The Word, the Light, and the Incarnation

John 1:1-14

Introduction

Two weeks ago we reflected on the opening text of Genesis and of the whole Bible. “In the beginning,” presented the already presence of the eternal God. He alone is Creator of man, who is made in his image; and he alone is Creator of all creation, which bears witness to him.

There is one other passage that opens up with “in the beginning.” It also speaks of the work of God as Creator. It also opens up mystery beyond mystery as we learn that the eternal God is more complex that anyone dare imagine. Introduced to us is God the Word, who is the Light of the world, who became flesh and dwelt among us.

Text

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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

“The Word” – no other NT writer speaks of “the Word” (logos is the Greek term) as a living or divine being. Why this term? Where does John get it from?

John’s Greek readers would sense the import of the term logos, as it does appear in Greek philosophy even in reference to the concept of the divine. For his Jewish readers, the first words (“in the beginning) would have caught their attention and given meaning to the term of logos. These are the first words of Scripture, presenting God the Creator who spoke all things into existence. Genesis 1 presents how the power of God’s spoken word created the new creation.

Throughout the Law and the Prophets, the spoken word will be characterized as having great power, even the power to give life. God has Ezekiel speak words that bring dry bones to life. God speaks forth his miracles; he prophesies through the prophets what will take place. He speaks and power goes forth.

And so, it is not a large leap for Jewish readers to associate logos with God “in the beginning.” Indeed, Proverbs 8:22-31 presents a similar idea about wisdom, personified as a woman, who was with God at the beginning of creation. And so, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God” – yes, that makes sense. Verse 2 reinforces the same concept: “He was in the beginning with God.” All of that is fine; it is a new expression, but the idea had already been planted in Scripture.

It is the phrase inserted in between those two clauses that shakes things up: “and the Word was God.” Was God? How can the Word be God and yet with God? Now we are moving not merely into new territory but into the complete unknown. The philosophers may have thought that they were saying something profound about the divine logos, but John explodes all of their concepts. The Word was God and the Word was with God. It is significant using the tense “was” because it indicates not so much the past (“the Word at that time was God) but the eternal past (the Word has always been God).

Is John introducing a second god? John is a Jew not a Greek. He believes in the one God. What he is doing is stretching the concept of the one God. There is the one God who is two persons – God the Father and God the Son. Other texts will lead us to God the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John’s focus is on the identity of Jesus Christ, and, first things first, he is the eternal God, our Creator.

³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

This was the very point made in Genesis about God, and which, as we saw before, is reinforced in other scripture. There is but one Creator. To reaffirm with Isaiah:

I am the Lord, who made all things,
    who alone stretched out the heavens,
    who spread out the earth by myself… (44:24).

John 1:3 sheds light on a significant phrase in Genesis 1:26. For the creation of man God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Why is God using the plural for himself? Scholars tend to discount the use as merely a “royal we.” Kings and queens of the old days spoke in such terms. Perhaps, but John’s introduction of the Word being with God in the beginning and actually creating certainly sheds new perspective on who God is speaking to - was it not the Father to the Son, or considering that the “Spirit of God” was also present (cf. v. 2), all three persons of the Godhead speaking to one another?

The Light

In the beginning was the Word, the second Person of the Trinity, known as God the Son.

This Word is also spoken of as being the Light that breaks into the darkness.

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. ⁷ He 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.

Any Jew reading verse 5, that “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” would think of the creation account in Genesis where “darkness was over the face of the deep,” until God said, “Let there be light.” Similar to how the word spoken by God in creation is recast as the Word who is the Creator, so we have the light that breaks into the darkness at creation now recast as the Light breaking into the dark creation.

This would not be a totally new concept. Scripture would have already connected God himself with light.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27:1)

The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. (Psalm 118:27)

And then the great hope that every Jew looked forward to:

The sun shall be no more
    your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
    give you light;
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.
Your sun shall no more go down,
    nor your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your days of mourning shall be ended. (Isaiah 60:19-20

Let’s recall what we have learned so far. The Word was God from the beginning, our very Creator. The Word is not simply another name for God but a distinct person of the godhead who is with God, namely, God the Son. The Word is the Light of humanity, indeed the Light was coming into the world. How? How was he coming into the world? That leads to the third identifying statement.

Incarnation

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. 

John goes from mystery to astonishing mystery with “the Word.” He has already taken the reader to another level of thought by making the Word “God” and yet “with God.” That truly stretches the mind’s ability of conception. But now he leads us to greater astonishment: “the Word became flesh.” The Greek and the Hebrew mind could conceive of God being among people, and as the Word is a living dynamic of some nature, it could be understood as light that comes into the world. But “flesh”? Becoming flesh?

J. I. Packer ponders this mystery.

The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man – that the second person of the Godhead became the “second man” (1 Corinthians 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that he took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as he was human. Here are two mysteries for the price of one – the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus. It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.

                                                                (from Knowing God, “God Incarnate”)

And so, there were those, such as John, for whom the light brought enlightenment, who beheld the Word made flesh, and who saw “glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Word, the Light, the God who took on flesh – marvelous, mysterious revelation. But what does it all mean? It means salvation.

Let’s go back to verse 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. 

Is that not a beautiful image? The glory of the Son from the Father comes to earth and dwells among us. He is full of grace and truth. Surely, he must have been adored. But that is not the case, is it? Verses 10-11 tells us: 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.

The Creator entered into his creation, and his creation did not recognize him. Even the nation that he claimed for his own, whom he redeemed out of slavery and made his covenant people – even they did not recognize him. They, along with everyone else, did not receive him.

Why? What was the problem? Verse 5 intimates the problem: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” One edition of the NIV has “understood” though the latest reads “overcome.” The KJ has “apprehend.” The verb can have either meaning but “overcome” seems more fitting, especially in light of its only other use in the Gospel of John, where we read, “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you” (12:35).

The point is this. In the beginning was darkness before creation, and God spoke forth light to create the new day. Because of the fall with the entry of sin, darkness again descended over the world, leaving it in permanent spiritual darkness. Now the Word enters in as the Light that breaks through the darkness. Darkness will fight back but will be unable to overcome him. Even so, darkness will keep its hold on as many as it can, keeping them in the dark as to who the Light is.

But darkness will not defeat the Light. The Light will carry out his mission. One way he will do that is by being the Word.

John never refers to Jesus as the Word again, but he does connect logos with Jesus throughout his gospel. Consider a couple of samples:

And many more believed because of [Jesus’] word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:41-42)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. (John 5:24)

The Word speaks the word and people are brought to faith. Those who are brought to faith are given eternal life. This is what verses 12-13 address:

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.

As the Word, Jesus is himself the revelation of God. Do you want to see God? Do you want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus.

Philip said to [Jesus], “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me… (John 14:8-11).

As the Word, Jesus Christ taught about God, about the kingdom of God, about what we need to be saved into that kingdom. As the Word, Jesus revealed through his own life what God is like. Darkness cannot resist the God the Word dwelling among his created beings.

As the Light, Jesus battles the darkness. Here is how the theme of light and darkness will be played out in John’s gospel. The light of Jesus will bring understanding, but it also will reveal the hearts of all men and prove whether they love the light they profess to love or in truth love the darkness which hides the evil within: “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19).

As the Light Jesus exposes the darkness for what it is – a cover for evil. He is the Light that reveals the truth of the gospel and not only reveals but turns the sons of darkness into the sons of light.

The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light (12:35-36).

And he will succeed through the unlikeliest of means – through yielding to the darkness. The eternal Word will take on flesh that he might be killed in the flesh. The Light of the world will be lifted up as a beacon that is then extinguished by the darkness. Remember what took place during Jesus’ crucifixion? Mark tells us:

 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (15:33-34).

It appeared that the darkness did indeed overcome the light, but the resurrection proved that it was a false victory. The light of dawn on the third day revealed an empty tomb. The Light would go forth as the conqueror of sin and of death. And that Light would penetrate the hearts of many, giving them “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” (v. 12-13).

Lessons

That Light continues to go forth and to shine through those children of God. To you who have received Jesus, who believe in his name, who have been made sons and daughters of light, are you following the path of the Light? Are you living such lives that do not fear the Light exposing what you are doing? Are you living such lives that is light in this dark world – light that shines forth truth, that reveals beauty, that displays love, kindness, and forgiveness? Light that exhibits the gospel?

Do such questions make you uneasy? Then listen to the questions for those yet to believe in the name of Christ, for they remain true for us all. Why not turn to the Light of the world? In Christ is life, and his life is the light of the world; it is our light. His light has exposed the evil in us, not thereby to condemn us, but to turn us to him for salvation and to make us children of light. And if his light continues to expose the sins and the failings in his children, it is that he might all the more purify us to shine brightly and that we might all the more abide in his light. For whatever light we have is that which is already his.

It is for such purpose that God the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It is for such purpose that God the Word in the flesh advanced to the cross with our sins. John is the one gospel writer who actually stated the purpose of writing his gospel: “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31).

Choose life. Turn to the Word, who is the Light, who took on our flesh that we might come out of the darkness into his glorious light. The come, let us adore him together.