In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live through Him. I John 1:9 ESV
As we begin the 69th school year at Midwestern Christian Academy, the verse that we have selected to be our theme for the school year is one that goes to the very heart of who we are. Our identity as a school, and as a ministry, rests on the belief that God exists, that he is the all powerful creator of the universe, and that he chose to reveal himself to us by coming to us in the form of his son, Jesus, the Christ. Jesus, through the life that he lived and example he set, and through his preaching and teaching, revealed to us the truth about who God is.
He also became our salvation, opening the door to us to have a relationship with God because he took upon himself the penalty for human sin, and sacrificed himself for our redemption. This verse in I John affirms that Jesus was the son of God, sent for this purpose, to give us life. It is assurance from the apostle who wrote this epistle to Christians that Jesus is God in the flesh.
Our affirmation of this central truth of the Christian gospel is what sets us apart as a Christian school. At the foundation of our educational objectives is our belief in the God who created the universe as one God, and that loving God with all of our heart, soul and mind, is our testimony of faith. Jesus, as the revealer of truth, points this out when he equates the first commandment with the second one, together as the greatest command, that the way we testify of our faith in God to the world is by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
This is not an easy thing to do, by any means.
At MCA, we start by defining who our neighbor is, here at school. It is everyone's classmate. It is their teacher. It is their parent. It is their sibling. These are all neighbors God has put into our life, and loving them, unconditionally, is the way we demonstrate our love of God. It's our testimony of our faith and trust in Jesus as the Christ, our savior.
The Theological Concept
This verse is part of a passage that contains a clear, theological concept. It was written to Christians who were encountering a false teaching that came from a lack of ability to understand the divine and human nature of Christ. Influenced by Greek philosophy, a group of people, known as the "Gnostics," could not understand how a human being could also be divine at the same time. Their attempted explanations of the nature of Jesus led them astray, because they could not understand the concept that Jesus was fully divine at the same time that he was human, and that this part of his nature, which made him sinless, was necessary to salvation.
John makes it very clear, in verses 1 through 3, that the acknowledgement of Jesus as the Christ is possible because of the spirit of God, and that the lack of acknowledgement of this fact is antichrist. This, and one other reference in 2 John, which is addressing the same point, is the only place where the term "antichrist" is used in scripture. In other words, this is considered an essential belief and acknowledgement in order to understand the nature of God, and to be a recipient of his grace through the salvation experience.
So this is an instructional objective for us, as well as a necessary concept for evangelism.
Practical Application
Knowing all of this leads us to the practical application of living for God through Jesus Christ. The Christian gospel starts with the beatitudes, not the ten commandments, and includes the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus reveals most of the Christian gospel and how to practice this kind of faith. That's the starting point where belief turns into action. And this is what we want to teach to our students, that everything the know about the scripture has to do with living through Christ.
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