That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life." So much for Docetists and their denial of the humanity of Christ! None knew better than John that Jesus of Nazareth, the living Christ of God, was the eternal, uncreated, self-existing Word made flesh. He was certainly no phantom. John had already put it all in writing in his gospel. Indeed, the first three verses of this letter appear to be a capsule summary of that gospel.

But a basic difference can be found between John's gospel and his first epistle: the major emphasis in the gospel is on the essential deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; the major emphasis in the epistle is on the essential humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God. He was man. He was both!

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Down through the ages, the internal conflicts of the church have often centered on attempts to emphasize the deity of the Lord at the expense of His humanity, or to emphasize His humanity at the expense of His deity. The truth is, He was both God and man in the truest and fullest meaning of the words.

An Old Testament illustration will be helpful. In the tabernacle and the temple, a thick and gorgeous curtain hung between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. That veil, which was rent by God's own hand when Jesus died on the cross (Matt. 27:51), symbolized the Lord's person (Heb. 10:19-20). It was made of fine-twined linen dyed red, blue, and purple — colors of great significance. The red spoke of Christ's humanity, for He was "the last Adam" (1 Cor. 15:45), and the name "Adam," like the name "Edom," simply means "red." The blue symbolized His deity, for it is the color of heaven, from whence He came. The purple symbolized the Incarnation — the deity and the humanity of Christ. Take a can of red paint and an equivalent can of blue paint, and pour the one into the other, mix them so that it is impossible to tell where the red ends and the blue begins, or where the blue ends and the red begins, and the color purple is the result — a perfect blending of the red and blue.

Just so with the Lord Jesus. His deity and His humanity were perfectly proportioned and balanced. He was "God manifest in flesh" to such an extent that we can tell neither where His deity ends and His humanity begins nor where His humanity ends and His deity begins. As we trace His life on earth, as recorded in the four Gospels, we never note him acting now as God and now as man. He always acted as God and He always acted as man.

See Him, for instance, as He sat by Jacob's well near Samaria. He was "wearied with his journey" (John 4:6), revealing His humanity. Along came a woman from the nearby town. He asked for a drink because He was thirsty — further evidence of His humanity. But within a few minutes He was telling this woman, a complete stranger, all about her guilty past. Such supernatural insight is evidence of His deity. Where does the one end and the other begin?