Christology: Part Three (John 1:1-18)

After a lengthy break we resume our four-part study of the major Christological passages of the New Testament. This time we are looking at the first eighteen verses in the gospel of John. In this section we see four key terms that are used to describe the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The first term associated with Christ is “Word” (John 1:1-3, 14). John writes, “In the beginning was the Word” (v. 1). Reading down, one discovers that the Word made all things “in the beginning” (see also Genesis 1:1-2 and 1 John 1:1-4 for further uses of the phrase “in the beginning” and Christ’s involvement with the Father in the creation of the universe.)

The opening paragraph of the prologue indicates four things about the Word. (1) He was with God, (2) He was God, (3) He was in the beginning with God, and (4) He created all things. Interestingly, John uses two different phrases in verse three to describe the same thing. He writes, “All things were made by Him,” which would suffice as an argument of itself. However, he chooses to also say the same thing in different wording: “Without Him there was not one thing made”. By doing this—using two different phrases to say the exact same thing—John wants his readers to understand that the Word of God (in the person of Christ) is the source of all that has ever existed.

To clarify, the term “word” is also used in Scripture to refer to God’s written word (the Bible) and God’s spoken word (His actual voice, as recorded in the Bible) in addition to the person of Christ, who is sometimes spoken of as the “living word”. In all three terms, it should be understood that the “Word” of God—whether written, spoken, or living—is authoritative. Whenever God speaks, writes, and acts, He is displaying His authority over all that He created, which is everything (John 1:3).

A final key point about the Word is given in verse 14 where John writes, “And the Word became flesh.” This is the most direct statement about the incarnation of the Son of God anywhere in the Bible. In his classic work Knowing God, J. I. Packer explains that the incarnation is the primary truth for understanding who Jesus is. All the debates about Jesus—virgin birth, authoritative teaching, miracles, death, resurrection, etc.—are put to rest if God actually became a human. If “the Word became flesh,” there are no issues to be raised about what He did.

The second term used for Christ is “Light” (John 1:4-13). John equates light with “life” here, just as he does elsewhere in his gospel (8:12). Other Scripture writers also frequently associate light with life and darkness with death. John says “the Light shined in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it” (1:5). The majority of the dark-minded people of Jesus’ day did not understand that the light of the world was in their midst (see also 1:10-13).

The word “comprehend” used here could also carry the idea of “overtake.” Think of a dark room, that upon waking into it, you flip on the light switch. Where does the darkness go? It ceases to exist in that place. When light appears, darkness does not overtake light. The opposite happens; light overtakes darkness. When Jesus entered into the world, darkness did not (nay, could not!) overtake Him because He is light. Unfortunately for many in Jesus’ day and countless more since, they do not see Jesus as light. They misunderstand Him and are not able to comprehend Him.

A sort of parenthesis in this paragraph is seen in verses 6-9, and that is the description of the ministry of John the Baptist. His ministry is stated twice here—once each in verses seven and eight—and both times the wording in Greek is identical: “in order that he might testify concerning the Light.” Verse 15 of this chapter acknowledges that John did testify about Him, thus fulfilling his God-given responsibilities stated in verses 6-8. This ought to be the desired testimony of every believer, namely, that we would continually testify concerning Christ.

The final two key words about Christ that we will look at are used together twice in this section: grace and truth (vv. 14, 17). Verse 14 describes Jesus as “full of grace and truth.” In other words, Jesus personified these attributes. When one desires to see grace in action and truth lived out, one needs only to study the life of the Lord Jesus. Because of His fullness in these areas, there is no room for falsehood or slander. Elsewhere in John’s gospel, Jesus very famously declares himself to be “the truth” (14:6).

Because Christ is the ultimate source of grace, any grace we may obtain is through Him (v. 16). His grace overflows to us although we are not worthy of it. We are undeserved objects of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Grace is contrasted with the Law of Moses in the Old Testament. “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (v. 17). Although salvation has always been by God’s grace, grace was a misunderstood concept until it was perfectly modeled by Christ, who also perfectly modeled all other attributes of God the Father (v. 18). Jesus has declared (made known) to us what the Father is like through His words and actions, which are “full of grace and truth”.