Study of John - Week 2

Get ready, folks! The beginning of John is DEEP. I will try to keep us above water!!

II. Chapter 1
a. Verses 1-18: These verses are the philosophical basis for the introduction of Jesus to the Gentiles. The foundation on which everything else is built. I truly think that these are some of the most powerful verses in the Bible. They say so much. In fact, they really get to the core of who God is, who Jesus is, who we are, how we were made, and how we relate to each other. They say much more than I realized when I began to prepare for this. There are some deep ideas here, but stick with me and we’ll get through it. The purpose John had in writing this book is in John 20:31 – so that we may hear and believe and have life in Jesus’ name.

i. Verse 1-2: “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the Beginning.” In the beginning – this phrase is also found in Genesis 1, which is also the phrase that begins the Bible. It is interesting that this goes even further back than Genesis. Prior to the creation of the heavens and the earth. The author is demonstrating that Jesus has been here from the beginning and through Him we can have a new beginning. It also ties Jesus to the beginning of all creation. Jesus (refer to verse 14-18) was here before time began with God. In other Words, God’s Word was not created, but existed before creation. The word “Word” here is Logos in Greek, which refers to “word, thought, concept, and the expression thereof” and in the Greek world was used to refer to “creative control and the ideas of reason” (Ryrie Study Bible, Moody). This was the Greek’s own word and John used it intentionally to declare to them that Jesus was the “Logos” that they constantly debated in their philosophical circles. Another way to state this is that Jesus is the “Word” personified.

The Word was God – God’s Word, His actual thought – existed prior to creation. His thought has creative power and becomes reality. Again, Jesus is the personification of this thought. The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John by William Barclay lists a few passages in the Old Testament that also demonstrate this idea: Proverbs 3:18-20; Proverbs 4:5-13; and most importantly Proverbs 8:22-36. These verses talk about wisdom and equate it to thought and its creative power. Also, these verses establish that the creation of wisdom was prior to the rest of creation. This wisdom is His “Word”. His Word is eternal and not part of the creation, which was brought forth in time and space. Jesus and God are identical, yet distinct. I know that is hard to wrap your mind around, but let’s move on.

QUESTION: How would you define reality? Do you think that reality has anything to do with our relationship with God? Is reality purely a matter of what you perceive? Is reality relative or different for each person or is always the same? How does this impact your daily life?

ii. Verse 3: “All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created.” The creative force of the Universe – God’s Word (Jesus). All things that were ever created were made through Jesus. Jesus is this power and it does not exist without Him. The basic building blocks of reality, absolute truth, life, the physical and spiritual world do not exist but by Jesus. He says Himself later “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but by Me.”, John 14:6. This statement of Jesus is meant to equate Himself with God. He has come to redeem that which has been His from the beginning.

The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John by William Barclay mentions that the author included this idea partly because of the prevalence of Gnosticism at that time, which held the idea that the god of the Old Testament (evil God) created the world and was hostile to the god of the New Testament (good God), who was the father of Jesus. The author is refuting this idea, while demonstrating the unchanging nature of God quite beautifully. If Jesus is God and he existed in the beginning (before time), then the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the same and He has not changed and will not ever change. That is something that we can truly place our faith in and rely on.

As I thought about this, I compared God’s unchanging nature to something physical that I know is unchanging –gravity (maybe it changes some here on earth, I don’t really know but it seemed like a good example). I thought about how I personally put my trust everyday in the law of gravity (I am sure you do too - so what right?). I know that gravity is true and it will continue to be true, so I go about taking advantage of this law. I apply this law to my advantage every day. In other words, I don’t plan my day around the possibility that gravity may fail and I need to be tied down at all times so I don’t float off into space. Not taking advantage of this law would be a real waste of time and energy. The same concept applies to the laws and promises of God. God is the same before, now, and always and He has given us physical and spiritual truths and revealed them to us in numerous ways to help us understand how He set things up for us. These are laws – not like a rule that we must obey or we will be punished – but truths about life and how He set up this world in which we live that we can always rely on. We can either take advantage of these laws (it’s what God intends for us to do) or we can “kick against the goads” like Paul did before He met Jesus on the road to Damascus. These laws and truths he reveals to us are His nature.

QUESTION: How would you change your life if you listed out the promises of God and went about your life with total confidence that they were automatic and something that you could totally depend?