Nor of the Will of Man

Excerpt from the message "The Word Made Flesh" on John 1:1-18 by John MacArthur

The whole point of the coming of the logos was to bring people into intimacy with the living God. And that's why the Apostle Paul says that we are joint heirs with Him. We are sons of God crying "Abba, Father." John says in 1 John 3 that we'll be like Him for we see Him as He is. We are drawn into intimacy, that His fullness dwells in us, that we possess the divine nature. He's made us children.

Who? Them that believe on His name. What's His name? His name is all that He is. That's our side. Verse 13 is His side, "Who were born"...that is born into God's family, not of blood. In other words, it didn't happen because you inherited it, it wasn't racial. "Nor of the will of the flesh." It didn't happen because you longed for it and you hungered for it and you desired it and you exercised yourself for it. "Nor of the will of man." And nobody else could do that for you either. It didn't come to you because some human agency or human instrumentation made it possible. It wasn't due to your heritage. It wasn't due to your strong desire. It wasn't due to some other human resource. You came because of God, that's what verse 13 says. So 12 says, "As many as believed received," but 13 says, "If you did that it wasn't because you desired it, it wasn't because somebody desired it for you, and it wasn't because you inherited it, it was because of God." So you have at the very beginning of John's gospel the introduction of the tension between the electing sovereign power of God and the faith of an individual. In verse 12 we are saved because we believe. In verse 13 it's all of God. That non-reconcilable tension, at least non-reconcilable in this world is given us there.

No human birth, no human desire, no racial identity, no human resource can bring us to salvation. It is a sovereign act of God. He does it. But it is always accompanied by personal faith in all that the living Word is and did. So He's the saving one. How marvelous.

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