In our culture we seek God on our own terms and for our own reasons. Seeking God has become a self-salvation project, another assertion that we are the standard that judges all things – including God. Against this John tells us that God seeks us for his own reasons – grace and truth make it impossible for us to boast, instead, we are confronted with the choice to trust. [Audio | Notes]
Michael Flynn
Audio
For further thought
Q: Why is God making himself known in Jesus different to God imagined or God discovered?
Q: How do we succeed and fail at combining grace and truth in our lives and churches?
Q: Is John defining Jesus as, the word of God, the light, the life enough to say John is claiming Jesus is, somehow, God?
Q: What do you make of the subtle distinction between the word and God or the Son from the Father in this passage?
Talk outline
Failing to understand ourselves in the 1st & 21st centuries
John tells us the secret of life is a person, not a principle
and we have seen his glory – full of grace and truth
and we have seen his glory – the light, the life
and we have seen his glory – the creator
and we have seen his glory – grace & truth in the death of life
no one has seen God … but the Son… has made him known