John 1:1-18
The Eternal Word
(Gen. 1:1—2:3)
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. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John's Witness: The True Light
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The Word Becomes Flesh
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.
15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'"
16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Jesus Christ is God’s eternally existing Word who created the entire universe and us all and came into the world He incarnated as a man and God inseparably human and divine. This Word was not just with God as a force to create this world and the universe (Colossians 1:16-17) but He was actually God Himself (Colossians 1:15, 19) as well. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Everyone and everything that exists was created by God who is the eternally-existing (Psalm 90:2, Micah 5:2) Word. He is life and light. In the beginning there was darkness and no life in the physical universe; He spoke, “let there be light” (Genesis 1:3) and it was so. He spoke until all was in place for the creation of Adam (Genesis 1:26-27) and from him, Eve as the parents of all people to follow. He designed every living thing to procreate after its own kind to perpetuate each species and commanded man to steward over it all. His own light apart from the celestial bodies is our life given to lead and guide us by illuminating our world and way according to His Word. This same light of Jesus the Christ cannot be understood nor overtaken by the dark of sin or the fallen evil one set on the destruction and defilement of all God’s good creation spoken into existence. God sent John to witness these truths and declare them to us (1 John 1:2-3, 5) as the light and life of all who are called out of darkness (Acts 26:18, 1 Peter 2:9-10) into Himself as our marve light and unending full life. John was sent so we can hear that Word and believe Him to find the light of true life once more which was forfeited in Eden’s Garden in the beginning long ago. Yes, the One who made the world and the surrounding universe of infinite beauty and expanse is unknown to those He created until and unless He shines this light (Luke 1:78-79, 2 Corinthians 4:6) in our souls to awaken knowledge of whom He is that we might then respond in confession of our sin in rebellion of not listening to Him and His Word. He calls us to truth from sin to Him and receive this living Word in the incarnation of the man Jesus the anointed Christ that we might know the only true God and His Son to become His unblemished children like Adam and Eve in the righteous state they had been fashioned in at the beginning of time. We who so believe and receive this living Word by His name Jesus the Christ alone have this right. There is no other name as Acts 4:12 and John 14:6 remind us. By so believing and receiving by trusting His Word to be true and truth, we are reborn (1 Peter 1:23) of God by this eternal Word from everlasting to everlasting (יוֹם yôm, Micah 5:2) and not our feeble desire or momentous efforts to become His children. This same eternally-existing Word became incarnate, a man of flesh and bone as we are, that He might put His glory on display to show us the way back to Him as originally intended. His grace in Christ as the one and only God-man shows us the Father’s truth spoken in flesh to us in a way we can understand better than the written word alone. John witnessed this truth and told us in this written form what he had seen in person that we might believe and receive this Word according to his words. We who so have believed therefore have the fullness of God’s grace and truth in the person of Jesus the Christ as our revealed sovereign Lord and gracious Savior! Only the Son has seen God the Father face to face and He has revealed Him to us by this same grace in truth. We have life in (1 John 5:11-13) Christ Jesus alone by this revealed Word of Grace and truth to bring us peace with God at last. This is the reason we celebrate Christmas as the coming of the Word into our world as a man to speak truth as the way of salvation from sin’s penalty and be delivered from the judgment on all since Adam that we may believe and receive this grace to everlasting life through the incarnation of the eternally-existing Word of God come among us as we call Him Immanuel!
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