The Word
THE WORD
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 came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (John 1:1-3).
John pens his book with one major theme in mind. He wants to show that Jesus is God. He presents Jesus as both God and also as the Son of God. What does this mean? What does it mean to be the Son of God? He introduces Jesus at the outset by describing Him as the pre-existing Word who created all things. To the Jews, this term described the Messiah of Israel. The Jews did not necessarily think of the Messiah as being God in the flesh. Rather, they thought of Him as being a descendant of David and a king of Israel who would be filled with the Spirit. By contrast, the Greeks had a completely different concept of the “son of God. Their mythology contained stories of the Greek gods joining with mortals and producing offspring such as Hercules and Perseus. These were supermen—half god and half man.
While each of these concepts has an element of truth within them, they are by themselves wrong concepts. It is for this reason that John begins his gospel account with a different and distinct title for Jesus. He calls Jesus “the Word.” In this way, he will redefine what it means to be the Son of God. This One known as “the Word” is identified in two different ways. This does not mean that He is two separate persons, but merely that there are two separate aspects to His being. The Word was God|The Word became Flesh|
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1).|“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).|
It is evident from this second passage that “the Word” is a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. He is the One who was not originally flesh, yet in a moment of time became flesh. It is equally evident from the first passage that we are meant to regard the man Jesus as being God. The Designation of the Word.
John's reference to “the Word” brought with it all sorts of connotations. We can see and understand these as we become familiar with the religious and philosophical uses of this term in that day. The Greek concept of the Word: Plato had made reference to the Word (Greek: Logos) as that supreme principle of logic that allowed man to make sense of and to understand his world. As such, the Logos was seen by the Greeks as an impersonal force. The Hebrew concept of the Word: In Hebrew, a “word” (rbd) can describe both the verbal designation of an object as well as the moving energy of that object. As such, the word of God in the Old Testament is able to refer to more than merely the teachings and proclamations of deity. It refers to the active power and force of God Himself. By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host. (Psalms 33:6). The word of the Lord indicated a personification of the manifested power of God. It is interesting to note that the Aramaic Targums (paraphrases of the Scriptures) often used the Aramaic word Memra (“word”) in the place of God. For example, the Targums say that Moses led Israel to meet, not with God at Sinai, but with the Memra (Word) of God at Sinai.
New Testament usage: Both the Jewish as well as the Greek readers of John's gospel are introduced to a new concept. The Word is not merely an impersonal force. Neither is the Word a mere manifestation of one of God's attributes. The Word is a person. A word is the verbal expression of a thought. By the same token, Jesus is the visible and personal expression and manifestation of God. Yet he is not only a manifestation of God—the dialog presented by Jesus to His Father in the prayer of John 17:1-26 is a conversation between two persons. Jesus makes reference to the relationship He enjoyed with the Father from all eternity (John 17:24).
Implications of the Logos. The use of this title points to the fact that God has revealed Himself to us in a way we can understand. It is because of that self-revelation that we can know truth about God. He is no longer some faceless unknown Being out in the cosmos. He is personal and He has revealed Himself to us in a way we can understand. We can know God. That is a bold statement, but one that is absolutely true. We can enter into a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe. The Word in the Beginning: 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. (John 1:1-2). This passage echoes with a resounding reverberation from the Old Testament. The words, “In the beginning,” take us back to the creation. But there is a difference. In the Old Testament, Genesis begins by placing the emphasis upon God's work of creation. Here the emphasis here is not upon God creating, but rather upon His being.
Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created...
John 1:1 - In the beginning was...|
Here we read that in the beginning, something already WAS. When you go back in time as far as you can possible imagine, before anything else ever exists, God was. And yet, it is not God who is the primary subject of this passage, but One who is known as “the Word.” The Pre-existent Word.
John 1:1 does not say that “in the beginning the Word came into being.” Instead, it tells us that at the time of the beginning, the Word already was. The Greek text renders the verb for being as an imperfect active indicative. The imperfect tense is used to indicate continuing action in the past. It pictures action in progress. We could translate the passage to say: In the beginning already was the Word. The point is that when you go back to the very beginning of the creation of all things, the Word was already there. This same imperfect tense continues to be used four times in the first two verses of John. In the beginning already was the Word, and the Word already was with God, and the Word already was God. He already was in the beginning with God. The Word did not have a beginning. The Word was already in existence at the beginning and everything else that exists came into being as a result of the Word. The Word with God. When John says that the word was with God, this refers to more than merely a physical proximity. The phrasing describes a plane of equality and intimacy. We could translate it to say: the word was face to face with God. John uses a similar construction in 1 John 2:1 when he describes Jesus being our advocate with the Father. This is the language of fellowship. That is significant. It means there was fellowship and communication taking place between the different members of the Godhead before the creation. This same true is described elsewhere in the Scriptures. And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. (John 17:5).
Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24).
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:3-4).
There was existence before the creation and this existence was personal and not static. There was no boredom. There was active relationship. The Father was active with the Word and with the Holy Spirit. This is what we call the Trinity. It is seen in the next verse. The Word as God. The statement, “And the Word was God,” is emphatic. Not only was the Word pre-existent in past eternity with God, but He was God. When we recognize the force of the imperfect tense, we understand that the Word continually was God. There was not a time in history when He became God. He has always been God. In the beginning He was already God. The Incarnation of the Logos. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14). In John 1:1, we identified the Word as being the one who was in the beginning with God and who, in the beginning, was God. Now we see the Word becoming flesh. The birth of Jesus stands at the very center of human history. It is the supreme meeting place of the temporal with the eternal. It is the place where God and man came together. The word “became” is the aorist active indicative of ginomai (ginomai), “to become.” This is in contrast to the description of the Word as it existed in the beginning. In becoming flesh, the Word did something He had not previously done. There is a dramatic difference between the verbs of John 1:1 and John 1:14.
John 1:1|John 1:14|
In the beginning was the Word...|The Word became flesh...|
Imperfect tense indicates continuing action in the past.|Aorist tense indicates an action that took place in a point in time.|
Language of continuing existence|Language of change as the Word became something that He previously was not|
Takes us back to the time before the creation of mankind|Tells how men beheld His glory, full of grace and truth| The Word took on flesh and, in doing so, brought about a change that will have eternal repercussions. The One who became God and man stayed that way. The One who was touched by a band of Galilean disciples is today worshiped by angels.
Why did the Word take on flesh? It was so that he could dwell among us. The text reads literally, “He TABERNACLED among us.” In the same way that people used to have to come to the tabernacle and later to the temple to meet God, it is now through Jesus that we must come to meet God. In Old Testament times, God met His people at the tabernacle. When Moses completed the construction of the tabernacle, a great cloud moved into it so that the priests were forced for a time to evacuate. This was the manifested presence of God. Later, when Solomon built the temple, the presence of the Lord moved into the temple and, once again, this was seen by the presence of a great cloud. When the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., it was considered to be a great tragedy to the Jews because there was no place else they could go to experience the presence of God. The temple was eventually rebuilt by Ezra and Zerubbabel, but we never read that the presence of God returned to the temple. Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, promised that a time would come when the Lord would return to His temple.
“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:1).
Four hundred years passed and still the Jews waited. When Jesus came, He was the manifested presence of God. He was the Word who tabernacled among men. The Spirit of the living God rested upon Him. But He was not hidden away in a temple where only a priest could approach Him. He was among the people. He was among those who could behold His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is where Moses goes to the Lord and says, “Lord, I want to see your glory.” God says to him, “Moses, you can't do that, because to see me is to die. Here is what I will do. I will have you stand in a cleft of this rock and I will cover you with My hand and I will cause My goodness to pass by and then, after I have passed, I will remove My hand and you will see my afterglow.” The coming of Jesus is the answer to the prayer of Moses: “Show me your glory.” The disciples who were on the Mount of Transfiguration saw the glory of Jesus and recognized it for what it was, the glory of the only begotten from the Father. There was a single instance where three of those disciples had a chance to see a glimpse of what Moses saw. For a brief moment in time, God took away the veil and they saw the glorified Christ.