Matt Chandler - Equal With God

Well, good morning! It’s good to see you. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. We are back in the Gospel of John. Now, we don’t have to wonder what John is up to because he clearly tells us the purpose of writing the book, and he communicates that purpose in verses 30 and 31 of John chapter 20. This is what that text says: «Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.»

So, the book of John is written by the Holy Spirit and given to the church for these three reasons: that you and I might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Promised One, the Messiah—that all that the Old Testament has prophesied about in the fulfillment of God’s big plan of redemption and reconciliation with His creation is going to happen in the person and work of Jesus. He is writing to convince us of that, that He is not just the Christ but that He is the Son of God.

Now, this is a sticking point for a lot of people, as we will see as we work our way through today’s text: that Jesus is the Son of God. The Son of God, coequal with the Father, has always been and will always be unlike any other that has ever existed. Jesus, although fully human in the flesh, is also fully God. He is not just some moral philosopher; he’s not just some teacher. If that’s all He was, maybe we could listen to what He said, or maybe we wouldn’t have to listen to Him. There are a lot of teachers out there, but He’s God! And that is what John is emphasizing: that He is the Christ, that He is the Son of God, and lastly, so that we may have life in His name.

Now, that little word «in» is significant. We did a lot of work around that concept. The idea of being in Christ is massive—the concept of union with Christ is a significant theological study in the New Testament. I would encourage you to study union with Christ and what it means to be in Christ. It is to be in the righteousness of Christ, in the life of Christ, in the power of Christ. Being in Christ is where life is found, not off on our own with Jesus as an add-on, but to be in Christ is significant.

One of the ways we talked about that early on, and maybe you’ll remember, is that you were made by Jesus for Jesus. This is why ultimately, life in Christ is the only place we actually experience what God designed life to be. You have not been made by your spouse for your spouse, by your kids for your kids, or by your work for your work. These things cannot fulfill you because they did not make you. Christ has made you, and therefore life is found in Him. You have been made by Jesus for Jesus.

So, that’s just chapter one. From there, we begin to watch Jesus become greater than before; Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. No longer will we need to make sacrifices because Christ will be our sacrifice once and for all. We saw that Jesus is bringing the new wine of the Kingdom of God over old Jewish purification laws. We then saw that Jesus is God with us, not in a physical temple but dwelling in us via the Holy Spirit, making us the temple of God. We don’t have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; we are the temple. This is huge, especially compared to any other religious system—where does God dwell? In His people? It’s Christians alone who believe this: we are the temple of the living God.

We then saw that there’s new life offered to us—one not born of flesh and blood, not born of our own effort, and not born of our family lineage, but given freely by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Our newness of life isn’t tied to the fact that our parents were Christians; it isn’t tied to the fact that we’re trying hard to be good. No, that’s not how you are born again. You are born again by the free gift of God’s grace through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit unto salvation.

Lastly, we saw that the offer was living water bursting forth unto eternal life. The way Jesus goes about this is almost always through our wound, through our shame, through our brokenness—through those places we want to hide. This is what the Gospel of John is all about; this is a cursory overview of all we covered in September, October, and November. You can go back and listen to those if you need to.

Here’s the invitation happening in the book of John: this is a Friedrich Brunner quote. Here’s the invitation that is for you today: come into union with the Word who made you, and you will come to life. You came from Him; please come back to Him. You were made for Him. The result of this reunion will be more than human existence; it will be human life. So that’s the invitation for you today, and that’s the invitation for me today. I have said yes to this invitation.