John 1

The Greek translation of the Old Testament begins with these words (translated), “In the beginning.” John starts his gospel with these same words. Not only are the actual words the same, but they are referring to the same beginning, not the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth as a man, but the beginning of the world. John tells us that the divine Voice of God, the Word, the eternal Son of God is the same divine Person as the man who was baptized by John the Baptist. He was in the beginning. He was with God, and He was and is God. Everything that was made was made through Him. It would be completely correct to say that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and He did this all through His divine Voice, and that this Word is none other than the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He is the divine Light that gives light to men, first by their nature in Adam as those created in the image of God, but then secondly in their souls by the second Adam, who gives spiritual life to men, and finally at the resurrection of the dead. Sin, death, and all the darkness that comes with them came through one man, Adam, but all light and life have come to us through Jesus Christ.

God sent John the Baptist to be the forerunner of the One who is the Light of the World, Jesus, the Builder of a great kingdom of light. John was a prophet, and was surely a great man, but he was not the Son of God. His testimony was very valuable, but Jesus was more than one who brings testimony. He came as God incarnate.

When the Son of God visited us, He was not gladly received by everyone. The Jews rejected their Messiah, and even those within His own family were not ready to embrace Him as Lord or Savior. Yet by the will of God, there were some few before His death and resurrection, and many more after those important events, who would receive Him as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. To embrace Christ in this way is not first a matter of our natural heritage, or even primarily of our own decision. We are enabled to believe in His Name. We are made to be new creatures in Christ, and even children of God, with all the rights that go with such an exalted position. This is much more than Moses or the Law could have given to us. This is a gift of the One who was before John, even from before the beginning, One who was with God, and who is God, Jesus Christ. He came from heaven. He has seen God. He is the only God who is at the Father’s side, and is the One who was chosen to make God known to us in person.

The forerunner, John the Baptist, was consistent in his testimony that he, John, was not the Christ. Though he was something of an Elijah, and certainly was a prophet, yet he did not consider himself to be the Elijah or Prophet that people had wrongly come to expect. He knew that he was a voice crying in the wilderness in fulfillment of Isaiah 40. He was baptizing Jews with a baptism of repentance, which was a very bold thing to do. Yet he consistently was testifying to the great superiority of Jesus Christ. Jesus would bring about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the church in a far greater baptism than John’s baptism of water.

God confirmed to John that Jesus was the One, the Lamb of God, the Sacrifice appointed who would take away the sin of a new world. Pointing out Jesus to Israel was the purpose of even John’s ministry of water baptism. Here was the Lord, full of the Holy Spirit, and marked by God through a visible manifestation of His presence from on high, such that John the Baptist was definitely convinced that Jesus was the One.

The disciples of John were given another Word of testimony by the Baptist the day after He pointed to Jesus in person. He again said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Two of the men did begin to follow Him at that moment, but they did not seem to know what to say or do. They would spend time with Him over the next three years, years that ended with the tumultuous events of the cross and the resurrection.

There would be others who would be chosen by Jesus as His most intimate followers. They seemed to have an almost immediate awareness that Jesus was the Messiah, but very little concept of what this would actually mean. They knew that He was the fulfillment of what was written about Him in the Law and the Prophets, but they did not seem to understand what all that testimony actually said. They would learn now by following Him. They would see many amazing things, unexpected things about a Messiah who seemed to come from the wrong town, even the wrong region of the ancient nation of Israel, but who also seemed to know things that He could not know unless He possessed capabilities beyond those of normal men.

This Teacher who took it upon Himself to assign a name to a grown man, was truly the Son of God. He was the King of Israel, but He was also much more than they realized Him to be. They did not yet understand that this King would be victorious through His death. They did not know that the power of that death would open up a way for people to have bold access to God in heaven through Him. He would be the stairway to heaven. He was the one encountered by a sleeping Jacob so long before. He would be the ladder between heaven and earth that Jacob had seen in his dreams. He was the Way, the only Way, who would bring about the reunion again of heaven and earth. He was the glorious Son of Man spoken of by the prophet Daniel. He did not live for the praise of men, yet millions would praise Him. Here was the Light of the world. Here was the Source of resurrection life.