I was always a curious person. 

Growing up, I didn’t go to church, but I always thought “there’s gotta be something out there.” 

As a kid, I had cousins who were raised Catholic and who went to mass every week. They had a crucifix in their house, and there was this person on it. I didn’t know who he was, or why he mattered, or why he would be on display in someone’s house. 

As a junior in high school, I took a humanities class where we spent a quarter of the year studying world religions. It was fascinating to me. 

The idea of God made sense.

The idea of a good and loving God made sense. But I didn’t understand where Jesus fit into that. I heard he died for our sins, but I didn’t understand the significance of that. 

If you had God, then why did you need Jesus? 

I didn’t know who Jesus was. I didn’t understand passages like John 1. It’s a passage that tells a lot about Jesus. And it’ll explain why he matters. 

John 1 passage has some of the loftiest verses in the Bible about Jesus:

John 1:1-2 says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

It can be so easy to read verses like those for a few seconds and just continue on with the rest of the passage. But it’s a mountain of meaning. 

John 1:1-3 makes four affirmations that are four of the most fundamental truths that  you possibly can know about Jesus.

1. Jesus is eternal 

“In the beginning was the Word.” 

John opens up by referring to Jesus as The Word. 

I take it almost as a title for Jesus in the beginning of John. In the Old Testament, it is through the word of the Lord that God creates, speaks to his people, makes his promises, and points people to truth. 

In Jesus, we see the ultimate disclosure of divine love, wisdom, truth and salvation, and so it is therefore fitting to refer to Jesus as the Word. 

In the beginning was the Word. 

That means that there was never a time when the Word was not. 

And this is very important because right from the beginning of John, it confronts a common error that has existed in the church essentially since the time of Christ. 

And that error is thinking Jesus is created. Or thinking that God made Jesus. Or thinking that he was a really good man who was given a promotion and became divine. 

He was in the beginning. 

This is something that John repeatedly emphasizes in his writings. 

In the beginning of First John, he again speaks of Jesus’ eternality in the opening verse when he says: That which was from the beginning, (1 John 1:1)

We also see John referring to Jesus as an eternal being in the beginning of the Book of Revelation. 

In a vision of Jesus, John says: When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last

Jesus is the first and the last. He is eternal. 

He has always existed. This is something that will continue to unfold throughout this passage, but Jesus is not a created being. 

2. Jesus has fellowship with God

The verse continues “and the Word was with God.” 

Another absolutely monumental and profound reality from this passage. Think about this for just a moment. 

The Old Testament is filled with lofty language of the majesty of God. Rightfully so. Exodus 33, Moses wants to see the glory of God (Exodus 33:18). 

God tells Moses in Exodus 33:20: you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live

It’s because God is so vibrant, and righteous, and full of life that it is completely overwhelming for fallen and finite people. 

But in that story, we see the glory of the Lord is revealed to Moses and Exodus 34 tells us that when Moses came down from the mountain, his skin was so radiant from beholding the glory of God that people were afraid (Exodus 34:29-30). 

He shined so brightly that he had to wear a veil. 

1 Kings 8, the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the Temple. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, ¹¹ so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord (1 Kings 8:10-11). 

The glory of the Lord was so overwhelming that the priests could not stand to minister. 

Isaiah 6, the prophet is given a vision of the throne room of God and he is terrified: 

Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)

The presence of the Lord is completely awesome as you behold his glory and majesty and life. 

If you’ve ever stood at a great waterfall, as the hundreds of thousands of gallons of water crash over the edge every minute, you can feel the power and rush of the water. 

That’s awe inspiring in its own right, but it’s no comparison to encountering the eternal and almighty God of the universe. 

And yet, with Jesus, we’re told that the Word was with God. Jesus can see God, he can behold the glory of God because he himself is glorious and righteous.

In the beginning, there was fellowship with Jesus and God the Father. Not mentioned in this section, but also with the Holy Spirit. God did not make us because he was lonely or bored or because he needed us. 

God had always existed in fellowship with himself. It is eternal and perfect. 

This passage does not build the entire Doctrine of the Trinity by itself, but it’s very helpful in understanding a Trinitarian theology. 

God is triune. 

Jesus was with God. 

Something else that matters is that this passage is showing distinction between Jesus and God. 

Jesus is not simply God the Father coming into the world. 

Rather he exists in fellowship with God. There is no dysfunction in the Holy Trinity. Only perfect unity. 

That’s something that’s really hard to wrap our minds around because we’re sinful and fallen. Our relationships and families have dysfunction. Even good relationships, we still have times of hurt or disagreement. It’s all we see and all we know. 

And so it is hard to imagine a perfect relationship where there’s no keeping score, where there’s never any resentment or bitterness. Where there’s no sin. 

But really that says a lot about us as people. That we’re so dysfunctional and hurtful and sinful that a perfect relationship almost seems weird to us. 

Jesus has a perfect relationship with God and that in itself is helpful in understanding the restoration that Jesus brings into the lives of people. 

Jesus died to mend the broken relationship. But it’s because there is perfect fellowship within the Trinity that this is possible. 

    3. Jesus is God

The text continues “and the Word was God.” 

The central theme of John’s Gospel. The Lordship of Christ. 

Something to consider…

This would have been such a radical idea in the first century. 

There’s a prayer that Orthodox Jews recite daily, in many circles, multiple times a day that’s taken from the book of Deuteronomy. 

It affirms both that there is one God and also gives the command to love God. 

Deuteronomy 6:4-6

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

Everyday, multiple times a day reciting these words. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. It was, and is, at the very bedrock of the Jewish belief system. 

And John was Jewish. And Jesus was Jewish. 

Yet without contradiction, right off the bat in his testimony of who Jesus is, John says “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” 

John believed and here affirms that Jesus is God. 

That is the Orthodox view of Christianity throughout the history of the church. 

Jesus is God. 

He’s a person of the Trinity. 

Borrowing from Wayne Grudem in his book Systematic Theology: 

Historical, Orthodox, Biblical Christianity believes the following

There is one God. 

God is three persons. 

Each person is fully God. 

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Again, you can’t build an entire theology of the Trinity from this passage alone. But this passage affirms that Jesus is God and also that there is distinction between Jesus and God. 

You might think “that’s so hard to wrap my mind around.” 

You’re wrong. 

It’s impossible to truly wrap your mind around. You’re not God. We don’t have to know exactly how it’s simultaneously true that we have one God, who is three persons, and each person is fully God. 

But the Bible affirms all three of those statements. I mentioned a few minutes ago that the belief in one God was central to Jewish belief. 

It’s central to Christianity too. We also believe in one God. But God is triune. 

Throughout his ministry, we see Jesus showing his divinity through his miraculous signs. 

We see his victory over death. We see his perfect and holy life. He’s God.

All of this taken together in our passage we see: that the Word was with God shows there relationship and distinction. 

That Jesus is God shows his divinity. 

Again, this matters tremendously. 

And we have all of these affirmations right from the beginning of John’s gospel. 

If Jesus were not God, then he would not be a worthy sacrifice for our sins. If he were just a great man, he would still be fallible. If he were just a great teacher, he could still be wrong . If he were just a great leader, he would still be finite. 

But he is the perfect God of creation. He entered into a sinful creation to redeem humanity. 

It also matters because if Jesus were less than God, then not only would he be unworthy of our worship, but the very act of worshipping him would be blasphemous.

From the beginning of the Ten Commandments. 

Exodus 20

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

We’re told elsewhere in the Bible that God is a jealous God. But the gospels show people worshipping Jesus. He never corrects them or deflects worship when that happens. 

That is either blasphemous or warranted. There’s no middle ground. 

John’s Gospel is that it constantly confronts us with absolute claims with Jesus. Chief among them is that Jesus is God. 

That’s an absolute claim. It’s either true or it’s not. If it’s true, the only response is to believe in him, to worship him, to trust in him. If it’s not, the rest of this gospel is meaningless and blasphemous. 

4. Jesus made everything 

Verse 3: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Again this is speaking to the divinity of Jesus. All things were made through him. All means all. 

The ground, the trees, the sand of the beaches, the stars in the sky, the air we breathe, the materials we use to build things, all of it was made by Jesus. 

He made every person. Each of us has billions of cells in our bodies. Incredible complexity and structure just within our own bodies. The universe is incredibly big. 

I thought this was a fun exercise. So the distance between the earth and the sun is 93 million miles. 

If that distance was represented by the width of this one sheet of paper, the distance of our entire galaxy would be a stack of papers 453 miles high. 

One stack of papers a mile high is about 15 million sheets of paper. Times 453 miles. With each sheet of paper representing 93 million miles. 

And that’s just our galaxy. 

There are one hundred billion galaxies. 

If you could have an atlas of every galaxy in the entire universe and each page represented an entire galaxy, and if you spent just one second on every page and continually turned pages in the atlas, it would take you more than 31,000 years to flip all the way through the atlas. 

The universe is incredibly, unfathomably big. 

There are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand in all the beaches of the world. Yet there are more trees on earth than there are stars in our one galaxy. 

And that’s just looking at the amazing size of of our universe. There is amazing creation within our world. 

New species of animals are still being discovered. And they’re not all insects or really small animals. 

Since 2000, there have been new species of primates discovered. We don’t even yet know everything on our own planet. 

Yet Jesus made it all. 

There are other passages in the New Testament which speak to this fact. 

Colossians 1:16: For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

We see this language as well in the opening chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 1:10 referring to Jesus says: 

You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,

and the heavens are the work of your hands;

Jesus is the creator. He made everything. 

And John states it both ways. 

He made everything.

And also there’s nothing that he didn’t make. 

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

He’s a mighty God. 

It’s a lofty passage. It’s a confrontational passage. You affirm these truths or you don’t. 

Our society often likes to treat Jesus as something you can take or leave. 

Gravity isn’t something that you can take or leave. 

Arithmetic isn’ t something that you can take or leave. 

Breathing isn’t something that you can take or leave. 

Jesus isn’t something you can just take or leave. Jesus isn’t just a nice person or a nice idea. He’s the Lord of creation. 

Many cherry pick certain teachings. Others treat him as a great teacher or a great religious leader. 

Jesus isn’t one good teacher among other great teachers. He’s God. 

The sages of other major religious traditions were born. Buddha wasn’t there in the beginning. Mohammad wasn’t there in the beginning. 

But in the beginning was the Word. 

There have been great leaders in the world who have influenced nations and movements. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Gandhi. Some like to just act like Jesus was a wise peace maker who came with a good message. 

He’s so much more than that. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word created all things. 

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This post is the second in a series in studies on the Gospel of John. For more passages in this series, please click here.