John 1:1-5 (2)

John 1:1–5 “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 was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

“Jesus as pure goodness”

John 1:1 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Whereas Matthew and Luke begin their gospels at a beginning…the beginning of the human life of Jesus, and Mark begins at a beginning, the beginning of the ministry of the life of Jesus, John starts at the beginning, that is, the beginning of all of physical existence.

John is intentionally bringing our minds to the beginning of all creation with these words: in the beginning.

Thus, let us read the Genesis account that he is referring to as he starts his gospel.

I will read the first five verses because this is what John uses in his first 5 verses of his gospel:

Genesis 1:1–5 “1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

Notice those three words, beginning, light and darkness that John uses explicitly in his first five verses, and that word from Genesis good is an implicit theme John is pulling out.

And all of those words come to have their meaning by his introducing a being at the beginning:

John 1:1 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Logos, word," "speech," "utterance," "message," "reason," "discourse," and "plea had a rich usage in Greek philosophical thought:

There was a Greek problem of how there is anything constant. Heraclitus: you can never step into the same river; it is never the same because the water has flowed on. He answered how there can therefore be order is the Logos, reason or word of God. This was the principle that held everything together in a world of change. There is a purpose and design to the world and events and this is the Logos. Plato said “it may be that some day there will come forth from God a Word, a Logos, who will reveal all mysteries and make everything plain.”

John, beginning his gospel this way is giving the proper identity of this Logos or Word and rooting it in the Jewish ancient book of Genesis: thus telling both Jew and Gentile who Jesus is and making his identity vital for every single creature.

And John is thus saying the same thing to you today. This Jesus he is proclaiming in this gospel demands your undivided and eternal attention. He is the one spoken of old, and he is the answer to every question of existence.

He is the word of God, the speech, the reason…all creation is centered on him.

Your woes can ultimately be traced back to your failure to focus on him, and your unexpected peace in the storm is because of your focus upon the Word that was at the beginning.

John, in identifying the Word in the following verses gives more meat to this assertion that the Word is essential for our focus and attention:

John 1:1–2 “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.”

Two major things are being said about Jesus that will become vital to how the church understands Jesus and formulates the doctrine.

The Word is separate from God in perfect communion and the Word was with God

And yet the Word shares in the essence of God. and the Word was God

And then he emphasizes the distinct person hood yet communion the Word has with God by repeating it: He was in the beginning with God

Thus the Word had perfect communion with God while also being truly God.

With this truth, Jesus chose to refer to himself as the Son and God that he had perfect communion with and shared the same essence as Father.

If you are scratching your head trying to figure out how the Word could be both with God and God at the same time, good. It is a divine mystery in which John is peeling back the curtain just enough for us to have language for it yet struggle to put our arms around the whole concept.

In our creaturely experience, one cannot be both in perfect communion with something that they are.

Yet as we peer into the inexpressible essence of God, we see that he is of one essence, yet different persons in which these persons share perfect communion.

Before we move on to what came forth from this Word that shared perfect communion with God and was God we must make a few remarks of what this existence was like. (this will highlight the goodness that Christ is, he is good and the communion with the good, and this is offered to us).

God as he is

1689 Second London Confession of Faith Chapter 2

God has all life,17 glory,18 goodness,19 and blessedness in and of himself; he alone is all-sufficient in himself. He does not need any creature he has made nor does he derive any glory from them.

John 5:26 “26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

Psalm 119:68 “68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.”

Think of a time in your life that was as close to perfectly good as it could get.

Now consider that all of that was dependent on circumstances happening to you as you responded to it.

God is goodness itself—and does not need circumstances or creation itself.

None of us can understand a perfect good state without having the backdrop of creation—but God is self sufficient and is a greater goodness than we can imagine.

Being around the table at family worship taking over a passage of scripture and then joining in song and prayer with full spirits together…that is the greatest goodness I have ever experience…and to think that that is just a taste of who God is.

I can take all the emotions and experiences of that goodness and then connect it with God is this and eternally more…of himself, without creation.

Communion aspect

3. This divine and infinite Being consists of three real persons,c the Father, the Word or Son, and the Holy Spirit.27  These three have the same substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence without this essence being divided.28  The Father is not derived from anyone, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.29  The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.30  All three are infinite and without beginning and are therefore only one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being. Yet these three are distinguished by several distinctive characteristics and personal relations. This truth of the Trinity is the foundation of all of our fellowship with God and of our comforting dependence on him.

John 17:5 “5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

And so that perfect goodness that God is was enjoyed by way of communion between the three persons of the Trinity.

The Father enjoying the Son and the Spirit, the Son enjoying the Father and the Spirit, the Spirit enjoying the Father and the Son in eternity past, basking in glory and eternal enjoyment.

No pain, no sorrow, no half best but only fully the best. The perfect existence of God the Word enjoying beautiful fellowship with God as God.

And from this existence:

Then creation comes forth from these two aspects

John 1:3 “3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Darkness is a reverting back to chaos in Genesis 1