“The Eternal Word”
John 1:1-2
We begin a study on the Gospel of John today, which was written between 80-90AD, about 50 years after the Apostle John witnessed Jesus’ earthly ministry. It is the only gospel which is written anonymously by John, the son of Zebedee, one of the most prominent of Jesus’ disciples, (not John the Baptist but the disciple John) “John” is the only name NOT mentioned in this Gospel, although the writer is described as the disciple “whom Jesus loved”. (13:23)
The Gospel of John is Evangelistic in nature:( Gr. “Euaggelizo”, εὐαγγελίζω: John brings the good news of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.) He uses the word “believe” 100 times, half as many times as the other Gospels. The theme of the book is stated in John 20:30-31- “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
The book is Apologetic in purpose (Gr. “Apologia”, ἀπολογία) John “defends” the Good News, providing reasons for SAVING FAITH and assuring readers that they can receive the divine gift of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. He writes to convince readers of Jesus’ true identity as the Incarnate God-Man whose divine and human natures were perfectly united into the ONE person who was prophesied to be Christ, the Messiah, the Savior from sin for all who would BELIEVE and TRUST in Him alone for salvation.
Last week Pastor Troy mentioned that, as a guest here, he did not know where people were in their spiritual maturity and also that chronological age doesn’t necessarily correlate with spiritual maturity, and he was correct. Maybe you’ve heard ABOUT Jesus and know many facts about Him, but you aren’t convinced of the Biblical TRUTH about Jesus: in that case, pray that the Gospel of John will convict you and turn you into a BELIEVER in the Biblical Jesus.
Maybe you’ve been a follower of Jesus, either for a short time or for a long time. In your case, pray that God will cause you to grow in the knowledge of the Savior and cause you to be a better DEFENDER of the faith: In the words of 1 Peter 3:15, that you would “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense (an apologia) to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”
I have always loved the crucial first verse of this Gospel, as it answers the most important question of all time and eternity: Who is Jesus? This is the beginning of the prologue of the Book of John, the God-breathed out word John 1: 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with (the) God, and the Word was God. 2 He (the WORD) was in the beginning with God.”
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
(Pronunciation: En ar-chay i-me ha log os, ki ha logos i-ME pros ha tha-OS, ki tha-OS i-ME ha logos)
Jesus’ Eternality
This may be one of my favorite verses in the Bible and we are going to see that the qualities of Jesus are clearly stated in this verse and we’re going to take somewhat of a Greek grammar lesson; We will find that it is not by accident or wishful thinking that we profess that Jesus is eternal, that He is part of the Tri-unity of God, the second person of the Godhead, and that He indeed IS God.
For the John, who was a Jew, He did not begin the Gospel with a genealogy to prove Jesus’ lineage, birth or ministry, but John begins with Jesus in eternity: “in the very beginning”; actually he begins “before even time began”. To the Jews, “in the beginning”, (“in beginning”, en arche) undoubtedly pointed to Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Not only does “en arche” mean “beginning”, but it also can refer “to that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause.” God was the active cause “in the beginning” and John 1:1 tells us that THE WORD, not any word or words, but THE WORD EXISTED continuously, even before the beginning, BEFORE creation.
Whatever your so-called “model” for the beginning of earthly time, Genesis tells us that God spoke (amar {o-MARE”) things into existence (In Gen. 1, the words “God SAID” are used 9 times in explaining how the creation appeared. Remember in recent weeks how we looked at the law in Ex. 20, specifically the fourth command for Sabbath, and how the created should honor one day in seven to remember that God the CREATOR, created the heavens and the earth in six days.) So with John’s first words about “THE WORD”, he would draw the Jewish audience immediately.
The Hebrews knew that in the beginning it was God who created. They knew Psalm 33:6: “By the WORD of the LORD (dabar-daw-baw) the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.” “Dabar” had been translated “logos” throughout the Old Testament Septuagint. (The Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Old Testament which had been around for 2-3 hundred years at the time of Christ, so when John said “IN (THE) BEGINNING WAS THE WORD”, Jewish ears listened, and within a few moments, John declares that the very essence of THE WORD was not only God’s SPOKEN words but the very person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The article (“ho”/”ha”) for, is used each time to describe the “logos” or “word” to make the strongest of emphasis in the fact that THIS “logos” is not just written words or expressions. THIS LOGOS is THE WORD from all eternity.
Athanasius, a church bishop in 325, said this about the first part of John 1:1: “There never was when He (the Word) was not.” That IS the meaning of the word “was” in this verse the THREE TIMES it is used: It is the Imperfect Active Indicative of the verb “to be” and it denotes continuous action in past time. The WORD of whom John is speaking belongs to ETERNITY. He is clearly speaking about Jesus’ ETERNALITY! WHEN ALL THINGS BEGAN, JESUS, the WORD, already was and He already had been! (John Frame gives a possible translation for this first clause: “When all things began, the Word was already in existence.”)
Since Greek and Roman (Gentile) philosophers had used the word “logos” for around 700 years in general terms, referring to soul, to meaningful thought or speech, a universal mind, a vague “force” of some kind which caused the universe, when John spoke of THE LOGOS, the Word, Gentiles AND Jews would immediately be drawn to the importance and uniqueness of what John was about to say.
Jesus’ Personality
So John comes with the TRUTH about the PERSON, the WORD who created: This WORD was always WITH God. If you read just a little bit of John’s Gospel you find out that John is clearly speaking about the PERSON of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is an article, the word “THE”, before the word God so that we would not translate it “A” God, and incidentally, in the Greek there is no word for the article “a”. So the Word dwelt eternally with THE ONLY TRUE God. God had powerfully expressed himself in the word through creation, in revelation, and salvation in the Old Testament, but now John contends that the LOGOS is not a principle, an idea, an abstraction or notion. He is not part of some mythological storyline, not a thought, or a force, but a Person, namely, the Lord Jesus who has revealed Himself in the Flesh. (1:14- “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”) THE LOGOS comes as the personal self-expression of God revealed in the flesh.
John is saying, “This WORD is a person whom I have met and I have seen HIM with my own eyes. I’m going to tell you with words, about THE WORD, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man.”
So John declares Jesus’ Personality or PERSON when he says, “THE Word was WITH (pros) God,” it’s not in the same sense that you are “with” me at the moment; “Pros” (πρός), “with”, in the Greek, expresses RELATIONSHIP; “Pros” relates a level of equality and a level of intimacy with God Himself. The WORD was forever in perfect equality and intimacy, forever in relationship with the Father and now THE WORD comes with the very activity of God among His people and He DECLARES God! The last verse of this prologue is John 1:18: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Jesus will explain the Father!
Jesus’ Deity
The third clause, “And the Word was God,” reveals CLEARLY and without a doubt Jesus’ Deity. Because of the Greek sentence structure, the correct translation IS and will remain: “And the Word was God.” You may notice that there is no article before the word “God”, and many have tried to use this as a reason to diminish Jesus to some god-like qualities, but there are NO grammatical reasons or any other reasons that would diminish Jesus’ FULLY Divine Nature in this clause: He was always continually with God; He is and will always be WITH Him because THE WORD is God in the fullest sense, exactly as He is described. AND the WORD always existed as God. (John Frame lists 7 reasons grammatically and otherwise how the structure of the phrase explains the full Deity of Jesus in his Systematic Theology book, p. 462-463.) There are also at least ten other places in the New Testament directly identifying Jesus as God.
In His Gospel, John will carefully reveal the many ways in which Jesus PROVES He is Eternal God and He is Savior God, not merely “godlike”. The word “theos” denotes the very being and essence of God evident in Jesus, and John’s eyewitness account communicates with God-breathed, inspired words, that the works which Jesus performs, could ONLY be accomplished by THE God.
John reveals that Jesus doesn’t give us “A word” but He is THE WORD. “He not only gives us truth, He IS truth. He not only gives us a way, He IS the way; He not only gives bread; He IS the bread; He not only gives us drink; He IS drink; He not only gives us light; He IS the light; He not only rises from the dead; He IS the resurrection; He not only gives life; He IS life; He not only come to reveal God, He IS God!” (C.H. Dodd, Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, 268)
In the same way, the second verse succinctly emphasizes what the first verse has already clearly stated: John 1:2: “He was in the beginning with God.” The actual translation would be “THIS was in Beginning with (the) God.” But the word for “this” (houtos), translated “HE”, means “this one and no other.” Normally, the sentence would not even call for the word “he”; that would be understood within the verb, but since “houtos” is added, it is emphatically stating that THIS ONE, this person, THE LOGOS, was in beginning with God. The Word continually existed in the beginning and was ALWAYS continually in intimate relationship with God, and so BOTH God and the WORD belong to eternity.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with (the) God, and the Word was God. 2 He (the WORD) was in the beginning with God…” 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His Glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, FULL of Grace and truth.” No wonder that the author of Hebrews begins in agreement with John: 1 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” I trust that this is the Jesus that you know, profess, and defend. Amen.
OUTLINE:
The Gospel of John is
A. Evangelistic in nature: “Believe” in Jesus (John 20:30-31)
B. Apologetic in purpose: Reasons to “Believe” in Jesus
C. John 1:1 answers the question: Who is Jesus?
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
En ar-chay i-me ha log os ki ha logos i-ME pros ha tha-OS, ki tha-OS i-ME ha logos
I. “In the beginning was the Word,” Jesus’ Eternality
II. “And the Word was with (the) God,” Jesus’ Personality
III. “And the Word was God.” Jesus’ Deity
IV. “He was in (the) beginning with God. “The Word, this one and no other, already existed in the beginning and was ALWAYS continually in intimate relationship with God, and so BOTH God and the WORD belong to eternity.” BOTH God and the WORD belong to eternity.
