Jesus Christ is the Word of God; Living in the Spirit of Christ is to live by His Word

John 1:14-18

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 At one time, Jesus Christ was in the same form as God His Father and the Holy Spirit. He is known as the Word through which all things were created. He became flesh through the Virgin Birth to make atonement for sin as the sinless Lamb of God. Because of His coming in the flesh, His creation witnessed His glory firsthand. Today, the image of Jesus Christ can live in us through the Holy Spirit by the remission of sin. His glory is as the one and only Son of God, full of grace and truth.

Today, there is a thing in the world which wants to replace Jesus Christ and set itself up as God in the temple of God, our body. Instead of allowing the image of Christ to live and speak through us, it wants the image of the beast to live and speak through us. It does that by being able to form what a person thinks, feels, and does. In a sense, it wants to become the word made flesh, it blasphemes God. Once we talk and do according to its prodding, then we are conformed to our mark, or station in life, it conforms us to the mark of the beast.

“…it opposes and exalts itself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that it sits as God in the temple of God, showing itself that it is God.

2 Thessalonians 2:4

“John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’” John 1:15 John’s ministry was to testify of the coming of Jesus Christ, and to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Earthly speaking, John came first because he was six months older than Jesus, but Jesus existed from the beginning of time. Jesus is also first in His importance to the Kingdom of God as the only Son of God.

As followers of Christ, we are the modern-day John the Baptist. We talk about the Gospel of Jesus while saying He is the Lord and Savior of our life. “He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” John 3:30-31

“And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” John 1:16 Every person has received the fulness of Christ summarized in the word grace. The Jewish nation is no longer bound by all of the technical laws of the book of Leviticus because Jesus Christ is the way to be kept right with God. Likewise, all of us non-Jews are no longer stigmatized as sinners because we come to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulness of everything which we receive by the grace of God.

“For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:17 The law of Moses was given by the hand of God to set apart the Israelites from the rest of the world. The Israelites were the only ones in the world who had the Ten Commandments and they made it their culture to live by them. Likewise, Jesus Christ came to give the law of the Holy Spirit, which lives within our soul to set us apart from the rest of the world. The written law can never make a person sinless, but being right with God comes through Jesus Christ, who is the grace and truth of God.

“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” John 1:18 No one has ever seen God the Father, so Jesus Christ was given a human body to declare Him to us. That declaration means we are able to receive the Holy Spirit by receiving Jesus Christ to put our sin in remission. Because Jesus is in the bosom of His Father, when we see Him, we have seen the Father. This is the declaration, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1