Can We Believe the Bible?
1 John 1:1-4
As we begin this brand new study of the first letter of John, all who have trusted Christ will find it to be like you are floating down a river of reassurance, teeming with encouragement for all who believe, carrying us homeward on the current of God’s love, mercy and grace that we find in Jesus Christ.
John mentions:
- “God” = 63 times in 41 different verses (plus pronouns)
- “love” = 46 times in 26 different verses
- “know” = 40 times in 32 different verses
If I were to summarize John’s thesis it would be with these two sentences: There is a sovereign God who loves you and wants you to know Him. The love of God has been irresistibly displayed in the person and work of Jesus.
“The Gospels were written within living memory of the events. They are what historians in the ancient world regarded as the only sort of history that should really be written, that done while eyewitnesses were still accessible.”
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
“The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.”
C. S. Lewis, Miracles
“You can read every fairy tale that was ever written, every mystery thriller, every ghost story, and you will never find anything so shocking, so strange, so weird and spellbinding as the story of the incarnation of the Son of God.“
John Piper
“Understanding the person of Christ is absolutely necessary to understanding the doctrine of the love of God.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in Christ: Studies in 1 John
