"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

Knowing Christ is the definition of being a Christian. Take Christ out of Christianity and you lose its meaning. Unfortunately, we are living in days of biblical illiteracy even though it is more available than ever. We have become more preoccupied with trinkets than the Treasure. Even Christians struggle to keep Christ preeminent in their lives. What can we do to focus again on who matters most?

This is what John is doing at the beginning of his Gospel. He is re-centering us to the reality of who our Savior is. Everything else that John will write about in his Gospel flows from this foundation in John 1:1-18. So, who is Jesus?

1. Jesus is truly God and truly Man.
   Sinclair Ferguson says, "Our Savior is the God-man, and we should think of Him as both." This is an important statement because throughout the history of the Church there have been false teachings that emphasize one nature at the expense of the other. Either Jesus seems like a Divine Superman or He is merely a Good Teacher. Rather, we must always remember that Jesus is the Second Person of the Trinity who took on our flesh.
   As the Athanasian Creed says, "Although He is God and Man, yet Christ is not two, but one. He is one, however, not by His divinity being turned into flesh, but by God's taking humanity to Himself. He is one, certainly not by the blending of His essence, but by the unity of His Person. For just as one man is both rational soul and flesh, so too the one Christ is both God and Man."
   
   
2. Jesus is the revealer.
   John 1:4-5 says, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Jesus has come to reveal to us who the Father is. This is why Jesus will say in John 14:7, "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." 
   As the revealer, Jesus shines His revelatory Light into the darkness of our hearts. By the Spirit of Christ, we are born again to taste and see that God is good. But, this does not happen by our finding God but by God revealing Himself to us in the Person and Work of Christ.
   
   
3. Jesus it the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
   The entire Bible is about Jesus (Luke 24). That is how Jesus read the Old Testament and that is how all the authors of the New Testament read their Old Testament. John 1:17 says, "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
   As all roads lead to Rome, so all the Old Testament leads to Jesus. This means that in order to know Jesus better we need to read the Old Testament more. We are not Marcionites who believe that the God of the Old Testament was a God of wrath and the God of the New Testament is a God of Love. We cannot pick and choose what portions of the Bible we embrace. The same God of the Old Testament is who we see in Jesus Christ (Mal. 3:6).
   
   
4. Jesus is the Creator and Re-Creator.
   "All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made." John makes a dramatic statement in verse 3 about how this Jesus who was born into poverty is the one who created the very animals He was born beside. The tree that would be cut down and shaped into an instrument of torture was created by the One who would die upon it. Jesus is the Creator.
   Jesus is also the re-creator. "But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (1:12-13). Ferguson says, "But since that death and darkness are within creation, within man, the Word must become flesh in order to restore it from within."

If Jesus is truly God then this means that His atonement and righteousness have an infinite worth. It means that you never have to add to Jesus or ever worry about Him being enough for you (no matter how sinful you are). If Jesus is truly Man then it means that there is never a moment when He cannot sympathize with you (Heb. 4:15). If somebody knows how hard life is then it is Jesus. And this Jesus is for you!

If Jesus is the revealer then you can trust Him to show you what you need to know about God in His Word. You can trust that what He shows you about God is what is true of God. He will never reveal to you a false view of who God is. If Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament then you can read the entire Bible knowing that this God is your God. The God who grew Abraham's faith is the same God who will grow your faith. The same God who was merciful to Jacob, Judah, Rahab, Samson, David, Mannaseh, and Gomer is the same God who is merciful to you.

And, lastly, if Jesus is Creator and Re-creator then it means that anywhere you go in this world you are in your Savior's world. And everywhere you go you can count on seeing Him at work redeeming all things. No matter how bad your circumstances might be, no matter how heinous your sin is, and no matter how horrible the suffering in your life is, you can always know that Jesus is the Re-Creator and He is at work in your life.