The “Word” of God in the Gospel of John (1:1-18)

My daughter asked me a couple of weeks ago, “when did God come into being?” followed quickly by the question, “when was God born?” I stopped what I was doing, and I looked into her eyes, and I said, “Honey, God had no beginning! He has always been and ever will be. He has neither beginning nor end.” Her amazement at this answer was written all over her face, as she tried to comprehend a being who was never born, but always existed.

That’s not just hard for children to understand—that’s hard for adults to comprehend as well! Why is that hard for everyone to understand? Well, everything around us has a source, something from which it came! Think about it! All life has a germination point from seeds that were planted or eggs that were fertilized. Even manufacturers in our world created the items we use and consume, and there is nothing that has been made or come into being without a definitive beginning and end. There is birth and death, a day of newness and a date of expiration.

So when we come to the Gospel of John, written by the disciple whom Jesus loved (as he frequently calls himself, John 21:20), we remember that Jesus also called the Apostle John a “son of thunder,” (Mark 3:17, Luke 9:54) a descendant of lighting essentially. And indeed, John begins his gospel with a booming roar lighting up the pages of Scripture, when he says in John 1:1-3: “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. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” This opening should grab our attention because he says that “In the beginning,” which effectively means “before all things,” was the Word. Notice that Word is capitalized. What does “Word” mean?

It doesn’t mean like a “word” on a page; and no, it doesn’t mean Scripture in a general sense; no, this is John’s way of taking us back into the Creation narrative when God spoke things into existence. It was by his very Word that things came into being. So, Word here effectively means “the very foundation,” or “ultimate meaning” or “absolutely, essential essence” from which everything else is derived or exists. Ancient Greek philosophers, non-Christians mind you, saw the term “logos” which is used here for “Word” as the “expression for the ordered and harmonious purposiveness of the world” (Silva, 131).  In the beginning, says the author of Genesis (presumably Moses), God SAID let there be light (Genesis 1:3). Nothing comes into being without God’s say so. And what’s even more profound here is that the Word of God is not just an abstraction—not just a concept or intangible expression of his power; rather the Word of God is a person—that is a personal expression of God, who is simultaneously with God and IS God. Whoa! Ok, let’s try to get our heads around that.

If I said I am Kyle Reynolds and I am also with Kyle Reynolds right now, I am sure that would be very confusing to you, would it not? You would probably tell me I needed to get my head checked and possibly refer me to a doctor for schizophrenia. But thankfully for me, and especially for you, I am not God. Because God communicates here in these opening verses of the Gospel of John that he exists eternally as two persons—both as God (the Creator, the Father, the one and only) and as the Word, meaning that the Word is in actuality another expression of his existence who exists coequally and coterminously together. (He will later reveal that he exists eternally as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but for now we have two parts of the Trinity).

In verse 3, we get a more detailed explanation that “all things were made through him!” All things! He is the source of absolutely everything you see and will ever see! That’s mind blowing is it not? We now know this is a BEING—this is A God, no indeed THE GOD, that has more than one expression of his existence as God the Creator of ALL THINGS, and the WORD, the very essence and telos (goal, or ending, or ultimate reason) of all things. And what the text is telling us remarkably here is that God chooses and uses the very Word of his existence to bring into existence all the life we can see or imagine. Indeed, he breathes life into every living creature, and nothing has life that has not been given life apart from his very Word. And this life, this Word, is the very light of mankind, and this light shines in and is OPPOSED to the darkness according to verse 5.

What’s interesting here is that the Apostle John states that the darkness has not overcome the light! This is a clear acknowledgment of an adversary, an enemy, of evil. Darkness means nothingness, meaninglessness, even death. And the statement here acknowledges that evil made its way into the world and tried to have victory over God’s creation, but has been unable to do so. If you have ever experienced absolute darkness, that’s pretty scary—not being able to see anything. But even the tiniest bit of light from a candle, flashlight, or even the moon just cuts right through the darkness. This imagery here is supposed to show us that the Lord of all life and the source of all light in the universe is not intimidated by evil, and indeed, the power of darkness shrivels in the presence of the light. And yet, evil achieves a temporary victory over mankind, steering it away from the light—into sin and debauchery and even depression.

Then the passage shifts here, and now the Apostle John mentions this other John: John the Baptist, who comes as a witness to the light. He is coming to prepare the way and to get people ready for his arrival, as verse 9 indicates…that the true light was coming into the world. But then in verse 10 we get to see just how dark the world really is, because the passage states that He—that is the true light, the very Word of God, comes into the world, the world that he created, and that very world doesn’t even recognize him! How dark must a place be to turn away from the light? How dark must a place be to not even recognize its creator? It’s like a son not recognizing his father, or a daughter her own mother!!!! It’s a staggering moment that is quite sobering. Or it should be sobering for us. Verse 11 elaborates and says he came to HIS OWN PEOPLE AND HIS OWN PEOPLE DON’T RECEIVE HIM!

And yet in verse 12 we do discover that some people receive him, and believe in him, and something extraordinary happens—these very people who were lost in the darkness of the world, turn toward the light, and the Word of God, gives them the right to become children of God!!!  And they are no longer mere descendants of wicked mankind; no, they are adopted into the family of the Lord.

The Word of God is a person. And as John develops the argument further, he states ever so clearly that the Word became flesh and dwelt among God’s people—this is the very Son of God, who has been sent by the father, who is the light of the world, the very foundation and reason for mankind’s existence, and he is full of GRACE AND TRUTH.

Oh those are two sweet words! Grace and truth! We need the Lord’s grace and truth more than we need anything else in all the world….darkness and wickedness don’t somehow get transformed into light without the miraculous intercession of grace and truth.

The antonym for truth is lie. Lies are really bad things, are they not? Why are lies so bad? Eventually, one can have a great deal of difficulty discerning the truth from lies.  And what’s challenging is that the truth cannot penetrate the armory of lies when one can no longer distinguish the truth from a lie. That’s the most sinister part of a lie actually. Lies and falsehoods make one question if truth even exists eventually. I mean if you decide that after I get done writing this blog entry that everything I told you is a lie, you will never be able to trust me again. And then that might make you cynical and you might think you can never trust any preacher/blogger anywhere, and if no preacher/blogger can be trusted anywhere, then maybe the Word of God isn’t even true! And then you might wonder did Jesus really die on the cross, was he really resurrected on the third day, and is God even real? Lies generate more lies, and we can believe lies when Satan gets us to wonder if there’s anything worth trusting!

This Word, this Son of God is worth trusting, friends. Later in this same book, he states that he is the way and the truth and the life. He is everything! Everything real comes from him, and yet in the darkness our perceptions have been distorted into not believing in what’s real, but rather we start trusting in counterfeit truths. And John the Baptist, the one who the Apostle John mentions in this passage, states emphatically that even though he was born before this Son of God on earth, and that his ministry began before him—saying specifically “he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me—argues that there is an eternal, everlasting and timeless quality about this person—that he has always been and forever will be. Moreover, the Apostle John, the author of this Gospel, speaks of grace upon grace—that the grace of God seems to be unending and particularly bountiful. In spite of the sin of mankind for generation upon generation, God keeps giving more and more chances. First, he gave them the law through Moses, and they failed to obey it time and time again, falling into idolatry, adultery, murder, stealing, lying and covetousness, not honoring the Sabbaths, not honoring their fathers and mothers; rather they were a licentious, debaucherous, jealous, greedy, unfaithful people. And then we see again that grace and truth come through this Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is at last named here at the end of our passage. And so we see the development from the Word of God, the very essence of the Father’s substance and nature come in the form of a person, His very own Son, the Savior Messiah. And while no one has ever seen God face to face, says John, the only God of the universe, at last he has come in the form of man to be seen by man so that man can indeed receive the salvation from the Son of Man, Son of God, Son of sons to be the light unto the world, and to restore life to a dead and dark race of people.

So, the questions I have for us are these: do we marvel at God’s majesty? are we enamored with his Son, Jesus Christ? do we really love the Word of God? are we in love with Jesus Christ?

Another way to think of it might be this way: Do you love your very own life? Have you, for the most part, had a good life? Have you received blessings? Have you experienced joy and satisfaction? Have you experienced love and happiness? If you have experienced those things, and I must assume that you have, then it would be right and appropriate would it not, to express gratefulness and love to the very source of your life—the Lord of Lords, who not only created you in his very own image, but provided for you all the blessings—food, shelter, family, friends, rest, peace, and even a savior….a savior God, the very Word of God, manifested and sent in the flesh who was sent to rescue you from all the curses of a fallen world—sadness, anger, sickness, and death. God has made himself known to us, brothers and sisters—those who did not know him and would have never known him if it not for his grace and truth, breaking through the darkness with a burst of light and warmth in the beloved God-man, Jesus Christ. Our love for him should surpass our love for all others, for it is by him, through him and in him that we have the very life which allowed us to experience life at all. To love God means to love the author of life.  

So, how do we do that? The Apostle Paul, while imprisoned in Rome around the year 60 AD, was most likely experiencing a great deal of suffering and pain, and probably a lack of food and rest. He had been beaten and mocked, and nearly all of his life lacks comfort. He is for sure at times feeling pretty low. How does Paul deal with this curse? How does he deal with his suffering and fight off depression and anger? He writes this in his letter back to the Philippians from his prison cell in Rome:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in mee—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:8-13.

We love the Lord by rejoicing in all our blessings in the midst of our trials and tribulations. We love the Lord by trusting in his promises that despite the darkness in the world, that his light is bursting in as the sunlight through the shades each new morning! We love the Lord, brothers and sisters, because just as the Apostle John called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, we too are children of God whom Jesus loves and cherishes, and who crucifies all our suffering on the cross.