John 1:1-5

Christ the Creator

Introduction.

It should not come as a surprise to us that the opening chapters of Genesis and John are assaulted by the enemy. For nearly two hundred years now, the preposterous idea of atheists that mankind has no inherent worth but is merely the chance encounter of molecules and random processes to bring it into a thinking thing, have been rampant. To undercut the Creator, is to undercut the beginning of Scripture. If it can be proved there were no creator, not only does that demolish the doctrine of God but inextricably tied to it is the doctrine of the person and work of Christ.

John’s Gospel leaves us no question as to the answer to life’s biggest questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? What is our purpose? etc. One commentator notes that John’s gospel is a pool safe enough for a child to swim in but deep enough for an elephant to drown in. The depth of simple phrases as “was”, “beginning,” “life”, “light”, and “darkness” are far weightier than one could imagine.

Reading John is like picking up an item that from first glance looks incredibly light. You probably look down and have already mentally prepared the mechanical movements of your arm. Your brain has determined just the right amount of ATP to produce during the muscle contractions to pick it up. But as you go to grab a seemingly light object, you’re quite shocked. Your arm droops far lower than you could have imagined. And there’s a shock of just how weighty this seemingly light thing is.

In John, these ideas of light, life, darkness, birth, beginnings, and so on are far deeper than we realize. Not only because theologians have used them but because our Lord and Savior used simple words to convey weighty truths. And in John’s beginning verses we will focus upon two of God’s weighty truths for us,

[1] The Son’s creational power (vv. 1-3)

[2] The Son’s redemptive power (vv. 4-5)

[1] The Son’s creational power (vv. 1-3)

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

WSC, How many persons are there in the Godhead?

arche, beginning, corresponds directly with the creation account. Genesis 1:1“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Eimi, the word, to be, is in its imperfect form. Why is that relevant? It describes a continuing action in the past, which further reinforces the fact that the Son is eternally preexistent. Even more important, is that if John intended - as the Arians and JW presume - that Christ “became” or was “created” he would have used the correct word “ginomai”.

We are told in John 1:2“He was in the beginning with God.”

Christ always was, eternally existent, with God the Father. In fact we see this all throughout the account in Genesis 1.

Already, the Trinity is represented in Genesis 1:1–3“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”

The Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters, God the Father enthroned, God the Son the Word speaking into existence.

The Word.

Greek philosophy - impersonal, abstract principle of reason and order in the universe

OT - relational.

The Word was spoken by God and all things were created.

The Word was spoken to Abraham by God in his unilateral covenant He makes with Abraham, a fixed point of the CG reflecting back to the CR.

The Word was the dictation of God’s Holy Law on Mt. Sinai.

The Word was revealed by the prophets.

Hebrews 1:1–3“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

It should come as no surprise that John takes the creation account into his gospel. What do we have in creation? The entire existence of all things being brought forth. The beginnings, origins, genesis.

But these creational acts were a foreshadow of Christ and the New Creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

God speaks and light comes into the world. Yet this was merely a fragment of God’s eternal purpose and power. Now, John says, Christ who is the “light of the world” comes and brings His people out of darkness.

In the creation, God separates the heavens above and the earth below. Yet, Christ comes and creates the very ladder to heaven Jacob saw, bridging the gap between man and God, as Mediator.

In creation, God brings forth vegetation, trees bearing fruit. Yet, Christ comes and restores His own people who bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Christ is the source, the vine (John 15) and His own are the branches.

In creation, God creates man in His own image, to be fruitful and multiply. Yet, Christ comes and by the power of His Spirit brings us into submission of His eternal and holy law as we conform to the image of Christ. In Christ, we are fruitful and multiply not merely by having more offspring, but by the power of evangelism and the proclamation of God’s Kingdom.

“and the Word was with God”

(προσ τον θεον)

The distinction in Greek is far more personal than our Bible translations allow. In fact, the phrase here in Greek implies “face-to-face” relationship between the Father and the Son. Only people can be in relationships. An attribute cannot be relational to another being. Christ the Son of God was in eternal communion and fellowship with the Father.

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

We see how in the incarnation, Christ in fact “left the glory of heaven and the privilege of face-to-face communion with His Father” in his condescension. Philippians 2:7–8“but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

“and the Word was God.”

Last time we discussed how heresies and false teachers manipulate this verse to assume it should be translated as “the Word was a god.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The establishment that Christ is God reigns throughout the Gospel John. For example, John 8:58“Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.””

John 10:30“I and the Father are one.””

Possessing the ability to create in a humanly sense alone represents a form of ownership and sovereignty over the created thing. For example, if you and your spouse have together created a child (not out of nothing like God), then you have a level of sovereignty over that child, created thing. If you create a business and are the CEO, then you have a level of sovereignty and power over that business. Obviously all analogies fail. I recognize that a CEO will have a board of trustees and may eventually become fired or terminated. Nonetheless when we talk about the Sovereign Creator, we speak of one who cannot be overthrown.

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

Christ created all things.

Colossians 1:16“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

Hebrews 1:2“but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

As opposed to Christ’s eternal preexistence as God, He is the one who brings those things which were not, into existence.

Ephesians 3:9“and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things,”

Most important is the phrase, “apart from him” or “without him” nothing else was made. This is a great apologetic against Arianism, JW, or mormons. If Christ is being referenced in verse 3, “the Word”, then apart from Him nothing else could be made. Now if he were a created being, then how could he self-create? It is an impossibility.

[2] The Son’s redemptive power (vv. 4-5)

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

Picking up on the basic grammar, “was”, is again a reference to Christ’s eternality. Life only found in Jesus Christ Himself.

Not only was he face-to-face, eternal fellowship and communion with the Father, not only was he the agent of power in creating all things, but from all eternity Jesus was life. Life, zoe, refers to the physical sense of life and transcendent sense of life.

In Christ all things came into being that were not for He was in the beginning. A further expression of His deity in being the source of all living life. In Genesis he brought forth plants, vegetables, the ground, the seas, the sky, all types of birds and fish, all animals that we see before us. John is tying the deity of Christ to the Creator.

Even in that realm, we see Christ as involved in the meticulous creation of those whom were created in His image. Remember Genesis 1:26–27“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

God, three-in-one, all present in the creation of man. And this does not terminate in the pages of Genesis itself. Psalm 139:13–14“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

But Christ is also creator when it comes to spiritual life. This is a deep fathom of theological knowledge and worship to God in these first five verses. We will see how the life/death along with the light/darkness motif will come throughout John’s Gospel.

Christ is the Divine Word and the Saving Word.

John expresses to us that Christ is the divine word but also by implication the saving word. Christ is the life. Richard Philipps briefly remarks, “Life does not make sense until we meet Jesus.” The saving Word came and dwell amongst His own (John 1.14). And not only did the Word speak all things into existence, but his own disciples recognized the life found in his words. John 6:68“Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,”

In John 3.16 we see how Jesus the Son of God proclaims whoever would believe in him would have eternal life. We often look at eternal life in terms of quantity, that is, an undefined time. But eternal life is a quality of life as well. You are no longer separated from God by the great chasm of sin but you are brought into his imperishable kingdom. In that very place all things are new.

In contrast however, the implication is that if Christ grants eternal life, then those who are still dead in their sins and trespasses will have eternal death. Not eternal death in an anihilistic sense but in the eternal wrath of God upon them. John 3:36“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

The Word Himself renews our hearts and minds. And in that renewal Christ creates us anew. The God who created from nothing, takes dead sinners, into life-breathing children of God. Where the Spirit blew upon Adam and brought him to life so also does the Holy Spirit breath into us life.

Not only is Christ our life but our light as well. What does light do? It reveals. If you have ever walked into a hotel room perhaps you have a general idea of the layout. You’ve seen pictures online of the type of room you have booked, but you haven’t seen it for yourself. As you walk in the darkened room you have a sense for where everything is but veiled. So is our state before Christ. Paul tells us that all of mankind knows God exists, but we stumble in that darkness.

If I told you to search for a small thumb tack in a darkened room, your hotel room for example, you would wander around aimlessly, stumbling over furniture, reaching all over the floor, trying to prick your way through drawers. But the room is darkened. But what Christ does is he opens our blind eyes, he reveals to us Himself through His light. As you flip the light on in the room, suddenly, in an instant, you are aware of where everything is. There is no confusion. And at that moment, you realize the very thing you have been searching was embedded in the ceiling.

Jesus is the light and in fact the very thing we are searching for, he does not flip on the light and tells us to go find it now. But instead, in our darkened state of sin and blindness, the Lord turns on the light and in that moment reaches out and hands us the gift of salvation. Why? He has already traversed the darkness by bearing the sin to earn and merit for us the very thing we have been needing all along.

John makes a very bold statement I believe to be overlooked. That darkness itself has not overcome the light. Darkness is not only the opposite of light but it actually stands in opposition to the light. John 3:19“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

This darkness is precisely what has been aiming to overcome the light from the beginning of Christ’s incarnation. Babies were murdered to quench the light. Mobs formed to stone the light. Soldiers were sent to arrest and crucify the light. The light was nailed to a cross. The light itself was killed and sent into a darkened tomb. And after all hope seemed to fail the disciples, this scriptural promise was fully realized in the resurrection, darkness has not overcome the light.

Application.

One thing popularized by Barth Ehrman, 20th century NT liberal theologian is the idea that Christians never considered Christ to be God until the Council of Nicaea in the 4th century. Many have picked up upon those threads in discrediting Christ’s deity, like Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code. But John makes this assertion far before Bart Ehrman or Nicaea.

Implications if Christ is not God.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.12-19.

Our preaching is in vain.

Your faith is in vain.

No resurrection.

A people most pitied.

The main reason people discredit Christ’s self-revelation, ultimately, is due to sin. Not only sin by way of corrupting our minds, being spiritually dead, but as a way to prevent accountability for our actions.

If Christ is just a good teacher, then I can take those great teachings and hold on to those but I’m not responsible for the breaking of God’s law. There have been countless great teachers since human beings began.

But Christ is so much more than a great teacher. A great teacher he is, certainly. But Jesus Christ is God.

Implications if Christ is God, which he is.

He deserves our worship.

He deserves our obedience.

Our obedience comes by means of our conversion. The Word, Jesus Christ, becomes the object of our praise and worship and so does the Word, Scripture itself. Psalm 1:1–2“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

We drink from the everlasting source of truth. Just as Jesus tells the Samaritan woman in John 4 that he will give her living waters, so also does he nourish us with streams of living waters through the Scriptures.

He is the source of all truth.

He is sovereign.

We looked this morning in Sunday School at the question, “Is believing in Jesus enough for salvation?” We always look to other ways to be saved, which is quite sad. God has given us the principle way we are saved, confessing Christ is Lord and true faith in our hearts. And this is the heart of John’s Gospel John 20:30–31“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Let us pray the Spirit of God transforms our lives to not only ascend or acknowledge these truths, but store them as deep treasure in our souls.