John 1:4 : In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
According to John, there was clearly something different about Jesus. He had life in Him. It is true that when we are born we have life, but why do we automatically search for more? Something inside of us longs for more than what we get when we are born. We don’t feel like we are really living to the extent that we want to be living.
John was a witness to the fact that Jesus was really living, but there is another important aspect to this. This life had the properties of light to mankind. This is just full of meaning, most of it I don’t think I fully appreciate yet. Up to this point we have been talking about Jesus and His work during creation. It is very interesting, that the first thing that God created (other than the earth and the heavens) was light.
Light in the physical realm makes it easy to see where you are and where you are going physically. It makes sense then that light in the spiritual realm makes it easy for you to see where you are and where you are going spiritually.
Since John was clearly talking about life inside, the light he was talking about is logically an inner light or a spiritual one. Now light has a positive quality that is obvious. When the light is on you can clearly see things. This allows you to avoid problems and move quickly to places you want to go. But light also can seem like a bad thing; when you are trying to hide, darkness is preferred. When a person is ready to go into the light for its benefits and is ready to stop hiding, the light is clearly the best choice.
The life of Jesus was a light to men and not all men appreciated that fact. We will learn more about that as we move through this book.
John 1:3 : All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
In the third verse, John continues to talk about Jesus as “The Word.” It says that not only was Jesus there at the beginning of the world, but that everything was created through Him. Every single thing that was created was created through Him.
It should be very clear by now that God does not think much of evolution. Notice that the word “Created” is said again three times. Not only that, this “Word” was involved in creating everything. It is very interesting that it was by words that God created. He just spoke and everything happened. There is another very interesting thing about words.
We still have words in us. We now know that our physical bodies are created by a program recorded in our very own DNA. In a very obvious way, all of life was not only spoken but written! Isn’t it amazing how important “The Word” is? There appears to be much more about this “Word” that I may never fully understand because it is so great, but that reminds me again of my great God and how much bigger than I He is. Don’t you think a God this big can help us through anything?
We also have the words of the Bible that were written for us. Jesus is the one who, through his Spirit, makes the Bible clear to us.
So from this verse we can see that Jesus was involved in the creation of the universe.
John 1:2 : The same was in the beginning with God.
Many very important things were written in the Bible only once, but this idea of Jesus being with God at the creation of the universe was important enough to mention twice. Even though I did just talk about this last time, I’m going to talk about it again because it is repeated in the Bible. Evidently, it’s very important for us to understand. God knew what we would be thinking about today and He knew that there would be many questions about creation in the future.
If someone tells you that evolution fits with the Bible, they aren’t getting the point of what evolution teaches. According to the Bible, Jesus was present at the beginning of creation. Evolution is a way of explaining how design happens by chance. The pure theory of evolution claims that God isn’t really necessary to make the universe. Some try to add God to evolution but the Bible teaches that God made the universe. We have a supernatural witness that claims to have been there when it happened. Because of this, Christians can know more than science can determine.
This also tells us that Jesus was a person before he was born as a man on earth; that He lived outside of our existence. He existed at creation but was later to be born in the form of a man. This first chapter of John discusses this in greater detail in the next verses. But for today, let’s remember the fact that the Bible stresses that He was there at the beginning with God.
John 1:1 : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In John 1:1, Jesus is given an unusual title. John, who was one of Jesus closest disciples, calls Him “The Word.” Jesus is God’s Word to man in a human form. We also learn in this one verse, that Jesus was already there at the beginning of all creation.
There is an amazing parallel with this verse to the first verse of the Bible: Genesis 1:1. Try comparing Genesis 1:1 with John 1:1 in your Bible. It’s as if God gives us more information about what was happening. Not only did God create everything, but Jesus was there and He was to be our “Word.”
This is evidence that the world was created. It did not “evolve” or change all by itself from nothing into something. The Bible clearly disagrees with the basis for evolution in that evolution depends only on chance and not a creator. God was speaking through the mind and words of John to write this part of the Bible. He says that Jesus was there at the beginning. This makes Jesus a witness of creation. History is better understood through witnesses than through science. If a scientist finds a hat in the road and says it is 10 years old and later another man comes in and says that it is actually only one year old and it’s mine. I made it. We should at least seriously investigate the claim before taking the word of the scientist who never claimed to be there.
This one little verse also tells us that Jesus was God. Obviously it is not true that the Bible never says that Jesus is God. This is one of the many places. This verse also gives us another interesting fact about God. It says that Jesus was both “with” God and that he “was” God. You might wonder how a person can both be with someone and also be that someone. This is one of the mysteries that is unique to God. I think this has to be believed because it falls outside of our intelligence. The Bible talks about this mystery quite a bit in many different places in the Bible. It is often called “The Trinity” and references the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They all together are recognized as one God. I think it’s important for us to remember that it’s Ok to believe things we don’t understand. Just because we don’t understand something, doesn’t mean that it isn’t real and true. There are many things like that in life that we see and accept but don’t fully understand and I believe that the Trinity is one of them.
The book of John settles some issues that many people needlessly question. Through John’s witness, we learn that Jesus really did claim to be God. We learn that He was the only one able to save all of mankind from being condemned by God. We learn what it means when a Christian is “saved” and what it means to “believe in Jesus.” We also discover that Jesus was our Creator and our Savior.
Like the rest of the Bible, The Book of John is very relevant. We discover that science and politics have not weakened the message about Jesus Christ although many people think there are problems between the Bible and these things. In this wonderful book of the Bible we find clear evidence that God really is the Creator of science and knows all about true leadership; much more than modern man does.
In John we see the true Messiah. He wasn’t just a great teacher or a token of abuse, He is the Savior of mankind and He knew it all along. Possibly the most important theme in this book is the resurrection of the dead. This book holds the precious eye-witness evidence that Jesus overcame death and an attempt was made to cover it up. We still have the truth if we dare to read about it in John.
I am completely unworthy to write about God’s word. My intent was to allow God to do the speaking through my mind and words. I pray that you will be built up and that if you haven’t already that you may believe in Jesus the one who conquered mankind’s worst enemy.