ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Read John 1.
I have often puzzled over and even lamented John’s use of “Word” in John 1:1. It is clear to me that John 1:1 and 14 indicate that Jesus is the “Word” and therefore “was God” (v. 1). But some people do not see that connection clearly. I have talked with enough of those people that, at times, I wish John has written something else. I wish he'd written something like, “In the beginning was the Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son and Spirit were with God and each of them is God.” That phrasing would help us with the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity.
But, that’s not what John wrote. Instead he wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Why did John use the title, “the Word” to refer to Jesus?
First of all, “Jesus” refers to the man--the human named Jesus. The Son of God was not called “Jesus” until he was born, so it would be incorrect and improper for John to say, “In the beginning was Jesus....”
Although John did want to establish the deity of Christ, that purpose--in this passage, at least--was secondary to describing the function Jesus performs in the Trinity. By calling him “the Word,” John taught us that Jesus’ role was communication. This is why he was the one who created (v. 3) and why he “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (v. 14a). He did these things because his “job” in the Trinity is to communicate, to reveal God.
That’s a very important role because verse 18a says, “No one has ever seen God....” We know the Moses saw God and that Isaiah saw a vision of God. Jesus himself said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). So what did John mean here in John 1:18 when he wrote, “No one has ever seen God...?”
The answer is that no one has ever seen God in his essence, as he truly is, in his unobscured self. God is invisible (Col 1:15), so anyone who “sees” him has seen only a manifestation of God, a presentation that God has chosen to make, not the true essence of God. Nobody has seen that.
Except Jesus, for verse 18 goes on to say, “the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”
It would be impossible for us to know God or understand a thing about him on our own. Unless God choses to reveal himself, all we can do is see the result of his existence--creation and his power--not God himself.
But God has chosen to reveal himself “at many times and in various ways” (Heb 1:1) and Jesus is the ultimate expression of that.
Want to know what God would say about anything? See what Jesus said about it.
Want to know what God would do in any situation? See what Jesus did in that situation.
Anything that is true about God is true about Jesus because Jesus is God and he came to reveal God to us. That's why John called Jesus "the Word" here in John 1--because Jesus is God and revealed God to us! So, give thanks for God’s personal, powerful revelation of himself in our Lord Jesus. And, watch as we read through the Gospel of John to see what God reveals about himself through Christ.
