This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing 
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s 
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

John, Jesus’ disciple, writes to a 
community under attack from false teachers.

John goes so far as to call them “antichrists”.

These antichrists are pastors or church
leaders who have left their churches

and now claim that John and the
other apostles are wrong about Jesus.

They claim that Jesus did not come in the flesh.

And they deny that God took on a body and deny 
that God—in Jesus—bled on the cross for them.

So, John begins his letter by grounding his 
message in what he heard, saw, and touched.

John is an eyewitness, alongside 
the other disciples and apostles.

He has firsthand experience 
with Jesus, with God himself.

The antichrists want to spiritualize the Gospel, 
but John says they can’t spiritualize away his testimony.

John insists that the same God who 
was from the beginning was born,  

and the Word of Life became 
alive and lived in front of him.

John has seen God with his eyes 
and he's heard him with his ears.

The antichrists’ spiritualized message is 
contrary to the facts: God has been born,  

the apostles have seen, heard, and touched
him, and so eternal life is only found in Jesus.

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The antichrists denied the incarnation of Jesus.

And as a result, those who 
listened became plagued by doubts.

If God didn’t join himself to humanity, how
do humans know they are joined to God?

If the incarnation isn’t real, how
then can we ever know we’re saved?

John’s answer is simple.

We have real fellowship with God because
he's physically joined himself to humanity!

Jesus was real.
Eternal life was touched.

And that which was from the
beginning was born to Mary.

No one who trusts the good news of Jesus’
incarnation needs to fear where he or she stands with God.

God has saved us just as certainly 
as we’ve been born of our mother.

And while it’s true that 
we, like John’s community,  

haven’t seen Jesus with our own 
eyes, John was an eyewitness.

John ate, slept, and walked 
with Eternal Life in the flesh.

John watched Jesus die, and 
John looked into his empty tomb.

The antichrists have no leg to stand on.

God coming in the flesh is a matter of 
history, and all the apostles agree.

God has come in the flesh;
and his name is Jesus.

And in him you are saved.

May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to 
see the Word of Life who came to earth.

And may you see Jesus as God in the flesh.