Digital Logos Edition
Terry L. Johnson takes a Christ-centred approach to the exposition of 1-3 John, the personal, pastoral, and passionate pleas from the apostle John for the church to remain united and strong in the face of persecution.
“overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?’ (1 John 5:5). Believers” (Page 137)
“The knowledge of God, or knowing God, becomes the love of God, or loving God” (Pages 37–38)
“He is, in the Swiss theologian Karl Barth’s (1886–1968) words, ‘God for man and man for God.’ This is the Jesus we proclaim, not some other, lesser Jesus (2 Cor. 11:4). Church history has shown that no lesser doctrine can sustain the message and worship of the church. A Jesus who is less than divine cannot sustain my worship. A Christ who is less than human cannot die for my sins. ‘If he had not taken on him our nature, he could not have satisfied for our sins (Heb. 2:16),’ says John Cotton.” (Pages 13–14)
“It is ‘His settled, controlled, holy antagonism to all evil,’ says Stott.62 God’s wrath is that attribute of God which guarantees the final destruction of all evil and the triumph of good. Through the outpouring of His wrath God ensures that justice will be done for all. God’s wrath is a fearsome thing. It is a thing from which we need to be delivered, and from which we must flee (1 Thess. 1:10; Matt. 3:7).” (Page 32)
“So we have sinned. Is this the end of us? Must we die and go to hell? Is God now our implacable enemy? He would be, but wait—we have an Advocate. He pleads on our behalf. Can He present our case? Yes! He is the God-Man. All the attributes of divinity labor on our behalf—His justice, His mercy, His goodness, His love, His omniscience, and His inexhaustible energy.” (Page 30)