Daniel Akin invites chapel attendees to know the Incarnate Christ, who is Life

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Dr. Daniel Akin, President of Southeastern and Professor of Preaching and Theology, preached at Binkley Chapel from 1 John 1:1-4. His message was entitled, “A Life Like No Other: Jesus the Incarnate Word.” 

Akin said, “Christianity stands or falls on the person and work of Jesus Christ. And contrary to some scholars in academia, the doctrine of the Incarnation is affirmed and taught in the Epistle of John.”

Akin also noted that John, in his first epistle, asks three primary questions to those who he is writing: What do you believe about Jesus? Are you obeying God? Are you rightly loving one another? How a Christian answers these questions, said Akin, is vitally important for their Christian walk.
 
“C.S. Lewis taught that we have three choices concerning the person of Christ; that he is either a liar, lunatic, or Lord. I affirm Lewis here but I’d like to add a fourth: a legend. Jesus, some say today, was nothing more than a legendary figure created by the early disciples. But I’d like to submit today that Jesus is Lord and Lord incarnate.

“Theologians talk about the scandal of the incarnation,” said Akin. “And modern-man finds it a stumbling block that God would become a man. The scandal is not so much theological as it is spiritual; in other words, humanity’s sin prevents the people from seeing the truth of the Incarnation.”

In the first few verses of his Epistle, John says that Christians are to have a passion to know Christ, who is Life, affirmed Akin. “John affirms that this Life is divine, human, and real. The disciples touched the real, incarnate God, which directly confronted the teaching of the Gnostics that said Jesus seemed real or seemed to be God, but really was a mere man.”   

Akin noted John’s invitation for the church to have a passion to share Christ. Even in the Incarnation, Akin said, there is a missionary impulse. 

“God desires for people to fellowship with him, and it is this fellowship with Jesus that far transcends anything else in the world. But fellowship with God should not stop with him, but we must be inviting others to fellowship with him as well. Because Christ became man, we must go and share this Life,” Akin said.

Concluding his message, Akin stated that Christians are to enjoy life in Christ, to promote a joy that is full, to press on in holiness, and to pursue correct doctrine. Echoing John’s aim in his epistle, Akin asked the attendees, “What do you believe about Jesus? Are you obeying God? And are you rightly loving one another?” 

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