Christmas 1
Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18
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Sometimes, it is helpful to go through a reading line-by-line. John 1:1-18 is one example of this.
Let us go through it now together. Verse one:
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Genesis 1:1 begins with the same three words: “In the beginning….” John emphasizes this continuity. To do so, he goes back to the beginning: of the Bible, and of the creation.
John introduces what seems to be a division. The Word is with God, describing a relationship. In fact, there is a relationship, not of two parts, but of a whole: the Word was God.
This is emphasized again in verse two:
“2 He was in the beginning with God;”
The word beginning means origin. Anything before the origin must be the preexisting creator of that origin. But there cannot be two creators, so anything that was with the creator at the origin must also be the creator who is responsible for the origin.
That there is a relationship with and within the Word and God is made clear in these first two verses. The Word and God are correlated.
Verse three establishes the Word as the creator:
“3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
Verse three also genders the Word. The Greek pronoun, αὐτοῦ (him), is masculine. This cannot be wished away, neither is it incidental. Furthermore, it personalizes the Word. The Word is a Person. The Word is a He.
God is a person (three, in fact) and what this means is that He is relatable and knowable. It also means that what He creates is relatable and knowable.
We can know ourselves and the world around us because this personal God has created us both.
“4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
In the Word, who is a Person, a He, there is life. This life, the life of God, is shared with the human race and is the radiance (or the glory) of our race.
“5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
This verse is full of hope. It is sometimes said that if you want a white lamp post, you need to keep painting that lamp post white. However, if you want a black lamp post, you don’t need to do anything at all.
Here is the opposite.
Psalm 139:12 says:
“even the darkness is not dark to thee,
the night is bright as the day;
for darkness is as light with thee.”
And Isaiah 60:2 reads:
“For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;”
What John is saying in verse five is that though darkness covers the whole creation it makes no difference to the light. The light is not even aware of the darkness.
So, it is for men who radiate God’s light. They are not overcome by evil and darkness.
“6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.”
John moves from the creation and a lofty portrait of God’s internal life to recent events in Palestine.
A prophet has arisen, the first one in hundreds of years, and the last prophet to bear witness to the coming Messiah.
For this reason, Jesus says of John the Baptist:
“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist.”1
Why does John move so quickly from creation to contemporary events? Because:
“9 The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.”
John is eager to write his Gospel, to tell the story of Jesus Christ.
Is it true that this light enlightens every man? The following verses say otherwise.
“10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. 11 He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.”
The creation does not recognize its creator. The Jews do not recognize their Messiah. How can John therefore say that the “true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world”?
John is speaking only of those men and women who are alive. By that I don’t mean walking around upright and drawing breath. Many people who walk around upright for the span of a few decades are no better than the walking dead.
(This is why zombie stories are so popular — and it’s what most of us are!)
I mean those who are born again, who have the life of God in them, they are enlightened. They alone are truly called men because they alone are truly alive.
This is what John means when he writes:
“12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
We who put our faith in his name receive power: the kind of power that regenerates. Before our new births, we were children of men, each of us born of a woman. (Both are biblical and poetic ways of saying we are human.)
But now we are Christians, the children of God.
A Christian is not born of the marriage bed (or some other unmarried act of lust) but directly begotten of God:
“14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”
John now names himself as an eyewitness. This is the basis of his and all apostolic authority. This eyewitness (and personal) authority is why the New Testament can be trusted.
Would you call John a liar?
He and his friends saw the glory of the Word in flesh: alive, dwelling with them.
The glory of the incarnate Word is different than ours.
We reflect glory, but He is the source of glory. His glory is unique and original. Our glory is shared with His, and only by imitation.
The relationship of the Word with God is now further described. It is a familial relationship. It is a father-son relationship.
Yet they are not two gods, but One God.
“15 (John bore witness to him, and cried, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.”’)”
The apostle John wants us to understand the Word is Jesus, the same man whom John baptized, even though John has not mentioned Him yet by name.
“16 And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
There is no conflict or contradiction between Moses and Jesus, between Law and Gospel.
The Word is the author of both.
The law is a grace given by God, through Moses, to teach right from wrong and to reveal the holiness of God and God’s holy hatred of sin.
“Grace upon grace” refers to the gift of the law and the gift of being able to obey it.
The law is fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Its penalties are satisfied in full by His blood. That blood is now the new life in us, a life that lives to keep God’s commandments.
“18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.”
How does the Word-with-God, the Word-made-flesh, the only Son, a Person in His own right yet “in the bosom of the Father” — not two gods, but One God — how does He make God known?
Through His words and sacraments.
Do you want to see God? You will when you read His word, the Bible.
Do you want to see God? You will when you participate in the sacramental life of your local church.
Both of these are gifts, but you have to do the work of unwrapping them. Reading the Bible takes time and effort. So, set aside the time and make the effort.
Receiving the sacraments also means setting aside the time and making the effort, not just to go to church, but to live a life worthy of receiving them.
Remember, the darkness cannot overcome the light. So long as you are covered in your sins, you may be standing at the foot of the altar, but God will not see you.
His life and His light will go on without you.
But, confess your sins, make a good effort to put a stop to them, and cover yourself in Christ, then God will see you. He will see you as He sees His own Son, full of grace and truth.
Moreover, you will see God. Amen.
Matt. 11:11.
Children of God