Who Do You Say? Reading With the People of God #19নমুনা

A Season of Anticipation

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” 1 John 1 NIV

Today we will be beginning the first letter of John. Similar to the beginning of the Gospel of John, the first letter of John begins with a meditation on the incarnation of the Word as a human being. John realized what a remarkable thing it really is that the God of the universe, the God who created all of us, humbled himself to the point of becoming a human himself. This reality alone is incredible beyond words, but I think the thing we often don’t think about is that the second person of the Trinity didn’t merely become human for a time only to dispatch with His humanness after His death. On the contrary, He resurrected as a human being, ascended to heaven as a human being, and will remain, like us, a human being forever while still remaining God. There was never a time when the Word did not exist, but there was a time before a time before the Word became flesh and a time after the Word became flesh. The claim John is making is that in the person of Jesus, he physically touched, saw, and knew the pre-existent creator God.

The season of Advent is a season of anticipation. Before the Incarnation, those who read the prophets waited for the day when the long-awaited Messiah would come. And He did come. Now we wait for His return, the day when we too, like the apostles, will see him, touch him, and know him face to face.

Primer contributed by Wesley Viau