Monday, December 3, 2012
John 1:1-18 [1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... [11] He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. ... [14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. ... [17] For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
THE INCARNATION ACCORDING TO JOHN: THE ONE TRUE GOD
Whereas all the other gospels assume a basic knowledge of the Judaic faith on the part of their readers and thus a basic knowledge of the true God and the history of the world, John begins his gospel with a poetic summary of the Old Testament mixed with a foretaste of the new. At once introducing his reader to the true God and setting forth the vital importance and proper place of Christ in this history.
At no point in these first 18 verses are the Christ and God ever mentioned or referred to separately. It is always through Christ that God is seen and when John looks for or at God it is always Christ whom he sees.
One does not need the technical grammatical discussions centered on verse one to prove that John portrays Christ as God equal to the Father. The entire first eighteen verses of John One leave no other possibility. They are an anthem to the Word, which would be blasphemous if that Word did not share equal glory with God the Father.
Verse 17 places the revelation given through Jesus Christ above the revelation which God gave Moses.
Verse 14 speaks of the glory of the Word as exactly equal to that of the Father.
Verse 11 speaks of the world as "His own," giving him full and sole position over all creation.
These are just a few examples. John could hardly be more clear that Jesus is the one eternal almighty God. Every verse of his introduction ascribes to the Christ attributes which cannot be claimed by any even a single step lower than God.
