John 1:1-18, The Mini-Gospel
The Word Became Flesh
1 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. 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. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
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. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.John 1:1-18
Something we’ll probably tackle some other time. Maybe in our Midweek Service.
Here’s a little backstory I didn’t have time to share yesterday. When I was in Grade 5, our usual Bible teacher wasn’t around, and it was a substitute teacher who was with us for, oh, an extended period of time. I mean, he didn’t just join us for one meeting, but enough meetings that he had us do something every time; That is, before he did any discussing, he had us pair up and memorize Scripture – This Scripture, actually: The first chapter of the Gospel of John.
How did he gauge us? He didn’t. He just had us go through each verse, and trusted that we memorized them if we said we did – and that’s precisely what my partner and I did. We’d go through, say, verse 1, take turns in saying it aloud, then again (to sort of ‘replicate’ memorization, I guess?), and say we were done. I guess I should be relieved that he didn’t call us out.
It’s, oh, roughly 30 years later and here I am gloating that we had one over that substitute teacher… but now that I’m thinking, maybe he was the one whose hands we fell into, after all.
See, because back then, I didn’t know about how faith involves hearing, and hearing the Word of God. I didn’t know about the power of speaking the Word, and its power over us, in particular. Through it all, it was actually just the teacher’s goal to have us speak the Word – and, well, if we memorized it, then it would be so much better… again, for us.
John 1 has since been a go-to set of verses for me, because it just paints such a beautiful picture of Christ and His finished work. The rest of the Gospel of John is no doubt spectacular, but for some reason John went all-in on the first words in the ‘Book’ attributed to him… Just like the observation of one wine ‘connoisseur’ in the wedding in Cana, where the best wine was served first – here, though the best is yet to come, we’re off to a good start.
For see, in this portion of Scripture, we’re brought to behold Christ, and realize something – perhaps, in even our most basic of dealings in this world and in this reality, maybe the only Revelation we need is the Word – Christ, Himself.
Christ is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us – and in His presence our eyes are opened to His faithful glory – ‘as of the only Son from the Father’… Indicating that it is only Christ who is BOTH the Word become Flesh, and the ONLY Son from the Father and nobody else.
Two things I want us to remember about Christ through this set of Verses: (1) that He is Life and Light, and He is Light and Life… and also, (2) that He alone is ‘full of grace and truth’.
In other words, it is Christ who is not only the Way and Truth, but He is the Life. He is OUR Life. Considering Christ’s choice of words, I propose that we think of Him as our Way, and our direction; He is our Truth, as in our absolute, as a foundation, and finally, He is our Life; That is, He lives along with us, and we are alive in Him – He is present in us, as we are alive in Him.
If we are to experience any sort of stability in this reality, we’re going to need light – light to show us the way and to reveal our path, light present so there is no darkness. We light to ensure growth for our crops, and light to scare off anything that hides in the darkness. Thankfully, Christ is our Life, and consequently Christ is our Light.
Life and Light work together like that – as indications of Christ’s faithful presence in our lives. Christ’s presence implies the existence of Light and Life, the dispelling, sweeping away of darkness and death.
In these verses we’ve also seen how Christ is not only FULL of grace and truth, but all grace and truth came from Him. Yes, again, He mentioned He is the Way, and we just talked about how He said He was the Life, but He is THAT full of Truth in that He IS the Truth.
So no matter what facts are presented in any circumstance, or if there are absolutely NO facts, or no knowledge and information in any situation – Christ remains to be our Truth. We seek Him, and we stand on the Truth that He is, no matter what. Also, take note – Grace AND Truth come together. You can’t have knowledge of the Truth without beholding the grace of God – and we also see, in just how absolute God’s grace is towards us through Christ and His finished work – that it is as guaranteed – not as fact, but as eternal Truth.
Grace is so real that it’s Truth.
In the Truth, we behold Grace.
In the Life we have through Christ, our existence is not without His Light.
And as we navigate through this reality in the Light, we appreciate our own Life.
I’d like to keep going with this, but I’ll go ahead and stop here. I think I need to rest a little early tonight.
Until the next post, may the Lord bless us greatly.
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