feels cold, and I catch myself thinking, I need to do more so God will love me. I need to pray harder so I can earn His presence.
In those moments, I believe God gently whispers, “Shh. Be still, and know that I am God.”
Psalms 46:10 (NASB)
‘Cease [striving] and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’
He says, “Just rest in My love. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t deserve it, and you don’t have to perform like a religious monkey trying to win My approval. I already love you, and I just want to be with you.”
If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ, He just wants to be with you. He wants to sit with you when you’re driving in your car, early in the morning, late at night, or when you are stuck in River Park traffic. God wants to enjoy your presence—yes, I mean that—and He wants you to enjoy His, because in His presence is the fullness of joy. Jesus is the essence of the gospel, the perfect expression of the Father’s relentless love, sent to bring you home.
Let’s pray.
Father, we are so thankful for the gospel. For everyone here who has trusted in Christ, may we truly rest in the lavish, scandalous love You have poured out upon us. And for those who have yet to experience the fullness of joy in Your presence, would You draw their hearts right now to receive Your love freely offered in Jesus? We thank You not only for the mechanics of this Advent season, but for the glorious essence of Your love. As we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus—Immanuel, God with us—we rejoice that He is fully God and fully man, our Savior and King. In Jesus’ name, Amen.