John 1

The Eternal Son of God

the beginning of John copies the beginning of Genesis on purpose. When John wants to talk about the story of Jesus, he wants to start by going all the way back to the beginning. In a way, the gospel of Luke and Matthew both do the same thing, but in a different way. They did it through genealogies showing Jesus in a line of men, but John wants to place Jesus himself at the very beginning.

So John sets the scene for us: in the beginning. The very beginning, when nothing was made yet and all that there was, was God. John tells us that there wasn’t simply the Father at the time, but the Word was also with the Father, and the Word was God as much as the Father was God.

This Word, we are told, was responsible for the creation of every single thing. there wasn’t anything made in the whole universe that wasn’t made through this Word.

We are also told that in this Word was something important: life itself. The greek word used here is Zoe, and its most commonly used to describe not just biological life like a person or a plant, but spiritual life, life in the fullest sense.

We are told that this life was the light of men, and that it shone into the darkness. So just as the physical light that the Word created shone into the literal darkness of nothingness, so the Spiritual life that was in the Word also shone into the darkness of nothing. And more than that, the darkness has not overcome it!

That last statement should be something that is incredibly encouraging to us for two reasons.

for just about every point in human history, it seemed from our perspective that complete darkness was imminent.

sin of Adam and Eve

slavery in Egypt

choosing and evil king

the nation of God splitting in two because of sin

both nations being brought into slavery again

prophets continuing to come and rebuke the sin of people

culminating in the Son of God himself, the source of life, being murdered on a cross

another reason we should rejoice that the darkness has not overcome the light is because we were some of the people trying to extinguish the light. We made the darkness our home.

at first, this actually shouldn’t seem like a reason to rejoice. Because John writes about a different John that was coming into the world, John the Baptist. And this John the Baptist had a special mission: to let people know that the light of God, the Word, was coming into the world.

John 1:6–11 ESV

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

John the Baptist came preaching that the light was coming into the world. Understanding that he has always been in the world since he created it, but that he was coming in a special way to eliminate darkness once and for all. And again, this sounds good, until you realize that we have set up our home in the darkness. When he came into the world that he created, to the people that he created, we rejected him and hung him up on a cross.

John 1:14 ESV

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.

we took the Word made Flesh and destroyed him because the darkness in us hated the light that was in him.

So doesn’t that mean that the light of God is coming into the world extinguish us? Well, yes and no.

Make no mistakes: the light and life of God IS going to extinguish the darkness and everyone who lives in it.

But John didn’t just come preaching that those in darkness will die. He also came preaching repentance, which meant that he was preaching hope to those who were in darkness. and in our chapter, we read this:

John 1:11–13 ESV

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

for those who do receive Jesus, who believe in his name, in who he is, and in what he came to do, they are given the RIGHT to become the children of God! Those who believe in Jesus, who don’t reject him, but who accept him and his gospel, they are saved out of the darkness before its eliminated. They are brought into the light and are given the life of the Word of God, the Zoe.

so how do we transfer out of darkness and into light?

it isn’t what we must do, but in whom we must believe. We are brought into the light not through our family ties, or our heritage, or through hard work, or through the world, but through God’s free gift. We can’t force our way into heaven, we must be brought there by the Word of God made flesh, by Jesus.

And we can be confident that of we have faith in Jesus, we will not be destroyed like the rest of the darkness of the world, but we will be brought into the light and life of God.

John 1:16 ESV

For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

Ask yourself, do you believe this? Do you see that you have been in darkness, and that light is coming to wipe it out? Do you see that the source of the light has offered you mercy, and has invited you to exit darkness before its destroyed? Do you see that in order to leave the darkness, you must simply believe in Jesus as the light and life of God?

When the phillipian jailer asked the apostle Paul what he must do to be saved, Paul responded “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” So you, if you would like to leave the darkness and enter the light, must simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

Jesus, the Incarnate Son