John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
John chapter one has been difficult for many
people because they read into the Word of God the theology they have been
taught rather than reading what is written and believing God's Word. Once
you understand that the Word of God means what it says and says what it
means - "the Word" is understood as exactly what it says: "the Word" is
quite simply God's Word. In studying this verse I will examine each phrase
to see the greatness of God's declaration.
1) In the beginning was the
Word
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God . . .
Genesis 1:3
And God said . . .
Hebrews 11:3
Through faith [believing]
we understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear.
The Greek word translated "the Word" in John
1:1 is the word, logos.
Logos
can be defined as an outward expression of an inward thought.
It is the spoken word. It is the revealed word. It is God's communication
to us of His thoughts. In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning
there was God. God is a spirit (invisible) according to John 4:24. God
makes Himself known to man via His Word. That is Logos.
2) and the Word was with
God,
The Word [logos] was with God in the beginning. Here the Word is referred to as with God yet is presented distinctly independent of God. That Word which God would reveal to man was with God in God's foreknowledge. It was "in the mind of God." God's Word is presented independently to personify the Word. Giving an inanimate object (the Word) the characteristics or voice of a person is a figure of speech.
Proverbs 8:1,14, 22-31
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put
forth her voice? . . . Counsel
is mine, and sound wisdom: I am
understanding; I have strength . . . The Lord possessed me in the beginning
of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from
the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths,
I was brought forth; when
there were no fountains abounding with
water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought
forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the
highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I
was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When
he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of
the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not
pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then
I was by him, as one brought up with
him: and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth;
and my delights were with the sons of men.
The logos, (the thoughts, intents, wisdom,
understanding, etc. that God was to reveal to man), was with God in the
beginning in God's foreknowledge. He knew when he made the earth for man
that man would sin. He knew that He would beget a son, Jesus Christ, to
redeem man. He knew that Jesus Christ would do His Will and speak His Word.
He knew that you and I would believe His Word and get born again. He knows
our end as well as our beginning. The Word of God was with God in His foreknowledge.
The Word that later would be revealed by prophets and angels, by His written
Word - the Bible, and by His son the Lord Jesus Christ who always spoke
God's Word was with God in the beginning.
3) and the Word was God.
God is His Word just as I am my word. You can not know me except by my words. You read what I have written. You talk to me and hear my words and then you know me. When God's Word is spoken it is just as if God were speaking. God's Word makes known God.
John 1:18
No man hath seen God at any time: the only
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
The word "declared" means to make known. Jesus Christ made known God by making known God's Word to man. You could see Jesus Christ. Yet no man hath seen God AT ANY TIME. Jesus Christ was not God. But Jesus Christ made known God. When you hear God's Word, no matter who speaks it, it makes known God to you because God is His Word. The reason people have such difficulty separating the Lord Jesus Christ from God is because Jesus always spoke God's Word. Jesus Christ was continually making known God to man. Everything he did was designed to reveal God. Jesus Christ so manifested God to man that even today people look at him and see God.
John 17:8
For I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely
that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send
me.
John 10:30-36
I and my Father are one. Then the Jews
took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works
have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone
me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but
for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said Ye are gods?
If he called them gods, unto whom the word
of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world,
Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
Jesus did not say that he was God. Jesus Christ made known God. Jesus Christ declared that those who spoke God's Word were referred to as gods (or as God) because they made known God to man. God sent Jesus Christ just as he had sent the prophets in the Old Testament to make known His Word. Those who spoke God's Word were referred to as God because the Word they were speaking was a communication of God to man. Jesus Christ was not God but Jesus Christ was one with God because he always spoke God's Word and thus made known God. You cannot see God (No man hath seen God at any time); but you can see His Word revealed and recognize it as a declaration of God.
Judges 13:2-3,6, 19-22
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the
family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife
was
barren, and bare not. And the angel of the
Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto
her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt
conceive, and bear a son . . . Then the woman came and told her husband,
saying, A man of God came unto me,
and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God,
very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told me
his name: . . .So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it
upon a rock unto the Lord: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah
and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward
heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame
of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on
their faces to the ground. But the angel of the Lord did no more appear
to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew
that he was an angel of the Lord. and
Manoah
said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because
we have seen God.
Manoah and his wife saw an angel that appeared as a man. The angel spoke God's Word to them and then ascended in the flame of the altar. The Word declares in verse 21 that Manoah knew that the man was an angel yet Manoah declared that they had seen God. They knew that the angel was not God, but they recognized that the Word he had declared to them was God's Word. God is His Word.
Exodus 3:1-6
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father
in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the
desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the
angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst
of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the
bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses
said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is
not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called
unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said,
Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes
from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,
the God Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses
hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
God's Word was spoken to Moses from an angel out of the midst of a burning bush. Moses was afraid to look upon God. What he was looking at was a burning bush! Whenever God's Word is revealed to man that place is holy ground for God is being made known. We must recognize the source of that Word - GOD, and not focus on the vehicle of delivery. God is His Word.
John 1:14
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.
Jesus Christ is here referred to as the Word; not because he was God but because he was sent to make known God.
I John 4:9-12
In this was manifested the love of God toward
us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that
he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us,
and his love is perfected in us.
Jesus Christ was sent from God, spoke God's
Word and was the payment for our sins. All this has been accomplished yet
the Word of God still says NO MAN HATH SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME. When we speak
God's Word today we also make known God. If people are to see God they
must have His Word revealed to them for God is His Word.