Prologue to John: Who is Jesus?

Maker, in Whom We Live (Charles Wesley, 1747)

No Longer Slaves (Bethel Music, 2015)

John 1 (interlinear Greek) John 1:1-18 (KJV – NRSV)

Key verse (1:14, KJV): And the Word was made 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.

Meditation (1:5): And the light shineth in the darkness

Eternal Word

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²The same was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. ⁴In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ⁵And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not.

“The evangelist here lays down the great truth he is to prove, that Jesus Christ is God, one with the Father.” (Matthew Henry) “In this introduction [John] asserts the eternal Divinity of Christ, in order to inform us that he is the eternal God, who was manifested in the flesh.” (Calvin)

The opening words of the Gospel remind us of the creation story in Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The beginning refers to our world. God was already there. John tells us that the Word was there, as well. The Word was in the beginning and with God and was God. “The Word had a being before the world had a beginning. He that was in the beginning never began, and therefore was ever, achronos—without beginning of time. In the beginning the world was from God, as it was created by him; but the Word was with God, as ever with him.” (Matthew Henry) With God “express the co-existence, but at the same time the distinction of person. They imply relation with, intercourse with.” (Ellicott)

The Greek word translated Word in nearly all English translations, at least from the 1526 translation by William Tyndale, is logos (LAH-gahss). John Calvin insisted on translating it as “Speech” so that “He reveals himself to us by his Speech.” God spoke the world into being, so we might say that the Word by which all things were made is the speech of God. I think Clarke has the right approach “This term should be left untranslated, for the very same reason why the names Jesus and Christ are left untranslated.” The idea was not new. In Psalm 33:6 we discover, By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made. “There is only one Being that is uncreated, and Jesus must be therefore divine.” (Barnes) In Genesis, God’s word in his language brought the world into existence.

This Word has power, the power to create the world and all that is in it. To the Greek readers of the time of the Apostle John, logos would conjure up ideas of an impersonal force that governs the universe. This is not at all what John is saying. In the third verse, the Word (logos) is referred to by the personal pronoun, him. We know who that him might be. We know it is Jesus that he is talking about. But the most profound declaration is that God is a personal being who made the worlds through a personal Word, not by some mystical force or power. “He is the Word whom the Father begat or spoke from eternity.” (Wesley)

The Apostle John “writes what he so many times had told of Christ’s words and Christ’s works. He is living in the midst of men round whom and in whom that current of Judæo-Alexandrine thought has been flowing for two generations. He hears men talking of the Beginning, of Logos, of Life, of Light, of Pleroma, of Shekinah, of Only-Begotten, of Grace, of Truth, and he prefixes to his Gospel a short preface which declares to them that all these thoughts of theirs were but shadows of the true… And not only was that Logos truly God, but He was truly man; the Incarnation was the answer to the problem which their systems of thought had vainly tried to fathom.” (Ellicott)

It is not just by speech but by his whole life and words that Jesus reveals God to us. Calvin explains, “the life which was bestowed on men was not of an ordinary description but was united to the light of understanding.” All living things have life but “not that light which could guide them to heaven.” (Clark) As Christians, “we perceive more readily the power of God by feeling it in us than by beholding it at a distance.” God is not far away. He is a person who came into this world as Jesus and remains with us as the Holy Spirit. Being God, he gives us light and life. And this light penetrates the darkness in our lives. Having the light of the Holy Spirit ensures that the grief and troubles of this life are never so dark that the light cannot overcome them.

Darkness cannot overtake light. We know this from our own experience. Even a small candle burning will overwhelm the darkness of a room. We have hope in the darkness of our lives. For, “the light of understanding is not wholly extinguished. Amidst the thick darkness of the human mind, some remaining sparks of the brightness still shine.” (Calvin) This light shining, the Evangelist tells us, is the Word of God. “First, all men naturally possess some seed of religion; and, secondly, the distinction between good and evil is engraven on their consciences.” (Calvin) This light reminds us of the first words of God in the creation, Let there be light and God separated this light from the darkness.

John’s Witness

⁶There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. ⁹There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not. ¹¹He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not. ¹²But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: ¹³who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

We now turn to the witness of John the Baptist. The Apostle John is careful to note that the Baptist was just a man. He was sent by God but was not the light that shineth in the darkness. Rather, the Baptist came to bear witness to the true light that was now coming into the world. By this he means to indicate the start of the public ministry of Jesus. Thus, he was in the world but had not yet revealed himself. “A true light is one that does not deceive us, as the true beacon may guide us into port or warn us of danger. Christ does not lead astray. All false teachers do.” (Barnes)

“God the Father sent this witness [John the Baptist] before his Christ, that they might more willingly receive the salvation offered by him.” (Calvin) John tells us that the world knew him not. His own people, the chosen ones of God, received him not. He does not mean that none received him. The Evangelist is simply making a distinction between those who did believe on his name and those who refused to follow Jesus.

Verse 9 tells us that the light lighteth every man. Calvin makes the assertion stronger by dropping the comma, The true light was that which enlighteneth every man who cometh into the world. Thus, he concludes, “from this light the rays are diffused over all mankind. For we know that men have this peculiar excellence which raises them above other animals, that they are endued with reason and intelligence, and that they carry the distinction between right and wrong engraven on their conscience. There is no man, therefore, whom some perception of the eternal light does not reach.” Calvin called this “common grace” and gives it this caution, “let us remember that the only subject here treated is the common light of nature, which is far inferior to faith.” An alternative is to refer the light to Christ, “Cyril and Augustine have translated it, The true light was he who, coming into the world, enlightened every man” (Barnes), a reading I think better fits the context.

“As Christ is the Spring and Fountain of all wisdom, so all the wisdom that is in man comes from him; the human intellect is a ray from his brightness; and reason itself springs from this Logos, the eternal reason. As the human creature sees the light of the world as soon as it is born, from which it had been excluded while in the womb of its parent; in like manner, this heavenly light shines into the soul of every man, to convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment; and it is through this light, which no man brings into the world with him, but which Christ mercifully gives to him on his coming into it, that what is termed conscience among men is produced. No man could discern good from evil, were it not for this light thus supernaturally and graciously restored.” (Clarke)

Verse 10 tells us who can become children of God and the following verse ties this to having been born… of God. This is fleshed out in the third chapter of the Gospel, but it is good to look at it here in this abbreviated form. John has distinguished clearly between those who have received Christ and those who have not. To receive Him means to believe on his name. Certainly, we cannot believe in something of which we have no knowledge. Part of what the Gospel intends is to give us this knowledge that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the very Word of God.

We are not made children of God through our heritage. Being of Jewish descent (“born of blood”) does not automatically make one a child of God. The Jews “had continually in their mouth the nobleness of their lineage, as if, because they were descended from a holy stock, they were naturally holy.” (Calvin) That many rejected Christ puts the lie to that claim. Nor is it something our parents can do on our behalf. For “those among the formerly unclean Gentiles who believe in Christ are not born the sons of God from the womb, but are renewed by God, that they may begin to be his sons.” (Calvin) “The moment they believe, they are sons.” (Wesley) The witness of John “was designed that all men through him might believe, excluding none from the kind and beneficial influences of his ministry that did not exclude themselves.” (Matthew Henry)

“To receive Christ is to acknowledge him as the promised Messiah; to believe in him as the victim that bears away the sin of the world; to obey his Gospel, and to become a partaker of his holiness, without which no man, on the Gospel plan, can ever see God. Those who accept Jesus Christ, as he is offered to them in the Gospel, have, through his blood, a right to this sonship; for by that sacrifice this blessing was purchased; and the fullest promises of God confirm it to all who believe.” (Clarke) The initiative comes from God, not by the will of the flesh, nor the will of man. God is constantly reaching out to us, but we can ignore Him and go on our way if we want. Or, we can believe on Him and become children of God, born in a new way, not by human means but by God. “To be born again means that I see Jesus.” (Chambers)

God Incarnate

¹⁴And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth. ¹⁵John beareth witness of him, and crieth, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that cometh after me is become before me: for he was before me: for he was before me. ¹⁶For of his fulness we all received, and grace for grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

And the Word became flesh, meaning “the Son of God was clothed with human nature.” (Calvin) It does not mean that Jesus was “merely clothed with a human body without a soul” as some insisted. “He had a soul as well as a body; and when Scripture calls men flesh, it does not therefore deprive them of a soul… two natures were so united in one Person in Christ, that one and the same Christ is true God and true man.” (Calvin) He does not go back and forth from one to the other, nor was he created a celestial body that passed through Mary (as taught by sixteenth century Anabaptists). “The Word of the Lord, who was made flesh, endures for ever; when made flesh, he ceased not to be the Word of God.” (Matthew Henry) “It is more than light, which is pure and shews all things; it is the expression of what God is, and God in grace, and as a source of blessing… The glory in which Christ was seen, thus manifested (by those who had eyes to see), was that of an only Son with His Father, the one concentrating object of His delight as Father.” (Darby)

There must have been something striking about the appearance of Jesus. We beheld his glory reminds us of the glory of God that shone on the face of Moses after being in the presence of God. The difference is that the glory of Jesus shone out from him while the shining face of Moses was a reflection of God’s glory. The glory of Jesus is as of the only begotten from the Father. This distinguishes the natural, eternal sonship of Jesus from the adopted sonship of those of us who believe on his name and are called children of God. “Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father. Believers are the children of God by the special favour of adoption and the special grace of regeneration.” (Matthew Henry) Only God in Christ can be full of grace and truth. “The apostles acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God, because he had in himself the fulfillment of things which belong to the spiritual kingdom of God.” (Calvin)

The words full of grace and truth “represent a Hebrew formula, expressing a divine attribute, and the passage which is almost certainly present to the thought here is the revelation of the divine nature to Moses,” (Ellicott) as we read when Jesus went up the mountain to receive the ten commandments, Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth (Ex 34:6). “The fulness of these divine attributes has been beheld in the glory of the Word… this is the essence of Christianity as distinct from Judaism; of a spiritual religion developed from within as distinct from a formal religion imposed from without; of a religion of principles, and therefore true for all time and for all men, as distinct from a religion of works, based, indeed, on an eternal truth (the oneness and the righteousness of God) but still specially designed for a chosen people and for a period of preparation.” (Ellicott)

The Jews had a very high regard for the Law of Moses found in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). “So highly was Moses esteemed by the Jews that they could hardly receive anything that differed from him.” (Calvin) The Evangelist contrasts the Law with the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ. For Calvin truth denotes “a fixed and permanent state of things” while grace is “the spiritual fulfillment of those things… in the Law there was nothing more than a shadowy image of spiritual blessings, but they are actually found in Christ… for Christ is the soul which gives life to that which would otherwise have been dead under the law.”

“Grace is the overflowing favour of God.” (Chambers) Calvin takes “the word grace in a general sense, as denoting both the unconditional forgiveness of sins, and the renewal of the heart.” For Matthew Henry, grace is “the good will of God towards us, and the good work of God in us.” This shows the tremendous power of grace upon grace in our lives. “Grace for grace is abundance of grace, grace upon grace (so Camero), one grace heaped upon another. It is a blessing poured out, that there shall not be room to receive it, plenteous redemption: one grace a pledge of more grace.” (Matthew Henry) “The true grace and truth came into being by means of Jesus Christ. Therefore it is that we receive grace for grace, there being in Him an ever constant fulness of grace, and for the man who uses the grace thus given an ever constant realisation of deeper truth.” (Ellicott)

First, “God is reconciled to us by free grace, in not imputing to us our sins; and, secondly, he has engraven his law in our hearts, and, by his Spirit, renews men within to obedience to it.” This is a blessing we only begin to fully comprehend as we mature in our walk with the Lord. God “cannot be known but in Christ, who is his lively image… God is openly beheld in the face of Christ.” (Calvin)

No one has seen God in his full splendor, but “believers see him with the eye of faith.” (Wesley) Jesus is in the bosom of the Father, which “expression denotes the highest unity, and the most intimate knowledge.” (Wesley) It also reminds the astute reader of the beloved disciple (the writer of this Gospel, the one whom Jesus loved) reclining in Jesus’ bosom at their last supper before the crucifixion. (John 13:23) ” By his Word and Spirit he can enlighten and guide us, and lead us to the true knowledge of God; and there is no true and full knowledge of God which is not obtained through his Son.” (Barnes)