Guitar Jams: MAX LIFE Ezine Lesson -- "No One But Jesus Could Do This..."

It was July 14th, 1983, I was at Market Square Arena, in Indianapolis, IN to see Foghat, Krokus and Gary Moore in concert. I was excited to see all the bands, but, as a guitar player I was especially anxious to see Gary Moore play -- the guy's incredible! It was general admission back in those days-so I took the whole day and camped out at the doors so I could get front row-which I accomplished. Gary Moore was the lesser know of the three bands so he was first on the bill-and quite frankly, I could have left after his set… He just blew me a way-the stuff he was able to do with a guitar was nothing short of mind blowing! But I'm really glad I stayed for the whole show because during Krokus' set they invited Gary to come out and jam with them on a tune---friends-it was a moment I will never forget. Basically Gary and the Lead player for Krokus began to swap leads… and at one point it was funny, because Gary laid some lines down that freaked this guy from Krokus out---you could just see it on his face… he just sort of shook his head and smiled, as if to say "Nobody but you can do that dude." Which was pretty close to true. Gary was great. If you've never heard any of his music definitely go to http://www.gary-moore.com/ and check him out.

Here's the point. In a FAR greater way than Gary Moore could ever do---Jesus BLOWS ME AWAY. He is so awesome. And John, in this passage, wants us to see three awesome gifts that Jesus offers to us -- that ONLY HE can offer.

John 1:14-18 (NIV) "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " 16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,[e][f]who is at the Father's side, has made him known."

GIFT ONE: A glimpse of our loving, EMPATHETIC God! (vs. 14 & 18)
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth… No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."

Jesus put on flesh. You've got to understand who John is writing to here. There was a strong Gnostic element in John world. Gnostics believed that human FLESH was fallen and sinful and beyond redemption and that the Spirit in a man was pure. The bottom line for Gnostics was, "Okay-no big deal if we abuse the flesh of do things in the flesh that are sinful. That's to be expected because that's what the flesh is about… and it's okay as long as our "Spirit is right". It's kind of like a people today rationalizing sinful behavior, saying, "Dude, as long as your heart's in the right place you're cool." I.e. good intentions overrule bad behavior."

So anyway, the BIGGER point is this -- the Gnostics could never imagine that God, who is pure and 100% holy, could ever put on "flesh". So they just rejected that whole notion and taught that Jesus only appeared to come in the flesh and have his body pierced on the cross for our sin. It was all an illusion. Jesus just made it appear real.

John attacks that false teaching head on here-and for good reason! Jesus coming in the flesh is a powerful and essential part of the gospel message. The fact that Jesus, the second person of the trinity, came in the flesh means, 1) that in the person of Jesus we see God, and 2) Our Savior can empathize with us. He knows what life with skin on feels like! He's been hurt, hungry, tired… he's shed tears, etc. He's walked in our shoes and felt what we feel.

Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being…"

Hebrews 4:15 is all about. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin."

What an awesome gift! The very God who created all things… controls all things… has all the power and knowledge in the universe-loves YOU so much that he put on skin and came here to earth for the very purposes of 1) revealing Himself to you-so you can understand and relate with Him, and 2) to experience life with skin on so that we can know that He knows what human life feels like. Pretty awesome!

GIFT TWO: A grace that keeps on giving (vs. 16)
"From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another."

God is FULL of grace! Paul tells us in Romans 5: 20 that "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more!" God knows that we are dust and yet He loves us. Is that not the most amazing thought?

And so, out of his amazing love and grace - he showers upon us blessing after blessing. I know we often think of blessings in terms of "stuff" - like homes and cars and money and things like that (and those certainly are blessings)-but it really goes to a much deeper and more basic level than that. The very life we have, the breath we breathe, the freedom we have to live and make choices, and build friendships and pursue dreams… all of those are gifts that flow from the grace of God!

I love what Moses reminds us of in Deuteronomy 8:18, saying, "remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth."

GIFT THREE: A gracious offer -- Grace and truth over Law (vs. 17)
"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

Awesome, beyond awesome! Here's the deal. Get this and your life will be different forever. If you go back and read Exodus you'll see that God raised up the deliverer Moses and work in all kinds of miraculous way through him to break the will of Pharaoh and liberate the Hebrews from bondage. The walked out of Egypt-free and in RELATIONSHIP with God. He was their God and He was their delivering God. From the borders of Egypt God led them to and through the Red Sea on dry ground-and then when the Egyptians tried to pursue them through the sea, God crushed them by allowing the sea to collapse upon them. And THEN God led them to Mt. Sinai where they received the LAW (the 10 Commandments). Okay are you following me here? The order of those events is important. The Israelites had relationship with God BEFORE they received the LAW. He didn't give them the LAW and say, "Okay, now, if you want to get into relationship with me-keep this list of rules." No! They already had that relationship. The purpose of the Law was to show them how to be God's people… how to shine as lights in a dark world… how to reflect God's holiness, righteousness, love and goodness to the world around them!
Of course, as we all well know, that's not the way they received it. The Israelites wound up turning the Law into something it was never meant to be-or I should say, "They tried to anyway." They started treating the Law and "keeping it" as the way t get into relationship with God-CRAZY! Like we can ever be good enough to impress Him… just nuts. But that's what they did. And they led to nowhere but a screwed up world of legalism, judgmentalism, and bunch of other ungodly "isms."

Jesus came to set all of that back straight.

This is what the first three chapters of Romans are all about. I encourage you go read that in light of this message. It will bless you!

In Romans 3:20-24, Paul sums up his thoughts from these first three chapters, saying, "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. 21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses[a] and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins."

So, here's the deal. You can choose to stand before God some day--when all is said and done and be judged based on your behavior/performance. You can say, "Hey God, I was pretty good… I didn't really hurt anybody too bad, etc… you know the drill." This is the "keeping the law" mindset-and it's a bad plan… go reread that Romans 3:20-24 passage again.

Or you can throw your hands up in surrender to God right now and say, "Okay, I get it. You're perfect and I'm not. You're holy and I'm not. You offer grace to all who trust you and I need grace - BIG time!" And you can receive that grace by embracing Jesus as your Savior today. That's the choice I hope you'll make--if you haven't already done so!

If you have any questions about how to receive Jesus, or about anything in this article-drop me a line at pastorbrad@aol.com today. I'd love to help you any way I can.
Blessings,
pb