Tag: application of scriptures

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John 1:1-5 In the Beginning

  • Book: Gospel of John
  • Author: John, a disciple of Jesus
  • Date written: approx 85-95 A.D.
  • Purpose: To show that Jesus is the Son of God and that all who believe in Him will receive eternal life.

 

 

John 1:1-5  1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2He was in the beginning with God.  3All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  5And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (NAS)

Observations 

v1-3   At first glance, John  seems to describe the “Word” as an object, but as he continues, the “Word” expands to include personhood when John adds the  pronoun “He”.  For a fuller understanding of what John means by “Word”, it helps to look at the Greek.  The Greek word used here for “word” is logos and means universal or divine reason.  To a Greek philosopher, logos meant the divine reason or essence which gives order and meaning to the universe.  The Jews had a similar concept. Word (dabar) was often referred to as an agent of creation (Gen 1:3, Ps 33:6), but also as God’s message through the prophets to Israel, and as God’s perfect and holy standard (Ps 18:30, Ps 119:9,11,130). John (God) chose the word logos, which contains this idea of divinity that both Greeks and Jews alike would understand.

John begins to describe who this “Word” is.  In verse 1, he uses location and person – “the Word was with God in the beginning and the Word was God”. John equates the “Word” with God, and the “Word” immediately takes on identity or personhood. In verse 3, the “Word” broadens even further to include Creator. Anything that has ever been made was created by God.

We can reasonably deduce the following from verses 1-3:

  • The Word/God existed before any thing was created
  • There seems to be 2 entities,  when John says “the Word was with God”
  • Both entities are called God
  • God created everything that exists
  • God is not a created thing (self-existing)

Throughout scripture, God reveals that He is eternal. God has no beginning and no end. God is infinite–a difficult concept to fully wrap one’s mind around.   In Exodus 3, God told Moses that His name is “I AM WHO I AM”. This phrase translated in Hebrew, ehyeh asher ehyeh, and is the first person common singular of the verb to be. In essence, God is saying that He simply is, containing past, present and future, similar to Revelation 4:8 when God  is referred to as the Almighty, the One who is, who was, and who is to come. 

v4,5  John continues to describe the Word, saying that in Him was life. Since God is eternal, He is the source of eternal life.  John then equates “life” with “light” of men.  What is this “light of men”?  The Greek word for light is phōs and means light, but also means truth, knowledge,  reason, power of understanding, especially as it relates to moral and spiritual truth.  Therefore, God is the source of all truth and imparts this truth to mankind.   We will see later, in verse 14, that the Word is God in human flesh, Jesus Christ.

What does John mean when he says that this light shined in the darkness but the darkness did not comprehend it? We know that Jesus referred to Himself as “the Truth”, that He came to earth to bring moral and spiritual truth and was rejected. The Jews could not accept or understand that Jesus was the Messiah.  Those that lack understanding are said to be in darkness.   The Greek word used in this verse for darkness is skotia, meaning a lack of moral and spiritual clarity or understanding.  Therefore, those who reject Jesus, reject God’s eternal life and eternal truth, remaining in a state of moral and spiritual darkness.

NOTE:  When John wrote this gospel, gnosticism was prevalent.  Gnosticism was a system of thought that held all matter is evil, all that is non-material or spiritual is good, and that God is unknowable. The fact that God created all material things would have been shocking and unthinkable to a gnostic as well as to a Greek.  To a Jew, it would have been blasphemous for a human to call Himself God.  It was startling and offensive to many cultures and people of this time period…and still today.

Application

1.) One of the most incredible things about the bible is that not only does it teach us how to live, but the bible teaches us who we are.  These verses tell us that we, and all things, have been created by God.    If this is so, He is a being of great power, intellect and beauty.  Psalm 19:1 tells us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”  Just as the heavens reflect who God is, we also reflect our Creator.  Our gifts of music, intellect, mathematics, philosophy, art, etc. all contain the fingerprints of God. This should immediately shrink our pride, for everything that we are has been given to us.  What we do with it, is our gift to Him.

2.) If God created the entire universe, then nothing is too difficult for him, including all of our questions, doubts, complexities, and trials.  He is far bigger than any problem we face.  2,000+ years ago He came to show us what the truth is and the pathway to eternal life.  His desire then is the same now.  He wants to know you, to impart truth to you, and to give you eternal life.  

3.) The metaphor of Jesus being light is a beautiful one.  To anyone who has ever planted a garden, knows light is essential for life.  Without light, there is no life, no growth, only death. Jesus brings life and light (truth) into our lives.  One of light’s characteristics is revelation.  Light reveals what is really there.  When you walk through a darkened room, you do not walk with confidence and trip over unseen obstacles.  But when light floods the room, you walk with confidence avoiding the obstacles.  So it is with Jesus.  When we know and follow Jesus, his truth is like a light that shines ahead of us, helping us find our way.

4.) When Jesus’ light penetrates the darkness in our hearts,  it reveals who we really are.  We are sinners.  But He doesn’t want us to remain there. He then beckons us to turn from the darkness to Him.  He wants to give us a relationship with Himself.  He points us to the truth, which will set us free.  What is the truth?  That we are sinners,  in need of a savior.  We cannot pay the debt we owe to God.  But Jesus came to die on a cross, thereby paying our debt in full.  That is what He meant by His last words, “It is finished.”  The debt has been paid.  

If you have specific questions or wish to further research topics related to the eternal nature of God, creation, the Trinity, etc., please feel free to contact me and/or visit the website, www.gotquestions.org.  This site is an excellent resource for questions and further research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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John 1:14-18 The Word Became Flesh

John 1:14-18   

14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me [c]has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth [f]were realized through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Observations

14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory [glory=doxa=divine qualities; manifestations of God], glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. According to John,  the “Word” (Jesus) came to earth to live with us as a human – in the flesh.  Let that sink in for a moment.  The God who created the universe, matter, space, time -everything, decided to become a human, so that He could live with us.  He was  divine as well as human.  Jesus is the only God-man that ever walked the earth.  That He would draw close to us, sinners, is amazingly beautiful and sobering at the same time.  We needed saving.  He willingly came to save us.  Sobering.

While Jesus was on Earth, in the flesh, we were able to get a glimpse of what God is like.  We were able to see His glory, His splendor.  The Greek word for glory is doxa.  Doxa means an especially divine quality, a manifestation of God, or splendor.  By watching what Jesus did, and listening to what He said, we get a direct revelation of what God is really like.  Hebrews 1 puts it beautifully, “He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. ”  In other words, Jesus is the exact mirror image of God Himself.

(John refers to Jesus as “the only begotten”. The Greek word  for only begotten is monogenés and means ‘one-and-only’ of its kind or in simpler terms – unique.  John is saying there was only one man on earth that was also God; this one of a kind God-man, is Jesus.)

John’s description of Jesus says that He was overflowing with grace and truth.  What does this mean? To say that someone is filled with grace means they exude kindness, blessing, and favor. In regards to the Greek word for truth, alethia, means truth, but not merely truth as spoken, but of reality, as it relates to truth in the moral sphere, straightforwardness. So in effect, Jesus is the source of eternal truth, as it relates to all spheres – physical and spiritual truth.

15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me [c]has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’”The gospels tell us that John was born approximately 6 months before Jesus, so John is older than Jesus at this time.  When John says that Jesus existed before him, John is making a claim that Jesus is divine, that Jesus existed from long ago.  John understood, or it was revealed to him through the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is God.

16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 

What does John mean when he says that have received ‘fullness’ and ‘grace upon grace’?  The Greek word for fullness is plērōmatos, meaning a full complement, filling or completion.  Therefore, Jesus gives us all that we need, all that is necessary.

17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, God gave the law (10 commandments, law of grain offerings, law of peace offerings, sacrificial laws, etc see Leviticus.)   through Moses to the people of Israel.  The purpose of the law was:

  • to reveal what God was like, to reveal His holy standard
  • to reveal the justice of God-they could not draw near unless an animal died in the place of the sinner
  • to reveal the inability of humankind to follow God’s laws
  • to ultimately reveal their need for a Messiah, for a Savior

The law revealed one main aspect of God’s nature ====justice.  The atonement of Christ revealed another aspect of God’s nature===grace and truth (love, mercy, forgiveness)

Therefore, the New Testament does not mean that God has changed from being a more stern judge, rather, the New Testament adds another facet of who God is, in totality.  He never changes.  The Old Testament simply reflects different aspects of God’s nature than the New Testament.  But both Old and New Testaments are required for a more complete understanding of who God is.

When we look at the cross – we see both of these aspects above.  We see God’s justice – that sin requires death; and we also see the love of God – that He provided the sacrifice that was needed for the atonement of sin.  The cross should make us pause.  Sin is serious to a holy God.  But God, in His great love for us, paid the debt that we owed.  This is incredible.

18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

John uses the Greek word heōraken, which means not only the physical act of seeing, but also involves a mental discernment of what is seen.  So what John is saying is that no one has seen and totally understood God.  Even when Jesus came to earth, that although the bible says He is the exact imprint of God, the bible tells us that Jesus emptied Himself of his glory when He came to earth. What we see are the forms that represent God.

In the Old Testament during the Exodus, God revealed Himself as a pillar of fire at night, and a cloud during the day, to the Israelites.  When they arrived at the base of Mount Sinai and God came down to meet with the people and with Moses, the people were absolutely terrified.  Smoke, lightning, earthquake and darkness veiled the Almighty.  The people begged Moses to meet with God.  They wanted no part in experiencing God face to face.

No one can see God face to face, for His very presence would consume mere humans.  Therefore, God, in His mercy, veils Himself so that we can see a form of Him and survive the experience.  God is similar to a huge diamond containing many facets.  We are allowed to see only a fraction of those facets, and therefore have an incomplete understanding of God.  God gets to choose which of those facets He will reveal and how He reveals them to us.  Right now, we know Him only in part.  Jesus Christ gave allowed us to glimpse many more facets of this beautiful diamond.  Now that Jesus Christ has come to earth and revealed Himself, we have a better understanding of what God is like….but we still do not know Him fully.  Only when we die and meet Him face to face, will we have our the fullest understanding of who God really is.

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