Gospel of John

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:1

Be prepared for a journey as we read through the Gospel of John written by a man that walked side by side with Jesus, the most controversial man that has ever lived. The apostle John writes about what Jesus did, what Jesus said, and the people’s response to Jesus.

In John 1:1 the “Word” is actually referring to Jesus, which is later revealed in verse 14. Jesus was with God from the very beginning of creation and Jesus is the Character that we will focus on as we study John in the months to come.

As we begin to study the life of Christ, I encourage you to wrestle with the following passage given by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity. No matter what facts or lessons we learn together as we read the gospel of John, the most important question that we must ask ourselves is who do we really believe Jesus is?

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Perseverance

As we continue to study perseverance this week, I hope these two truths given by John Piper are helpful in understanding Romans 5:3-5. Thanks for following Chalk Talk!

Matt

1. Tribulation brings about perseverance.

Romans 5:3 says, "And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing [that is, because we know] that tribulation brings about perseverance." Another word for "perseverance" is "endurance." In other words, if something happens in your life that is hard and painful and frustrating and disappointing, and, by grace, your faith looks to Christ and to his power and his sufficiency and his fellowship and his wisdom and his love, and you don't give in to bitterness and resentment and complaining, then your faith endures and perseveres. It becomes stronger. How is it stronger? It's stronger the way tempered steel is stronger: it takes more to break it. Tribulation is like the fire that tempers the steel of faith. So when Paul says, "Tribulation brings about perseverance," he means that the fiery tests of trouble are meant by God to make your faith unbreakable.

That's the first truth that grace uses to make us into joyful people who exult in tribulations and love others. The second truth is this:

2. Perseverance brings about proven character.

Romans 5:3-4a, "We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance [brings about] proven character." The focus here is on this word "proven" (dokimen). The idea is that when you put metal through a fiery testing and it comes out on the other side persevering and enduring, what you call that metal is "proven" or "authentic" or "genuine." That's the sense here. When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and it perseveres, what you get is a wonderful sense of authenticity. You feel that your faith is real. It has been tested. It has stood the test with perseverance. And it is therefore real, authentic, proven, genuine.

We Exult in Our Tribulations Nov. 14, 1999 – John Piper