“In the Beginning was the Word” – Part one

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Or perhaps more correctly, “and God was the Word,” (kai theos en ho logos). (The Greek New Testament, Nestle/Aland, 3rd edition, United Bible Society.)

On each successive creative day, prior to each creative act, we find one clause which occurs in each: “God said.” John goes on to say, “Through the Word every thing was done; and without it not even one thing was done, which has been done.” (Emphatic Diaglott, John 1:3.) Not one thing was done without direct intervention by God and nothing was done until God said it was to be done. John appears to be deliberately supporting the record of Moses that God created the world through His word.

All made by Him

“In him (or ‘it,’ the Greek is auto) was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). The only way to determine whether the personal pronoun auto should be “he,” “she” or “it” is to make a decision of interpretation. We can say emphatically God’s word brought life into His creation: the skies were filled with fowl; the seas brought forth fish, great whales and other creatures; the earth was populated with a variety of beasts; until, finally, God placed man and woman in the Garden. In each sphere of God’s creation, living creatures were placed appropriate to their circumstances.

Continuity was determined at that point in God’s creative work. The earth would bring forth fruit and trees, all manner of plant life, which would continue to reproduce after its kind. The air and sea creatures would propagate and fill the earth, as would the beasts on land. God then told the man and woman to “go forth and multiply and replenish the earth.” In His word, there was life. God made nothing without first pronouncing His intention, then He caused it to be.

Light had been “created” on the first day; the sun and moon had become apparent on the fourth. The light shone through the darkness that had been separating the earth from the light. The sun would light the day; the moon and stars would bring light to the night. The creatures on the earth would be able to see as a result of this gift from God, through His word. John says “the dark­ness could not comprehend” the light. He chose the word katelabon, which can mean either “comprehend” or it can mean “apprehend” in the sense of seizing upon or laying hold of so as to make one’s own. The darkness could not supplant the light. In the natural sense, no plainer statement can be made. As it applies to spiritual light, the darkness most certainly cannot understand the light, nor does it wish to. The truth of God is foreign to those who dwell in darkness.

Enlightenment

It was not God’s plan to leave man in an unenlightened state. But man had to prove himself. Adam and Eve’s subsequent failure was not a result of God’s shortsightedness. He knew precisely what He was doing. They were placed in the best possible position to succeed in His initial requirement to obey the one law He would require of them.

They failed. They cared more for the thing they could see, rather than what they could not see. Simple faith was not possible for Adam and Eve. Why wouldn’t God allow them to taste of this fruit? Why had Adam told Eve she was not even to touch the fruit? God understood that with provocation would come an inflammation of those latent lusts. Having touched the fruit, Eve would eat of it; having eaten of it, she would offer it to Adam. Their eyes opened, aware of their own nakedness, they attempted to hide from God, but they heard His voice as they hid in the Garden. Newly enlightened to good and evil, they were cast from the Garden, forced to survive in a world now changed because of them.

“I am the light of the world”

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John (the Baptizer). The same came for a witness, to bear witness to the Light, that all men through him might believe” (John 1:6,7). “This then is the message which we have heard of him (the word of life that was manifested), and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all…if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:5, 7). Jesus said of himself, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

“God, who (had) at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (but) hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Heb. 1:1, 2). “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father…Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake” (John 14:9-11). “They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. 1:23).

Throughout the gospel of John, the point is made that Jesus was one in conduct and message with his Father. The eternal plan of God was centered in and fully manifested by Christ. Those who came in contact with him were associating with a flesh and blood representation of the intent and mind of God Himself.

God spoke, light was created. Again, God spoke, His son came into being. God was manifest in His son, shown forth in and through His son. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).

Jesus Christ was the light of the world. The same word that had been spoken in the beginning of creation and created light spoke at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ. The angel had declared, “That which is conceived in her (Mary) is of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 1:20). The word was involved in creation on two levels, the same word which effected the birth of Jesus Christ had previously “made the worlds.”