Jesus Defined

The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1 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. 7He 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. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 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. 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. 15 (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.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2016. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Too many of us have a Christian vocabulary rather than a Christian experience.

Our goal looking through the Gospel of John should be to not only have a good definition of Jesus but also to have a knowing experience.

The work of the Gospel is not one of just knowing but one of experiencing and knowing God.

Jesus is God.

This person, Jesus, was actually with (see comments on “with,” v. 1) the Father, sharing His existence from the very beginning (see Jn. 8:58; 17:5).

John refers to Jesus as “the Word” (Greek logos). To a Hebrew this term would refer to the spoken word, that by which thought is communicated. Jesus, therefore, is that by which God reveals His thought to man, the revelation of all that God inherently is.

Genesis 1:1 ESV

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

Jesus is the life.

Genesis 1:6-27

John is saying that life itself inheres in Jesus, not that that which He has made is alive. The focus continues to be on Christ. It does not shift to the creation.

Genesis 1 points to a creator who created everything! Life is from and through him.

There are at least three senses in which “life” inheres in Christ: (1) physical life, (2) abundant life (10:10), and (3) eternal life (11:25).

Jesus is the light.

Genesis 1:3–5 ESV

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Light is used symbolically of truth and knowledge as opposed to the darkness of error and ignorance. Through “the Word” God reveals Himself, and “the Word” communicates the truth to men. Christ is the light, the truth for mankind (8:12; 9:5; 12:46; 14:6).

Jesus became flesh.

Genesis 2:21–25 ESV

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Jesus arrived in the flesh to conquer the effect of mankind living in the flesh.

We see the effects of sin on this world. The work of Christ in the flesh is our only hope.

The plan of God in eternity past was redemption.

In all of this, we find a creator God who is inviting us to believe and live.

++Tie Genesis 1 in to the text and points.