December, 2001

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1-2

All four Gospels begin by placing Jesus within a historical setting. Matthew began with the genealogy of Jesus that connected Him to David and Abraham. Mark started with the proclamation of the coming of the Son of God as promised by prophets in the Old Testament as spoken by John the Baptist. Luke gave a detailed account of the virgin birth of Jesus by Mary. All of them placed Jesus as a historical man. John, on the other hand, had a different approach. He placed Jesus at a time before any human history.

The prologue of John (1:1-18) contains many of the major themes of the Gospel, which were re-introduced and further developed more fully in the latter chapters. But none of them makes sense unless we are convinced of the origin of Jesus. He is not just a man; He is the God-man.

“In the beginning was the Word.” As far back as man can imagine, which is beyond “time” because the concept of “time” exists after the creation of the sun and the moon, there was the Word. In other words, in the “eternal” past, the Word was already existing. The term “Word” in Greek is logos, which means “speaking, a message, or words.” It refers to more than spoken words, for it extends to the thought or reason behind a message. This is where the English word “logic” gets its root. The Apostle John opened the Gospel by stating that in the eternal past, the Word was with God. Readers of the Gospel can easily identify the two persons mentioned: the Word and God because the Word is “in company with” God. Not only was the Word with God, the Word was God. John didn’t want his readers to think he made a mistake, so he repeated that He (the Word) was with God from the beginning in v.2. It is not enough to know that there is God in the beginning. It is equally important to know that the Word exists with God at the same time. This is not one of the same Person, but one of the same God. This is an important doctrine to know though it is a mystery to our human mind, for it is the foundation by which we understand the Doctrine of Trinity. But the most important message in the prologue is “The Word became flesh.” (v.14) The eternal Logos, who is God, took on human nature and came to earth as a man. This is what the Gospel is all about: God became a man and lived among men in order to communicate God’s message of Salvation.