The Divine Glory Of God
The letter of 1 John leaves little doubt as to its authorship: it is the very same John the Apostle who wrote the Gospel of John. It is full to the brim with a nearly identical set of key gospel convictions and emphases: light versus darkness, the new birth, eternal life, etc.
In many ways, 1 John may be seen as the practical outworking of the high theology of John’s Gospel in the everyday life of the Christian and the local church. If the Gospel of John is a grand testimony about who Jesus is, then 1 John serves to show us what that testimony means for how we ought to live, love and serve. To that end, a brief recounting of some of the key teachings about Jesus in John’s Gospel may be helpful for our understanding of 1 John. So how does the Apostle describe Jesus in his Gospel?
Jesus is the eternal Son of God made man. John begins with the staggering claim that, before creation, Jesus was. And what he was, was with God and himself God (John 1:1). In other words, having no beginning and going back forever into eternity past, Jesus is God (co-equal with the Father) and was in fellowship with God (the eternal Son of the Father).
Then amazingly, and with abounding significance for us and our salvation, Jesus Christ ‘became flesh and dwelt among us’ (1:14). In other words, he took on humanity. He became like you and me, with a human body. The eternal God had friends, dreamed dreams, felt hurts. He lived among us and experienced all the joys and trials of this life. And why?
Jesus came so that we might see He and His Father’s glory. John gives testimony to this fact when he adds further, “And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (1:14). And again, “No one has ever seen God, [but this Jesus] has made him known” (1:18). And what does it mean to ‘see’ the glory of God but to see his love enacted in the living, breathing person of Jesus Christ. Not like the former revelation given to Moses and written on tablets of stone, but God Himself among us, living and acting! (1:16-17). But there is more.
Jesus shows us the glory of God most clearly in his death and resurrection. On the night before his betrayal and death, Jesus prepares his disciples (and us) for the events to follow by praying, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (17:1). For Jesus, it is not enough that he should die for our sins. But that we should come to know God for ourselves in his suffering and death. Still more in His rising from the dead!
Jesus goes on, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (17:3). The fact that Jesus prays these words, and for glory, just before going to the Cross shows us that it is there, and not merely in the prior events of his life, that we come to truly know who God is and see his glory, the purpose of salvation. Christ Jesus laying down his life, being crucified and raised for us, is the eternal God made known!
Have you seen, through faith, the glory of God so demonstrated? I commend you carry this with you into your reading of 1 John. It is by this display of the divine glory that we ‘have fellowship’ (1 John 1:3), ‘know the Father’ (2:3) and ‘have his word abiding within us’ (2:14)!
- Tristan McGrath