Daily Devotion – December 30, 2020 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
John 1:(1-9), 10-18
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
1:3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
1:4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
1:7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
1:8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
1:9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
1:10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.
1:11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
1:12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
1:13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
1:14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
1:15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'”)
1:16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
1:17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
1:18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
This opening of John’s gospel is rich and dense and even poetic. It claims that Jesus, the Word of God, was in the beginning and from the beginning (verse 1), and all creation came through this Word that God spoke (v. 3). The life that the Triune God created was the light of all people (v. 4), which the darkness cannot overcome (v. 5). And whoever believes Jesus is the Word and light come from God have been given power to become children of God (v. 12). Finally, these believers who become children of God are no longer just born of people but now born of God (v. 13).
So this passage says that those who believe that Jesus is the light of the world, all those of them have the power to become children of God. We say in our baptism service, “first name, middle name, child of God, …,” but do we think of what that claim means? Children of God we are, if we choose to accept it. This is a spiritual dimension of our earthly life that we are given, which Christ’s Holy Spirit urges us to accept.
How does this spirit-ness affect our lives? We can know and experience grace upon grace, grace and truth. Without it, would we understand grace and truth? Maybe intellectually we would know the words, but would we ever be able to know what grace and truth really are, really feel like? And once we have experienced those things, we are fuller, maybe coming as far as halfway to the fullness of Jesus that John describes in verse 16, radiating grace and truth outward, so that others might experience it. This birth from God as children of God is for us, but it is also for the benefit of the world that God loves. We are to be radiating grace and truth into the world, God’s light shining through us, if we only let it.
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us the chance to become your children and shine your light into the world. Help us to remember to get out of your way and shine forth to others.
Amen.
