“In the beginning.” The bible being made up of 66 books, when we hear these three words our minds often go to the book of Genesis yet, there is another book in the Bible the starts exactly the same way. There are only two books in the Bible the start this way one describes the creation of the world. The other describes the creator who through a miracle came and dwelt among his creation. Christmas is a celebration of that event a moment in history that changed to world forever. What caused that change is not found in the how or the when but in the who. Who was this child that they had the power to change the world? Why did he come? Where did he come from? The answers are found in the beginning.
John Chapter 1
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 are made through him, and without him was not anything 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.
“Word” comes from the Greek word logos and really has a deeper meaning than most of us would think. When we think of the word logos think of a logo such as the Nike swoosh or something else that represents a certain company. And in that sense Jesus became the representation of God on earth. Words are used by us to communicate thought and reason, so God sent The Word so that we could grasp a better understanding God’s message. Jesus revealed the thoughts of God to mankind. In Matthew Henry says,
“The plainest reason why the son of God is called the Word, seems to be, that as our words explain our minds to others, so was the Son of God sent in order to reveal his Father’s mind to the world.”
“In the beginning was the Word.” In human standards everything has a beginning. We live in a temporal world where time matters. I had a beginning my beginning as explained to me by my mother started about 4:20 AM on November 3, 1958 I was in a hurry to get here and was born on a gurney on the front lawn of St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada. We could even go back further and say that my beginning happened at the point of conception, which was sometime between February 6 and February 14 of 1958 In human standards it is hard for us to realize that something doesn’t have a beginning, yet that simple sentence in the beginning was the Word establishes one thing about Jesus and that is Jesus is eternal, he had no beginning. Before light, before the stars and before the creation of man there was Jesus. Jesus was there in the beginning and was there before the beginning. If Jesus is not eternal than what we believe as Christians becomes a lie. It is because Jesus is eternal and knows the beginning and the end that we can put our confidence and our faith in him for our salvation.
“And the Word was with God.” The second thing that we see here is that Jesus has a personal and deep relationship with God. Jesus is the power that fulfills the purpose of God. Jesus is the Creator. All things were made through him.
Colossians 1:16
“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether through dominions or rulers or authorities are all things were created through him and for him.”
He is a distinct personal being who has an eternal relationship with God and is in active fellowship with God.
John 5:43
“I have come in my Father’s name.”
These six words in John summarize this relationship and the importance of it. Jesus being the sole representation of the Father on earth and the results of this sole representation that we are justified before the Father through Christ. “For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” It because of this personal eternal relationship between Jesus and the Father that we have access to the Father. “Whatever you ask in my name this I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
“And the Word was God.” Here, John expounds upon the divinity of Jesus, although a complete and separate personality from the Father. He is still part of the Father. He and the Father are one and he is not a created creature he is the Creator. He is a distinct personality of the Godhead. Jesus has always possessed total authority over heaven and earth. He was with God and he was and is God. The deity of Jesus is perhaps one of the most disputed points among those who do not believe. And even among some of those who claim to believe. Yet Scripture when read as it is written leaves us no room to argue when it comes to the deity of Jesus. C S Lewis once said that Jesus was either who he said he was, or he was the devil himself were worse a madman. Scripture declares “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” “I and the Father are one.”
“In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” There is no life in the physical world except life that was created through him and by him. There is no life in creation that is not sustained by him. Nothing created has life into itself life only comes from Jesus. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
Light is revealing. This is a reality to anyone who has stumbled in the dark at 3 am and stubbed their toe on the corner of the dresser. When you turn the light on in the dark room, you can suddenly see what’s going on Jesus is the light that shines in our dark world, so we do not stumble. Jesus shines the light on our sin and then he lights the way to salvation and eternal life. Jesus declares “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Naturally we like the dark, because it is in the dark that we feel our sin is hidden. Verse 5 can be translated as “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” Because of this many people rejected Jesus, in the past and many more today do the same. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. There are not to many people who will admit they are a bad person, that is because our world has accepted many things God calls immoral. So as a result, we consider ourselves good people, or perhaps we believe our good will out weight our bad when that day comes, and we stand before God. It is when our sin comes to light, we are exposed for who we really are and that scares us so we run from the light.
The Word was with God and the Word was God, the Word is eternal, the Word has an intimate personal relationship with God as part of the Godhead. The Word is God and that through him all things are created, and it is only through him that life can exist. A profound statement, an event in history that change the world forever, is now made in verse “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”
Jesus who is eternal who is God who is the creator the author of all things left the heavenly places to become that which he had created. Not giving up his deity in the sense that he didn’t cease to be God but was no less than God but became fully human. The Athanasian Creed puts it this way
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man. Perfect God, and perfect man who, although he be God and man: yet is not two but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the Godhead of the flesh; by taking of the manhood into God”
The one who created the all things came to live among his creation. He would experience all the emotions and trials of being human. He would hunger, and he would tire, he would rejoice, and he would feel sorrow. He would experience temptation.
People will try and explain the incarnation or disprove the incarnation by pointing to the physical or physiological problems involved looking at it from a scientific and human point of view. The Bible does not encourage us to puzzle ourselves with the physical or the physiological but to realize that this incarnation was a miracle that could only have been performed by God. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
This miracle was an act of grace, mercy and unconditional love. It was a great self-humbling by the Creator of the universe. Jesus humbled himself to live a life of obedience, not for his on glory but for the glory of the Father. It was an unimaginable act of love so that man might be freed from sin and death. “Who he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God anything to be grasped, but emptied himself, but taken the form of a servant, born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient point of death, even death on the cross.”
The death was not for the sake of God, God was God before he created man and will always be God. The only purpose this death served is to reconcile the relationship between God and his creation. Death was required by God’s by justice and death came because of God’s love.
Jesus became poor, giving up all he had so that we may have eternal life. So that we could be reconciled with our Father in heaven. He came to be The Word teaching about the kingdom of God and he came so, the penalty for our sin would be paid in full. He was born and lived a perfect life only to die on a cross. A cross that we deserve.
“In the Beginning was the Word.” Sometimes we are at a loss for words, and then others provide us with words to speak. I found such words written by a man named these are powerful, and I hope I do them justice.Isaac Wimberley
“If there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
See my brain has not yet reached the point where it could form a thought that could adequately describe the greatness of my God.
And my lungs have not yet developed the ability to release a breath with enough agility to breathe out the greatness of His Love.
And my voice, see my voice is so inhibited, restrained by human limits that it’s hard to even sing the praise up, you see, if there are words for Him, then I don’t have them.
My God, His Grace is remarkable, mercies are innumerable, strength is impenetrable, He is honorable, accountable, favorable. He’s unsearchable yet knowable, indefinable, yet approachable, indescribable, yet personal He is beyond comprehension, further than imagination, constant through generations, King of every nation, but if there are words for Him, then I don’t have them
You see my words are few to try and capture the ONE TRUE GOD, using my vocabulary will never do, but I use words as an expression, an expression of worship to a Savior, a Savior who is both worthy and deserving of my praise, so I use words.
My heart extols the Lord, blesses His Name forever. He has won my heart, captured my mind, and has bound them both together. He has defeated me in my rebellion, conquered me in my sin, He has welcomed me into His presence, completely invited me in. He has made Himself the object of my sight, flooding me with mercies in the morning, drowning me with Grace in the night, but if there are words for Him, then I don’t have them.
But what I do have is GOOD NEWS, for my God knew that man made words would never do, for words are just tools that we use to point to the truth. So He sent His Son Jesus Christ as
THE WORD, LIVING PROOF, HE IS THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD, THE FIRST BORN OF ALL CREATION, FOR BY HIM ALL THINGS WERE CREATED, GIVING NOTHINGNESS, FORMATION. AND BY HIS WORD HE SUSTAINS IN THE POWER OF HIS NAME.
FOR HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS AND ABOVE ALL THINGS HE REIGNS. HOLY IS HIS NAME! SO PRAISE HIM FOR HIS LIFE! THE WAY HE PERSEVERED IN STRIFE. THE HUMBLE SON OF GOD BECOMING THE PERFECT SACRIFICE.
PRAISE HIM FOR HIS DEATH! THAT HE WILLINGLY STOOD IN OUR PLACE THAT HE LOVINGLY ENDURED THE GRAVE THAT HE BATTLED OUR ENEMY, AND ON THE THIRD DAY ROSE IN VICTORY. HE IS EVERYTHING THAT WAS PROMISED.
PRAISE HIM AS THE RISEN KING. LIFT YOUR VOICE AND SING, FOR ONE DAY HE WILL RETURN FOR US, AND WE WILL FINALLY BE UNITED WITH OUR SAVIOR FOR ETERNITY! ETERNITY! SO IT IS NOT JUST WORDS THAT I PROCLAIM, FOR MY WORDS POINT TO
THE WORD, AND THE WORD HAS A NAME, HOPE HAS A NAME, JOY HAS A NAME, PEACE HAS A NAME, LOVE HAS A NAME, AND THAT NAME IS JESUS CHRIST! PRAISE HIS NAME FOREVER!
