John 1:10-12 and Acts 28:28

By Oscar M. Baker

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the world. He walked in Eden with Adam, Enoch walked with Him. He visited Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, making great promises to them. He dwelt in the Shekinah glory of the tabernacle in the midst of the sons of Israel. All things were made by Him, and the world was made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. With Him as the Architect, the world must have been a lovely and beautiful place in the beginning, for in the beginning He as Elohim created the heavens and the earth. They were not created in vain or empty, but to be inhabited. But sin entered and with sin came selfishness and personal ambition, and the world knew Him not. They willfully did not choose to know Him nor acknowledge Him is the meaning of these words. They trusted in their own wisdom and became fools. They worshiped the man and then descended the scale till they were bowing down to beetles and bugs and other creeping things, even the serpent. There is only one end for the creature who will not recognize his Creator.

    He came unto His own possessions, the land that was promised to father Abraham, the throne promised to the Seed of David, the Messiahship of Israel. So it was His own things that He came to take over. The Heir came expecting to be recognized by all the signs and wonders He performed. This coming was the mystery of godliness. It was His incarnation in which He dwelt or tabernacled with men and His own received Him not. His own people, Israel, had no room for Him at the inn in Bethlehem, neither did they have room for Him in their religion, temple, or synagogue. Israel did not know the day of her visitation. For centuries they had looked for the Messiah, but were so busy with their own religion that they could not recognize Him when He came in the fulness of time, the time prophesied.

    But as many, whosoever outside of Israel is the scope, and a wide scope this is. No door had ever been so wide as this. But the Salvation of God is now sent to the Gentiles, for Israel has failed and has been set aside. So many Gentiles as received Him were received and accepted in the Beloved, not in Abraham as was done during Acts. He came unto His own people to save them from their sins so that they might fulfill the commission given them in the wilderness, but they would have none of it and finally at Acts 28:28 were set aside and the Gentiles came in, and to them gave He power to become the children of God. Israel were sons; now there are other children, and some of them can become sons (Eph.1:5). This is the adoption. So a right, an authority, a power, is given, even to them that believe on His name. Believing on His name is equivalent to, or a fuller explanation of what is meant by receiving Him. The name Elohim in Gen. 1:1; the Word here in John is God manifest in flesh. But Jehovah Elyon (Ps. 7:17), Jehovah the Most High God, is the name that is above every name (Ph'p 2:9).

[Reprinted from Truth For Today, Vol.19, No.12.]