"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
-John 1:1-5 (ESV)
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
-John 1:14 (ESV)
This prologue
of John’s summarizes the gospel. Whereas
Mark begins his account with John the Baptist, Matthew with Abraham, and Luke
with Adam; John takes us to the beginning.
John deliberately quotes Genesis 1:1 and begins her narrative where the Scriptures
begin. John affirms that the Word
existed before any act of creation occurred thus conveying the eternality of
Christ. Not only did the Word existence
before creation began, but John emphatically declares that the Word is the
Creator of all. He emphasizes the
preexistence of Jesus, referring to Him as the Word, an appropriate name to
designate Him through whom God revealed Himself to man.
The mystery
of God is in the eternal Word being incarnated in the Christ. The roots of the life of Jesus reach all the
way back into eternity. This title of “Word”
declares the unity of the Father and Son.
John affirms
not only the deity of Jesus Christ in the flesh and His preexistence before the
incarnation but also the relationship of the preexistent Christ with God, the
material world and mankind. John further
asserts his own belief in the preexistence of the Christ (1:30).
This title
of the “Word” (Logos) clearly identifies Christ with God and the
purpose and function of Christ to reveal God.
Jesus existed, “in the beginning” (1:1) a long time
before He assumed human form. Genesis 1
records how God spoke all things into existence, and now we learn that His
creative word is an eternal, Divine Person.
Every single thing and the whole material universe came into being
through the creative activity of the Word, Jesus Christ (1:3). The apostle Paul
(Col 1:16) and writer of Hebrews (1:2) support this doctrine also. We can now
understand better the “Let us make man in our image” from
Genesis 1:26. John fills the “Logos”
with personality. In using the Greek term
“Logos”
as a title for the Son of God, John did not coin a new word, but gave a new
meaning to a word already in use. John
in seeking to reach a Greek audience uses a play on words with a term they are
very familiar with.
The Greek
word translated “dwelt” is literally “tabernacled among us”. Christ abandoned the eternal dwelling place
before the very presence of God the Father to pitch a tent in the midst of
sinners. When the Word became flesh
(1:14) and tabernacle among men, the eternal God came to dwell among men not in
a temple or tent, but in the person and humanity of His only-begotten Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We would never know
what God is really like if the Word had not become flesh. One could never know the love, grace and tenderness
of God apart from the incarnation of God becoming flesh. The Word becoming flesh also refers to the
virgin birth.
It was man
who sinned in the Garden of Eden, and transferring his allegiance from God to
Satan, he forfeited his dominion that God intended he should have (Gen
1:26). Only by man could the lost
inheritance be regained (Rom 5:12-21), but since the whole race had been
contaminated by the deadly virus of sin and had been rendered powerless to
defeat the deceiver, the Word became flesh in order to do for man what sinful
man could not do for himself.
Jesus
himself said: “Before Abraham was, I am,” (John 8:58) signifying that He
existed before Abraham was born.
A
consideration of Christ’s preexistence and His power and wisdom in creation
should impress any thinking person with His majesty and glory, and should spur
one on to greater discipleship. All the
attributes of God are summed up in the incarnate Logos.
"GOD WITH US", yes even today!
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