Scripture Alone: God’s Word Incarnate

John 1:1–10 ESV

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. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

In this series.

We have been intentionally tracing the biblical category of God’s Word throughout the storyline of Scripture.

But today we circle up to the New Testament.

There are many places we could go if we wanted to understand the Word of God from the Apostolic witness.

But today I want us to consider with the Apostle John what he proclaims about the Word.

It’s ironic that his first move is backward.

Jesus Christ, God’s Word from the beginning.

In America, we have phrases we all know.

Phrases that if we heard them we would know exactly what is being expressed with them.

Think about the phrase “We the people…”

We all know a phrase like that comes from the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence gives so many overtones to that phrase.

It’s when America declared their freedom.

John 1:1 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word…

Before time itself began, the Word existed.

Before space began, the Word existed.

Before anything was created, the Word existed.

Before anything that was ever made in all the created order, God’s Word existed.

Think back to before Genesis 1:1, which John here is clearly referencing.

Genesis 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Before time.

Before space.

Before matter.

Before everything.

God’s Word existed.

The Pre-existence of the Word – Eternal.

Now the word here that John uses for “word” is λόγος…

The complexity with this word is not that it is ambiguous as it is widely referenced.

The range of the use of “logos” is deeply attested to outside of Biblical thought.

Especially within the Hellenistic writings.

John wants his readers to understand the “logos” with reference to God’s Word itself.

Now the word “logos” can literally mean “message” as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18

1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV)

18 For the word (logos) of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Paul’s not actually saying that the word “cross” is foolishness.

He’s saying that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

This word is also used in the way we talk about the sciences.

“Theology” made up of two words “Theos” for God and “logos” the study of.

So any “ology” at it’s core comes back to the message of or the study of a subject.

“Biology” — Study of Life

“Psychology” — Study of the Psyche

But even more basic than that.

I think John has in mind the Biblical writers.

Everything we have been building toward for several weeks is culminating right here.

As Genesis 1:3 says…

Genesis 1:3 ESV

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

The God who has always existed.

The God who has always been.

The God who has always self-existed spoke.

“God’s ‘Word’ in the Old Testament is his powerful self-expression in creation, revelation and salvation, and the personification of that ‘Word’ makes it suitable for John to apply it as a title to God’s ultimate self-disclosure, the person of his own Son.” —D.A. Carson The Gospel according to John (I. The Prologue (1:1–18))

To Jewish ears, John’s assertion here is simply that Yahweh’s Word has always been.

God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of Christ John 1:1–18

“God’s word … is his self-expression.”

God’s Word is His revelation of Himself.

In creation, revelation, redemption, and salvation.

God’s Word is revealing what He IS.

“Where God is, his word is, and vice versa.” —John Frame

When we think about the story of Christmas, it does not begin in a manager.

No!

God’s plan from Christmas began long ago!

What we celebrate at Christmas is the IN-BREAKING of the ETERNAL “LOGOS.”

John 1:1 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…

The Fellowship of God with the Word – Distinct.

John goes further back than a manger in Bethlehem.

John goes back to before the beginning of time itself to place the Lord Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the eternal “logos” of the Father. Equal and yet distinct.

Notice the word “with” in John 1:1.

John 1:1 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…

It gives overtones of fellowship and community between them.

There is an intimacy and a closeness within relationship together.

John 1:2 (ESV)

2 He was in the beginning with God.

There’s a distinction yet a unity.

The WORD is before all beginnings.

But the WORD is also distinct from the Father.

“Though existing eternally with God the Logos was in perfect fellowship with God.” —A.T. Robertson

The “Logos” was in perfect fellowship with God.

They shared a fellowship.

They shared a communion that Jesus describes in John 17.

John 17:5 ESV

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

The glory that they shared with One another was a fellowship between the persons of the Godhead.

Jesus’ request in John 17 is that He would return to the communion that they had beforehand.

John 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word of God is not only identified as coming before all things…

Not only in intimate fellowship with God…

But ultimately the Word is described as being of the same essence with God.

The Supremacy of the Word– Divine.

The Word was NOT some impersonal force.

The Word was NOT some super powerful being that God had created.

NO.

The Word is the full person alongside the Father in the very beginning.

“What God was, the Word was.

The Word was God, and the Word was with God.

Coequal, indistinguishable, yet distinct.” —Jim Hamilton

Application — Confidence in the Word

The next time you run into someone who says something like,

“Jesus was really just a created being like all the other angels.”

Or saying something like Arius “There was a time when He was not.”

“There was a time when the Son did not exist.”

We hear that in the back of your mind you fearfully think,

What if it’s true?

What if the Bible does teach that?

Do you hear the fear-filled question that is?

I want to assure you of something, especially when people try to prove something from the Scriptures.

Never be afraid of a stance someone takes from Scripture.

But do as Spurgeon says…

“The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.” —Charles Spurgeon

John 1:3 ESV

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Does that include the “logos”?

Of course not!

Confidence is different than arrogance.

Arrogance says,

“Look at how great I am!”

“I know so much!”

But confidence in the Word of God opens the Scripture and let’s it fly.

Not fearing what the text may demand of us.

But confidently letting Scripture defend itself.

“Look at what God says!”

Jesus Christ, God’s Word is Life.

Notice the duality of what John is arguing here for.

The Word that has dwelt in eternity past.

The Light that sprung forth into the Word and holds all of life together.

These two categories are even more fleshed out in 1 John when John argues…

1 John 1:2 ESV

2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—

1 John 1:5 (ESV)

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

The message that John has seen and beheld in the Lord Jesus is both the message from eternity past.

God’s Word incarnate.

Yet He is the light of the world that has shown upon them.

John 1:4 ESV

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The Life from Himself – Self-existent Word.

John argues that Jesus is the well-spring of all life from eternity past.

He is the One whom life comes from through because it’s in Him that life itself resides.

NOT self-created but self-existent

The idea of self-creation is a non-sensical reality.

We have no categories for it.

Nothing in fact can be self-created.

Even God Himself is NOT self-creation.

To be self-created means that there is in fact a beginning point.

Jesus reiterates this again in John’s gospel when he argues for His authority as the Son of God says…

John 5:26 ESV

26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

But God is the eternal One who has life in Himself.

He is in fact the self-existent One.

The One who has life in Himself.

He needs nothing from us.

He needs nothing from anything else.

He is the self-existent, self-contained, life-giving One.

Now the self-existent One.

The One who has always been.

Will always be.

Has made Himself known.

The One who has life in Himself has been revealed to all humanity.

John 1:4–5 ESV

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.

The Conquering Light over the Darkness.

When you hear the word darkness, what comes to your mind?

What are you prompted to think about?

You probably think about the darkness that exists in our present age.

You probably think about the utter darkness of sin and suffering in the world we currently dwell in.

The comparison of light and darkness is as old as time itself.

I would contend that John especially has in mind the darkness of chaos from Genesis 1 that God expels in Genesis 1:3

Genesis 1:3–4 ESV

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.

The separation of light from darkness emanates out of God Himself.

The light shines in the darkness.

The chaos and confusion of darkness are dispelled from the purity and clarity of the Word of the Yahweh.

Darkness is everything that is the absence of Yahweh and His order, beauty, and peace.

The word John uses there for “overcome” has been rendered “comprehended” (NASB) or “understood” (NIV, 1984).

Jesus as the Overcomer of Darkness

The darkness could not prevail over the Word made flesh.

But there is also a sense that even if darkness tries to kill the Word made flesh, He will rise again.

Life is in the Son of God made flesh.

Life is in Him and darkness cannot and will not overcome Him.

Where does darkness reside?

Obviously, we could describe darkness being on multiple levels.

Darkness in the heavenly realms.

Darkness in the world around us.

But I find it interesting where John’s gospel begins to describe darkness.

John 1:6–8 ESV

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

Where does darkness reside?

In us.

In people.

In fallen humans apart from the grace of God.

Fallen people are NOT by nature children of God.

They are actively participating in the darkness that does not understand the LIGHT.

Jesus Christ, God’s Word that illumines.

John immediately begins describing John the Baptist.

Now this may seem strange to us that John would write in his gospel account about a man attesting to the light.

Unless John the Baptist is special in some way to John.

Unless John as the prophet Isaiah tells us is the embodiment of OT expectation.

Unless John is as the prophet Isaiah says.

Isaiah 8:22 ESV

22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

A people dwelling in darkness and ruin.

A people in “distress and darkness” and “the gloom of anguish.”

John is the fulfillment of all the anticipation of that dark time coming to an end.

Isaiah 9:2 ESV

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

The Light attested by John the Baptist.

It as though John references John the Baptist here by pointing to the moon.

The NIGHT is extremely dark.

No light to be seen.

But comparable to seeing a full-moon on a pitch black night, so John the Baptist shines on a dark people.

The moon only ever gets bright because it is reflecting the Sun.

John writes about John the Baptist here because when we see him coming we know the SUN is coming.

The light that Christ brings can be actually illustrated, especially at Christmas time.

Think for a moment how different this season is for an unbeliever.

They might have joy, but it’s a hollow joy.

They may have peace, but it’s a hollow peace.

They may even have a lovely feelings, but they also are hollow.

But the light that John attested to what a light that spanned from the dawn of time all the way down to the present.

It’s a light that both pierces the darkness and heals the darkness.

It’s a light that is unconquerable.

I was especially reminded of this this past week as we walked the halls of the nursing home.

We are singing of joy, peace, and the goodwill toward men.

But the people we sang to, their bodies were decaying.

They couldn’t hear like they used to.

They couldn’t see like they used to.

They had lost loved ones that creates a depth of darkness that is unspeakable.

But we could speak of these things because of the unimaginable light that has shown up upon the darkness of this world.

The light that has shown upon this world has shown into the hearts of believers.

It’s the light that guarantees resurrection.

It’s the light that promises life.

John 1:9 ESV

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

Where does darkness reside?

In us.

What does darkness do when it sees light?

John 1:10–11 ESV

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

The Light rejected by Mankind.

Jesus came to His own people.

He came to the people of Israel.

They despised Him.

They rejected Him.

Jesus Christ, the light of the World came to His own people.

The Light that divides humanity.

Think about how differently Christmas comes to an unbeliever versus the Christian?

Unbelievers are met by the omnipotent Santa Claus, that literally embodies paganism.

If you do good things you get good things.

If you do bad things you get bad things.

But the Christian is met with an entirely different story.

We are met with the eternal, distinctly divine Word of God in Christ.

The word of God that dispels the darkness and breaks into our hearts with the light of the gospel.

The light that pierces the darkness and brings good to those who are bad.

The light that makes the wicked righteous in the son of God.

John 1:12–13 ESV

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus Christ, God’s Word from the beginning, is life that illumines darkened hearts by the Holy Spirit.