Articles
Jesus, The Word of God
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness apprehended it not” (John 1:1-5).
With these foregoing words John began his record of the life of Jesus. He affirmed, in no uncertain terms, that Jesus was God. Then he recorded many of the miracles that Jesus worked, including His resurrection from the dead. He said his testimony was true and of his efforts in the book he wrote, “Many other signs and wonders truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing ye may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
Notice in this prologue that four times John referred to Jesus as the “Word of God”. Jesus is the expression of God’s will. He not only revealed God’s Word, He also demonstrated it in a remarkable way. John’s reference to Jesus as “the Word” is confined in this book to the first five verses of the book. Reference to Jesus as the Word is unique to John and his writings. He speaks of Jesus as the Word in the gospel, the epistles (1 John1:1), and Revelation (Revelation 19:13).
One of the things which proves the Bible is God’s Word is God’s anticipation of false doctrine regarding Himself and His Word which man may argue. To those false doctrines He provides an unanswerable argument of the falseness of it. These opening verses conclusively deny two religious errors. The first error John devastated is the doctrine of “oneness Pentecostals” who say that there is only one Being in the Godhead. This Being is Jesus who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. John denies that. He says that the Word was with God; that the Word was God. If Jesus is the sole Being in the Godhead, He could not be described as with God. The verse not only teaches that Jesus is God, but also that He was with another Being who was and is God. I am sure advocates that Jesus is the only Being in the Godhead have a response, but their response is not truly an answer. John 1:1-4 teaches that there are at least two Being in the Godhead.
The other error which John anticipated is that of Jehovah Witnesses who teach that Jesus was a created Being. Not only does John tell us that Jesus is God; he tells us that the Word was the Creator of all — he emphasizes that He was involved in every created thing. He strongly declares that “without him was not anything made that was made”. If Jesus was the first thing God created then there is one thing with whose creation He had nothing to do: Himself. How can one reconcile that Jesus was a created being with John’s words, “And without him was not anything made that was made”? Jehovah Witnesses may respond to this argument, but they cannot answer it. The Hebrew writer also spoke of Jesus as Creator by saying, “And thou Lord in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish but thou continueth, and they shall all wax old as doth a garment, and as a mantle shalt thou roll them up, as a garment, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same and thy years shall not fail” (Hebrews 1:10-12). The same writer said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus is from everlasting to everlasting. He was not created; He always has been.
Having described Jesus as co-eternal with the Father and the Creator of all things, John then taught that in the Word was life, and the life the light of men. As the spoken or written word has life in itself, so He who is the very expression of God’s thoughts and wishes has life in Himself. That life is the light of men just as Jesus later spoke of Himself: “I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Thus John, having affirmed the truth he set out to establish, begins his message by introducing him who was the forerunner of Jesus: “There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John”.
