The Word which was with God (John 1:1)

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The Eternal Word (John 1:1)

John begins this wonderful gospel with an argument stating that before the beginning of everything, there was "the Word". Not only did the apostle John testified about Christ's Eternal Being, other writers as well attest to this fact:

(Col 1:17 [ESV])

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

(Heb 7:3 [ESV])

He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

(Rev 1:8 [ESV])

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

In order to fully understand why John used the words: “In the beginning was the Word”, John Macarthur in detail explained as to the author’s use of words. In his commentary on the book of John, he stated that:

The imperfect tense of the verb eimi (was) describing continuing action in the past, further reinforces the eternal preexistence of the Word. It indicates that He was continuously in existence before the beginning. But even more significant is the use of eimi instead of ginomai (became). The latter term refers to things that come to existence. Had John used ginomai, he would have implied that the Word came to existence at the beginning along with the rest of creation. But eimi stresses that the Word always existed; there was never a point where it came into being.

The eternity of God, as well as with His other attributes are hard to grasp for someone with limited human knowledge. However, A.W. Tozer beautifully explained about God’s Eternal Being in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy. In that book, he wrote:

Time marks the beginning of created existence, and because God never began to exist, it can have no application to Him. “Began” is a time-word, and can have no personal meaning for the high and lofty One that inhabited eternity.

Because God lives in an everlasting now, He has no past and no future. When time-words occur in the Scriptures they refer to our time, not to His. When the four living creatures before the throne city cry day and night, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come,” they are identifying God with the flow of creature-life with its familiar three tenses; and this is right and good, for God has sovereignly willed so to identify Himself. But since God is uncreated, He is not Himself affected by that succession of consecutive changes we call time.

The Deity of the Word (John 1:1-4,14)

Introduction:

Among the four gospels, the gospel of John presents Jesus Christ in a different perspective. It is the perspective of Christ's deity, which seems to be apparent in the first few verses of the gospel. Whereas Matthew, Mark and Luke made an emphasis more on the life and ministry of Christ here on Earth, John however reiterates a simple message: that only through believing in Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Son of God can one be saved.

(John 1:12 [ESV])
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

(John 3:16 [ESV])
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

(John 3:36 [ESV])
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

(John 4:14 [ESV])
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

(John 6:27 [ESV])
Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

(John 6:40 [ESV])
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

John 6:45-47 (ESV)
It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me- not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

(John 6:54 [ESV])
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

(John 11:25 [ESV])
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

(John 20:31 [ESV])
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The first few verses of the Gospel of John present us with a wonderful argument on the Deity of the Word. They are the following:

   1. The Word is eternal. - v1. In the beginning was the Word
   2. The Word co-existed with God the Father. - v1. and the Word was with God.
   3. The Word gives life. - v3. All things were made through Him
   4. The Word is self-existent. - v4. In Him was the life
   5. The Word is Incarnate. - v4. and the life was the light of men.
   6. The Word is glorious. - v14. and we have seen His glory, Glory as of the one the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.