Today, we say that talk is cheap. We live in a time where people tend not to do what they say they will do. We generally don’t expect politicians to do what they say. Advertisers will often exaggerate claims in order to sell products. We are accustomed to extensive wavers of liability that are so lengthy and verbose, that even lawyers disagree on what they say.
God is a God of His word. He reveals Himself and His expectations through words. His actions back up His words and give us assurance for the future that He will do what He says what He will do. As a New Testament designation of the Christ, the term Word occurs only in 1:1, 14; 1 John 1:1; and Rev. 19:13. A word serves two distinct purposes: a. it gives expression to the inner thought, the soul of the man, doing this even though no one else is present to hear what is said or to read what is thought; and b. it reveals this thought (hence, the soul of the speaker) to others. Christ is the Word of God in both respects: he expresses or reflects the mind of God; also, he reveals God to man (1:18; cf. Matt. 11:27; Heb. 1:3) (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Gospel According to John (Vol. 1, p. 70). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Imagine the impact on our lives and our world if we truly became a people of the word, if we became a people of our word. Imagine if people could rely upon us to do exactly what we say and we hold others to their words. Instead of hiding behind vague or misleading statements, what if our kids, spouse, co-workers and friends could rely upon us do be a people of our word.
John 1:1-5, shows how Christ is the complete embodiment and fulfillment of the Word of God. He is the Word as seen from 1) His Preexistence (John 1:1-2), 2 His Creative power (John 1:3), and 3) His self-existence (John 1:4-5).
Christ is the embodiment and fulfilment of the Word of God as seen through:
1) The Preexistence of the Word (John 1:1-2)
John 1:1-2 [1:1]In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2]He was in the beginning with God. (ESV)
Since Mark begins his Gospel with the same word, ‘The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ’, it is also possible that John is making an allusion to his colleague’s work, saying in effect, ‘Mark has told you about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry; I want to show you that the starting point of the gospel can be traced farther back than that, before the beginning of the entire universe.’ (Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 114). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.)
This notion of beginning is vast. This word beginning (Archē) can mean “source,” “origin” (cf. Col. 1:18; Rev. 3:14); “rule,” “authority,” “ruler,” or “one in authority” (cf. Luke 12:11; 20:20; Rom. 8:38; 1 Cor. 15:24; Eph. 1:21; 3:10; 6:12; Col. 1:16; 2:10, 15; Titus 3:1). Those connotations are true of Christ, who is both the Creator of the universe (v. 3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2) and its ruler (Col. 2:10; Eph. 1:20–22; Phil. 2:9–11). But archē refers here to the beginning of the universe depicted in Genesis 1:1.
Jesus Christ was already in existence when the heavens and the earth were created; thus, He is not a created being, but existed from all eternity. (Since time began with the creation of the physical universe, whatever existed before that creation is eternal.) “The Logos [Word] did not then begin to be, but at that point at which all else began to be, He already was. In the beginning, place it where you may, the Word already existed. In other words, the Logos is before time, eternal.” That truth provides definitive proof of Christ’s deity, for only God is eternal. (Marcus Dods, “John” in W. Robertson Nicoll, ed. The Expositors’ Bible Commentary [Reprint; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2002], 1:683. Emphasis in original.).
The imperfect tense of the verb eimi (was), describing continuing action in the past, further reinforces the eternal preexistence of the Word. It indicates that He was continuously in existence before the beginning.
The concept of the Word (logos) is one filled with meaning for both Jews and Greeks. To the Greek philosophers, the logos was the impersonal, abstract principle of reason and order in the universe. It was in some sense a creative force, and also the source of wisdom. To the Greeks, then, John presented Jesus as the personification and embodiment of the logos. Unlike the Greek concept, however, Jesus was not an impersonal source, force, principle, or emanation. In Him, the true logos who was God became a man—a concept foreign to Greek thought.
But logos was not just a Greek concept. The word of the Lord was also a significant Old Testament theme, well-known to the Jews. The word of the Lord was the expression of divine power and wisdom. By His word God introduced the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 15:1), gave Israel the Ten Commandments (Ex. 24:3–4; Deut. 5:5; cf. Ex. 34:28; Deut. 9:10), attended the building of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 6:11–13), revealed Himself to Samuel (1 Sam. 3:21), pronounced judgment on the house of Eli (1 Kings 2:27), counseled Elijah (1 Kings 19:9ff.), directed Israel through God’s spokesmen (cf. 1 Sam. 15:10ff.; 2 Sam. 7:4ff.; 24:11ff.; 1 Kings 16:1–4; 17:2–4., 8ff.; 18:1; 21:17–19; 2 Chron. 11:2–4), was the agent of creation (Ps. 33:6), and revealed Scripture to the prophets (Jer. 1:2; Ezek. 1:3; Dan. 9:2; Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Jonah 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Zeph. 1:1; Hag. 1:1; Zech. 1:1; Mal. 1:1).
As the embodiment and personification of the Word of God, John presented Jesus to his Jewish readers as the incarnation of divine power and revelation. As the Word, Jesus initiated the new covenant (Luke 22:20; Heb. 9:15; 12:24), instructs believers (John 10:27), unites them into a spiritual temple (1 Cor. 3:16–17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21), reveals God to man (John 1:18; 14:7–9), judges those who reject Him (John 3:18; 5:22), directs the church through those whom He has raised up to lead it (Eph. 4:11–12; 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5; 1 Peter 5:1–3), was the agent of creation (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2), and inspired the Scripture penned by the New Testament writers (John 14:26) through the Holy Spirit whom He sent (John 15:26). As the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ is God’s final word to mankind (Heb. 1:1-4).
Now John takes his argument a step further. In His eternal preexistence the Word was with God. The English translation does not bring out the full richness of the Greek expression (pros ton theon). The word with (pros) in a context like this is used to indicate personal relationship, not mere proximity (cf. Mk 6:3) (Whitacre, R. A. (1999). John (Vol. 4, p. 50). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
It “[gives] the picture of two personal beings facing one another and engaging in intelligent discourse” (W. Robert Cook, The Theology of John [Chicago: Moody, 1979], 49).
From all eternity Jesus, as the second person of the trinity, was “with the Father [pros ton patera]” (1 John 1:2) in deep, intimate fellowship. Perhaps pros ton theon could best be rendered “face-to-face.” The Word is a person, not an attribute of God or an emanation from Him. And He is of the same essence as the Father. Psalmists and prophets alike portray God’s word in close-to-personal terms (Ps. 33:6; 107:20; 147:15, 18; Isa. 55:10–11). Yet only John claims that this Word has appeared as an actual person, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 John 1:1; Rev. 19:13). As a comprehensive christological designation, the expression “the Word” encompasses Jesus’ entire ministry, placing all of Jesus’ works and words within the framework of both his eternal being and existence and God’s self-revelation in salvation history (Köstenberger, A. J. (2004). John (p. 25). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.).
Please turn to Proverbs 8 (p.553)
John’s description of the Word reached its pinnacle in the third clause of this opening verse. Not only did the Word exist from all eternity, and have face-to-face fellowship with God the Father, but also the Word was God. That simple statement, only four words in both English and Greek (theos ēn ho logos), is perhaps the clearest and most direct declaration of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ to be found anywhere in Scripture. Verse 1 of the Prologue then is a foundational confession (1) that the Logos has an origin that supersedes the created order of time and space, (2) that this Logos has an identity distinct from the previously understood designations for God, and (3) that the Logos must also be understood as part of the unity of God. Here then are the beginnings of Christian reflection on the mind-stretching concept that became known as the doctrine of the Trinity (Borchert, G. L. (1996). John 1–11 (Vol. 25A, p. 106). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.).
What is probably the best commentary on John 1:1 is found in Prov. 8:27–30, discussing Christ’s co-work in Creation:
Proverbs 8:27-30 [27]When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, [28]when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, [29]when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, [30]then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, (ESV)
Underscoring their significance, John restated the profound truths of verse 1 in verse 2. He emphasized again the eternity of the Word; He already was in existence in the beginning when everything else was created. As it did in verse 1, eimi (was) is an IMPERFECT TENSE (cf. 1, 2, 4, 10) which focuses on continual existence in past time (before anything was created) (Utley, R. J. (1999). The Beloved Disciple’s Memoirs and Letters: The Gospel of John, I, II, and III John (Vol. Volume 4, p. 9). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.)
Illustration: 6400 Hitler And The Word
In the momentous hour when Nazism was in its embryonic stage, Hitler spoke to a group of people in a beer cellar in Munich. His inflammatory words which bristled with hate, were mirrored in the hardened faces of the evil group, and soon they engulfed the world in war.
An artist has portrayed the scene, putting on canvas the facial reactions of the group to Hitler’s fiery words. He gave this title to the painting: “In the Beginning Was the Word.” (Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.)
The truth of the preexistence of The Word of God, the Logos, the Anointed Christ, defeats every error. From John 1:1-2, we see how: Christ is co-eternal with the Father (“In the beginning was the Word”) At the moment of creation, Christ was existing (imperfect tense). He existed before creation. This statement refutes Arianism (that Christ was created). 2) Christ is co-existent with the Father (“the Word was with [the] God”) Christ existed face to face (“pros”) with the Father. Two persons are involved. This statement refutes Modalism (that God just exists in different modes, not persons). 3) Christ is co-equal with the Father (“the Word was God”) Christ was not God the Father but God the Son. This statement refutes Modernism (that Christ is a mere human) (Gingrich, R. E. (1990). The Gospel of John (p. 6). Memphis, TN: Riverside Printing.).
Christ is the embodiment and fulfilment of the Word of God as seen through:
2) The Creative Power of the Word (John 1:3)
John 1:3 [3]All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (ESV)
Once again John expressed a profound truth in clear language. Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, created all things that were made/came into being. John underscored that truth by repeating it negatively; without Him/apart from Him nothing (lit., “not even one thing”) was made/came into being that was made/has come into being.
Please turn to Colossians 1 (p.983)
That Jesus Christ created everything (cf. Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2) offers two further proofs that the Word is divine. First, the Creator of all things must Himself be uncreated, and only the eternal God is uncreated. Once again, John uses a form of the verb eimi (“to be”), which denotes a state of being, to describe the Word in verses 1 and 2; here, speaking of the creation of the universe, he used a form of the verb ginomai (was made/came into being). That Jesus is the Creator also verifies His deity, because God is portrayed throughout the Bible as the Creator (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 102:25; Isa. 40:28; 42:5; 45:18; Mark 13:19; Rom. 1:25; Eph. 3:9; Rev. 4:11). The Logos was not merely existent, however, in the beginning, but was also the efficient principle, the ἀρχή of the ἀρχή (Col. 1:18) (Lange, J. P., & Schaff, P. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: John (p. 54). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.)
Colossians 1:15-20 [15]He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16]For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. [17]And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18]And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. [19]For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, [20]and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (ESV)
Illustration: JESUS, DEITY OF
SIGNATURE stamps today have become high tech. A signature can now be put on a document by machine and still be an exact replica of the original. Besides knowing the material of the ink used, no one would know that the signature has been produced by a machine. In the old days, you would know someone stamped a signature because around the signature would be a hint of ink from the stamp. Now printed signatures look just like the originals. That’s exactly what Jesus Christ is. He is the signature of God. Jesus Christ is the exact image of God (Evans, T. (2009). Tony Evans’ book of illustrations: stories, quotes, and anecdotes from more than 30 years of preaching and public speaking (p. 171). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.).
Christ is the embodiment and fulfilment of the Word of God as seen through:
3) The Self-Existence of the Word (John 1:4-5)
John 1:4-5 [4]In him was life, and the life was the light of men. [5]The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (ESV)
Displaying yet again his Spirit-inspired economy of words, John in these two brief verses summarizes, the coming of the Word to this earth, otherwise known as the incarnation. Christ, the embodiment of life and the glorious, eternal Light of heaven, entered the sin-darkened world of men, and that world reacted in various ways to Him.
The themes life and Light are common in John’s gospel. Zōē (life) refers to spiritual life as opposed to bios, which describes physical life (cf. 1 John 2:16). Here, as in 5:26, it refers primarily to Christ having life in Himself. Theologians refer to that as aseity, or self-existence. It is clear evidence of Christ’s deity, since only God is self-existent. His is not a word that was penned or spoken into existence, but the Word that always existed.
This is the purest ontological description of God (ontology=being) . To say Jesus is the life is to say the most pure truth about the nature of God that He possesses. And, as in verse 3, He then is the Creator.
While it is appropriate to make some distinction between life and light, the statement the life was the Light halts any disconnect between the two. In reality, John is writing that life and light cannot be separated. They are essentially the same, with the idea of light emphasizing the manifestation of the divine life. The life was the Light is the same construction as “the Word was God” (v. 1). As God is not separate from the Word, but the same in essence, so life and light share the same essential properties.
Please turn to Genesis 1 (p. 1)
Intellectually, light refers to truth (Ps. 119:105; Prov. 6:23; 2 Cor. 4:4) and darkness to falsehood (Rom. 2:19); morally, light refers to holiness (Rom. 13:12; 2 Cor. 6:14; Eph. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:5) and darkness to sin (Prov. 4:19; Isa. 5:20; Acts 26:18). Satan’s kingdom is the “domain of darkness” (Col. 1:13; cf. Luke 22:53; Eph. 6:12), but Jesus is the source of life (11:25; 14:6; cf. Acts 3:15; 1 John 1:1)
Through the Word of God, He placed lights in the sky to separate between light and darkness
Genesis 1:14-18 [14]And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, [15]and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. [16]And God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. [17]And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, [18]to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. (ESV)).
Light, makes it possible for life to exist. Thus, on the fifth and sixth days of creation God made animate life to populate both the waters and dry land, culminating in his creation of humankind (Gen. 1:20–31; 2:7; 3:20). Now John asserts that life was “in him,” Jesus. He is the source of life, both physical and spiritual (“eternal”). He also is the source of supernatural light, since only those who possess spiritual, eternal life have the capacity to “walk in the light,” that is, to make moral decisions that are in accordance with God’s revealed will. The statement that the life was the light of men means “light for [all] people” (Bultmann 1971: 40), an objective genitive in Greek (Ridderbos 1997: 38 n. 64), pointing to the universal effects of the Word’s appearance (Köstenberger, A. J. (2004). John (pp. 30–31). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.).
Don’t be confused with the reference to light of men. The Greek term here for men, tōn anthrōpōn (singular ho anthrōpos) can be used to refer generically to the human race. Greek uses the masculine plural as a generic for referring to a group with mixed gender (Barry, J. D., Grigoni, M. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible (Jn 1:4). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.)
John 1 concludes this section stating in verse 5 that the Light that shines in the darkness of the lost world (8:12; 9:5; 12:35–36, 46). This is PRESENT TENSE, which means continuous action. Jesus has always existed, but now He is clearly manifested to the world. In the OT the physical or human manifestation of God was often identified with the angel of the Lord (cf. Gen. 16:7–13; 22:11–15; 31:11, 13; 48:15–16; Exod. 3:2, 4; 13:21; 14:19; Judg. 2:1; 6:22–23; 13:3–22; Zech. 3:1–2). This was the pre-incarnate Logos (Utley, R. J. (1999). The Beloved Disciple’s Memoirs and Letters: The Gospel of John, I, II, and III John (Vol. Volume 4, p. 10). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.).
Despite Satan’s frantic, furious assaults on the Light, the darkness has/did not overcome/comprehend (Katalambanō) it. Even a small candle can drive the darkness from a room; the brilliant, glorious Light of the Lord Jesus Christ will utterly destroy Satan’s realm of darkness. Since He came into the world, “the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).
The thrust of this verse, then, is not that the darkness failed to understand the truth about Jesus; on the contrary, the forces of darkness know Him all too well. In Matthew 8:29 some demons “cried out [to Jesus], saying, ‘What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’ ” In Peter’s house in Capernaum, Jesus “cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was” (Mark 1:34). Luke 4:41 records that “demons also were coming out of many, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ.” In Luke 4:34 a terrified demon pleaded, “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” The demons not only know the truth about Christ, but they also believe it. “You believe that God is one,” wrote James, “You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder” (James 2:19).
• Knowing the word of God is not enough for salvation. Once we come face to face with the truth of God we must admit our fault to God, plead with Him for forgiveness, and trust His word of forgiveness, in order to have eternal life.
(Format Note: Outline & some base commentary from MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). John 1–11 (pp. 12–13). Chicago: Moody Press)
