The Word In The Beginning

The Gospel of John is one of the most beloved books ever written.  While of course people like to debate everything, the best and most reasonable conclusion based on internal and external evidence is that John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, wrote the Gospel of John.  While it’s unclear when exactly he wrote it, scholars I respect tend to date the Gospel of John between approximately 65 A.D. and 85 A.D.

Today’s passage is John 1:1-13.  These first 13 verses, along with verses 14-18, are known as “The Prologue” by scholars.  It serves as an introduction to, and in some ways, a summary of the entire story that John is going to tell about Jesus in this gospel.  According to many scholars, these verses contain “some of the most tightly reasoned patterns of theological reflection in the New Testament”[1].  Profound simplicity, as others have called it.  Let’s go!

John 1:1-2 (NIV)
¹  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
²  He was with God in the beginning.

On verses 1-2:  John uses the title “the Word” to describe Jesus.  Why the Word?  It’s because “the Word” (logos in Greek) carried special meaning for both Jews and Greeks in John’s time.  For Jews, “the Word” was a name for God and carried with it the idea that God was actively and personally involved in our world.  For Greeks, “the Word” was a term used by famous Greek philosophers like Plato to describe that which governs the entire universe.  Thus John chose a title that was meaningful to both Jews and Greeks.[2]

Here in verse 1 John makes three important statements about who this Word – Jesus  – is:

–        First, “[i]n the beginning was the Word”.  Jews reading John’s Gospel would immediately think back to the first sentence of Genesis 1, which says “In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth.”  When John writes that “[i]n the beginning was the Word”, he is saying that before anything else was created, Jesus existed. Jesus was there at the very beginning.

–        Second, “the Word was with God”.  In other words, at the very beginning of time Jesus existed with God the Father in perfect relationship to one another.

–        Third, “the Word was God”.  In other words, Jesus Himself is God.

Verse 2 affirms that Jesus was in the presence of God the Father and in perfect relationship with God the Father from the very beginning of time.

John 1:3 (NIV)
³  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

On verse 3:  In other words, Jesus played an indispensable role in creating the universe.

John 1:4 (NIV)
⁴  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

On verse 4:  In Jesus there is life like no other, life eternal, life so full that nothing else apart from Jesus can possibly be called life.  It is this life in Jesus that is “the light of men”.  In other words, the life we have in Jesus is what truly makes people alive and gives us hope, purpose and wisdom.

John 1:5 (NIV)
⁵  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

On verse 5:  Here begins one of the big themes of the Gospel of John: while Jesus himself is light and life, people who live in the darkness would misunderstand who Jesus is and miss out on that light and life.

John 1:6-9 (NIV)
⁶  There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.
⁷  He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.
⁸  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
⁹  The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

On verses 6-9:  The “John” being referred to in verse 6 is not John the disciple of Jesus and the author of this Gospel.  Rather, the “John” referred to here is John the Baptist, the older cousin of Jesus, who spent his life preaching God’s Word and baptizing people before Jesus began his ministry. In so doing, John the Baptist was preparing the people of Israel for the arrival of Jesus Christ, so that through John and his ministry “all men might believe” (v7).  John the Baptist himself was not the light (v8) but was a witness who pointed people to the light who is Jesus (v8), and who was coming after John (v9).

What can we learn from this?  God uses people to lead you to Jesus.  Likewise, a big reason God placed you on this earth was to lead others to Jesus as well, to make Jesus known, and to be “a witness to the light” so that through you others in our world would know who Jesus is.

John 1:10-11 (NIV)
¹⁰  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
¹¹  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

On verses 10-11:  Once I heard the tragic story of a young child who has been diagnosed with a combination of MS and Alzheimer’s, such that in time doctors predicted that this young child would not recognize her own parents one day.  I can think of few things more tragic than that, but that is the predicament John describes here: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”  Similarly, our world is sick with a condition akin to spiritual Alzheimer’s where many people do not recognize Jesus the one who made them.  To not recognize Jesus, who is life itself and the light of men, is to be spiritually dead.  But what follows in the next verses is one of the most important and precious promises in all the Bible.

John 1:12-13 (NIV)
¹²  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–
¹³  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

On verses 12-13:  When we place our trust in Jesus Christ – when we believe in the power of Jesus’ name to save us and receive Jesus into our lives – we receive something we could never earn by our own merit or performance: we gain “the right to become children of God” (v12).  We go from people who are dead in the dark to alive in the light, children of God.  When you believe and receive Jesus, you become a child of God, and this new life you have in Christ is not something that happens naturally (“not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will”), but supernaturally (“born of God”).

Jesus, You are the Word who was at the beginning, the One through whom all things are made.  Thank You that by simply believing in Your name and receiving You into my life, I become what I could never become on my own merit: a child of God, living in the light.  Please use Your Word, and in particular this Gospel of John, to show me who You are and who I am because of You.   In Jesus’ name, AMEN!