John Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Text
Text
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Now, I know we spent all last week on this single verse,
And that is because it holds a lot of weight theologically
If someone gets this verse wrong
It is hard to correct the ship, so to speak.
I just want to talk about one more word in this verse
that we did not discuss too much last week.
The word is “with”.
W-I-T-H
In English, it says, and the Word was WITH God.
And last week, we talked about how most people want this to say
The SON is With God the Father.
And it all hinges on that word “with”
And what the word “with” means.
Now, typically, we think the word “with” means either
position, or possession, relationship
Let me give an example of each one:
Position:
If you asked me, where your Bible,
I can say, I have it “WITH” me.
That means it is located near me.
And that refers to the position of the Bible.
Possession:
If I said:
That woman is WITH child.
or there is a man with great leadership skills.
Those examples indicate that the subject owns or possesses something or some quality.
Relationship:
Finally, the word with can indicate relationship.
Those men are not against us, they are with us.
There are some cases where there is overlap
If I say, Jesus is with his disciples
You could that to mean they are positionally together
but also relationally together.
Of course, there are other ways with can be used,
but this are the most common
and are not archaic or obsolete.
In John 1.1, many theologians want the word “With” to mean
both positionally and relationaly.
That want one subject, which is the word
To be located near God the Father
And also, be in a relationship with God the Father.
I have a problem with this.
For one, it creates the weird logic problem that we address last week
where if the word is with God the Father
and is also God the Father
then the word cannot be a separate person.
The second reason is… John would most likely have used another word.
A word that also means WITH
The word translated to WITH in verse 1 is the Greek word pros.
Now, I’ve been researching that word extensively for countless hours.
It is used 686 times in the New Testament,
and only 50 times is it translated to the English word WITH.
460 times it is translated as the English word “TO”.
So much hinges on the word WITH in this verse
And it is quite possible that it shouldn’t even say “WITH”.
Now, I promise I won’t give you all my research on this single word
We would be here for days,
and I’m not even kidding.
But what I’ve found is that if John meant what Trinitarians want him to mean
He would have used the Greek word Meta.
A word that is translated to “with” 319 times out of 464 times.
The first example of it is in Matt 1.23
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Here, God WITH us is using the Greek word META.
And I’m not talking about the Facebook company.
It is a greek word that means with,
and specifically, with in relationship or position, or possession.
Like how we use the word “WITH” in English today.
They want the WORD in John 1.1 to be WITH God the Father
In the same ways Jesus was WITH us in Matt 1.23.
But… John didn’t use the right word for that
And I’m fully convinced of that.
It is theological bias that is prompting scholars
to translate a word that means “TO”
to the English word “With”.
I spent some time using AI to work through possible translations for John 1.1
and one that really seems to grasp the real meaning and intention of John’s words in that verse is…
In the beginning was the Plan. The Plan existed TO God, and God was the Plan.
Ok, moving on.
He was in the beginning with God.
We already said last week, this should most likely not say He.
The KJV translates is as:
The same was in the beginning with God.
I explained why last week this is more accurate.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
So, just like in verse 2, the personal pronouns here could,
and I think should be neutral instead of masculine.
Grammatically, the pronoun can be He or It depending on the context
Since it is referring to the Word
and a word is not a person
It should be “IT”.
However, the translators believe that the word is a separate person in the Trinity
Therefore, they are forced, based on their theology
To choose the word “him”.
But what does this do to the consistency of the Bible?
That is a serious question.
Because I believe the Bible cannot contradict itself
but if the word is a Him
then someone else created all things
But what does the Bible Say?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,
So, who is the Lord that created all things alone?
Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
the prophet Malachi agrees with this…
Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
So, you see, the word “him” in verse should be “IT”.
And here’s why…
The HIM is God the Father according to Scripture
God the Father alone created all things.
The “IT” is the WORD.
Because, how did God create???
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
So, the WORD is not some personal agent that created everything
The word is the instrument through which God the Father created all things.
There is no other way to interpret Jn 1.3… and not contradict the rest of the Bible.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
What’s John saying?
He is saying, that this plan that God has in the beginning
Before the foundation of the world
That plan was the motive behind all creation.
What was that plan???
The plan was for God to be with us
And to make a way for us to be with Him.
That is what the book of John is all about.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Again, grammatically speaking,
there is nothing stopping this translation from saying IT instead of HIM
until verse 14, so I won’t keep repeating that.
There was life in the word of God
When God spoke,
plants started growing
animals started forming
There was life in His words
and there is still life in God’s word today
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
This is another clue that John is referring to Genesis chapter 1.
God’s first words were, Let there be light.
And Darkness cannot overcome the light
They make a flash light
but they don’t make a flash dark.
You can’t shine darkness into a room full of light
You have to put the light out if you want darkness
And John says… the light never went out
From the second God said, let there be light
there has been light
It has never gone back to complete darkness
It has gotten close
The flood was close
Darkness almost won
but God wouldn’t let the light go out.
He saved the last little flicker of light
in saving Noah in the Ark.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
This is John the Baptist
He is Jesus’ six month old cousin
We know this from the Gospel of Luke
He is not to be confused with the John who is writing this book.
John the Baptist did not write any books of the Bible
The Apostle John, one of the 12 disciples
aka John the Revelator wrote 5 books
This one, 1,2 and 3 John, and Revelation.
He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
He, John the Baptist was a witness to the Light.
Now, we are starting to personify the Light
Which came from the Word of God
But notice where we are in time now…
We are at the time when John the Baptist is preaching
And Jesus is a person.
So, I’m fine with calling the Light “him” here.
Because John was witnessing about a him
He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
John wasn’t the light,
but they will question him about it in this chapter
as we will see, they thought he might be the Messiah
or they though that John might at least think that he was the Messiah.
He wasn’t the light, but the witness of the light.
Don’t forget that John is a witness of the light
Because, that will come up in chapters 5 -8
and it is important.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
The true light was coming into the world.
Who is the light?
It was God.
God is coming into the world
God with Us, Immanuel.
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
Who is “HE” here?
God…
It was God who was manifested in the Flesh.
In fact, some manuscripts of this verse say exactly that
which is why you will see some translations worded this way:
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
And, later Paul tells us what the mystery of iniquity is
and it is when Satan enters the antichrist.
So, the mystery of godliness is when God becomes a man
The mystery of iniquity is when man tries to become God.
I say “tries” because he will fail.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
So, the true light coming into the word is God.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
Here, we are still talking about God the Father.
Because who made the world?
By the way, the word “through” can also me “by”.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
So, if God the Father made the world
then it was God the Father who was “IN the world”
as we have been showing…
but when God was with us
walking the earth
most people did not know it was Him.
They expected a king
and got a carpenter.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
His own people is the Jews.
Who’s people are the Jews?
God the Father’s.
Do you think the Jews would say that they are The Son’s people?
No, they would say they are God the Father’s people.
And they would claim that they were the sons of God.
So, God came to the Jews (his children)… in the body of Jesus
and the Jews did not receive him
Instead they killed him.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
This is huge here.
Don’t miss this.
How does one become sons of God?
His first son rejected him, the Jews.
You must then receive him.
You must believe in his name.
And then… you can have the right to become the son of God.
The word “right” is important here.
It isn’t a natural birth
It is a legal one.
The Jews were natural born sons of God
They rejected God
Then God legally adopted us.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
So, it is a legal right through spiritual adoption
not a natural birth.
that is so important that you get this
It was not through a natural birth.
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Ok, when he says NOT of BLOOD
He means, not just because you are a Jew.
You can no longer be God’s son simply because you are related to Abraham
through Isaac and Jacob.
Your blood will not save you.
Only his will.
NOR of the will of the flesh.
This is talking about natural birth
Again, it isn’t through any natural birth
NOR of the will of man,
This talking about legal adoption by a man.
So, if someone else is related to Abraham
and they adopt you
you are still not a child of God
The only way to be a child of God
is to be born of God
and we will see exactly how that happens in chapter 3.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Ok, there is a lot to unpack here.
The Word Became Flesh
The word was identified as God the Father in verse 1
And the Light was said to be coming into the world in verse 9.
And in verse 10, the creator of the world was coming into his creation
And here we have that Word becoming flesh.
And flesh here means a person
A human person.
So, the word was not a human person
and then the word became a person.
The NIrV says it this way…
The Word became a human being.
Now, we will see in chapter 4 that God is a Spirit
and a Spirit doesn’t have flesh and blood.
Jesus says after the resurrection…
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
So, something new happened in Jn 1.14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God, who is a Spirit, became flesh.
That word became is crucial.
I know the Bible says that God never changes
But this word became means exactly that
So, is there a contradiction?
No.
God never stopped being a Spirit.
He never stopped being omnipresent.
And Who God is, and how God acts
That never changed as we will see in verse 18 in one second.
But when the word became flesh
This does not mean God changed
Because… Jn 1.1 says that Word was in beginning.
You see… from eternity past
God had always had this plan for the word to become flesh.
It wasn’t a change… it was how it was always meant to be.
The lamb slain from…
If we had more time, we would dive into this word “became” more.
because there is something going on here in John’s writing.
He uses the Greek word over and over.
It starts when he talks about creation.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
That word “made” is the same greek word as “became” in verse 14.
It is a word that relates to creation.
Being made.
And that is closely related to what happens when we are born again…
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
BECOME is the same Greek word.
When you are born again
You become a new creation in Christ.
The words John uses are not by chance
There is meaning in every one of them.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
This word Dwelt…
This is an important word.
It means to abide, to settle, or
To pitch a tent.
So, He didn’t dwell among us in a sense that he was simply just there.
but he lived with us.
He shared life with us.
He existed alongside us.
And this connection to the word TENT.
It is the same word used for Tabernacle
And is exactly how God dwelt in the Old Testament
He lived inside a tent then made of animals skins.
and here, John says, God was living in a tent made of human flesh.
And we have seen his glory…
Who’s glory?
If you say the word is the Son,
then you must say you are seeing the glory of the Son here…
but so far we have not mentioned the Son.
And we said the Word was God the Father in Verse 1…
So, who’s glory are we seeing when we see the word in a human tent?
Who is the pronoun “his” referring to?
Let me help you…
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Who’s light is it?
God’s
Who’s glory?
God’s
When you see Jesus… you are seeing God’s Glory on full display.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
now, we finally see the word Son.
Only after the word became flesh
and was able to dwell among us…
Then we see the title Son given to the man from God.
I do want talk about this word “only”
There has been very new debate on this word
It is a Greek word that is pronounced
Monogenes
Mono means one or only
And genes means… well that’s the new debate.
genes is spelled like the word English word pronounced JEANS
It is the root word of generate or generation.
So, monogenes has always been understood to mean only begotten.
And I think that is precisely what it means
If John meant to say “only” he could have just wrote mono
But he wrote mongenes.
And that cannot mean the same thing as mono.
That’s like saying microphone and micro mean the same thing.
When we get to verse 18,
I’ll tell you why I think they want it to say only
instead of only begotten.
(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”)
This is again John the Baptist
The witness of Jesus.
We will see his testimony shortly
so we will won’t cover it now.
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
From his fullness…
This word is used a few times in Scripture
and I think reading those verses will help us understand John here.
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
Paul also talks about this topic a bit in Ephesians
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The Fullness to me, is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
It is when Christ dwells in our hearts through faith
acc to vs 17.
Which is the fullness of God.
The fullness of God dwelt in Jesus
Because God is a spirit
and he was manifested in the flesh
But the fullness can dwell in us too
Because Christ should be in our hearts
Which happens when we a filled with His Spirit.
Amen.
We will break here for now
And we will pick back up with verse 17 and 18 next week
to finish out the prologue
and I suspect we will have plenty of time to complete the first chapter as well.
The prologue took some time
and I expected it too
and trust me,
we could spend even more time on it
but we will move a little quicker from this point on.
