Father and Son
John understood the gospel message. He had lived to a ripe old age and was writing at the end of his life. His reflections in his gospel and letters reveal the state of the Church as already in decline. Religion was settling in, and the lawyers were winning. The ground of the struggle between relationship and law was shaping up more clearly. The good news of the Father’s heart of goodness and love was losing ground to systems of sin and judgment. The image and vision of Jesus’ Father as “Abba” was fading to that of a judge and was taking root. John was crying out to restore the glory of the gospel, the message, the declaration of what was beautiful and true!
Father and Son as Light
“We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” 1 John 1: 1-5 NLT
Two Faces of God?
The challenge of the gospel message is not the overcoming of sin and darkness, but the victory of the light seen in the relationship of the Father and Son shared with us. Light is found in the divine relationship, defined by John as one of joy. There is only union in this light, no division or darkness at all. There are not even shadows in our Father of Light.
They did not create separation. We did. They created no sin, no evil, no hell, and no darkness. All these things were created by us! “And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil.” John 3:19 NAS
Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, and other church fathers created this two-faced god of light and darkness. It is incredible how beautifully they wrote of God’s love while penning the worst images of God’s anger, wrath, hatred, and judgment. No wonder we are conflicted and confused!
One Face! face-to-face!
“God is light . . . and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ!”
The Two Faces of God? is the introductory blog for the sermon below: