John begins his Gospel with the deity of Christ, and the Synoptic Gospels begin with the humanity of Christ and later declare his deity. “John, the great historian,” writes Austin, “begins his gospel beyond Moses, before the beginning of the world, and ends his Revelation beyond all histories with what shall he after the end of the world.”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.… And the Word was made 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.
(John 1:1, 14)
Christ, The Uncreated Word
Genesis declares, “In the beginning God.…” John writes, “In the beginning was the Word. “Christ was not of the creation, the creation was of him: All things were created by him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Before the first thing was created, Christ was the ever-existent one—he “was.”
The word of a man is the expression of his character, intelligence, will, and emotion. Christ the Word is the expression of God’s character, power, wisdom, and purpose. God in Christ reveals himself and communicates himself to men. The Word was not only in the beginning, he was the beginning, the Fount of all existence as he is also, to us, the Fount of every blessing.
Thou art the everlasting Word,
The Father’s only Son;
God manifestly seen and heard,
And heaven’s most blessed One:
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow.
The Word and the Father were together with each other as eternal comrades. Christ, the wisdom of God, is heard in Proverbs 8 saying: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.… Then I was by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.”
The Lord of hosts calls Christ “my fellow” in Zechariah 13, and he is the bosom companion of the Father in John 1:18.
All of this active intercourse and living union and communion is denoted in the statement, “and the Word was with God.” Not only was Christ where the Father was, but he was in intimate companionship and participation with him in his glory and love and sovereign purpose.
The Lord Jesus spoke of this glory in his prayer: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” The glory of Christ was not a reflected glory but he was the effulgence of the Father’s glory in whom God speaks, the incarnate Word. He is the disclosure of the divine perfections.
Love, infinite love, was what made this eternal comradeship so full of divine felicity, “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” That was in the beginning too. It is possible to think back to the time our human loves began, but the love of the Father and the Son was before the foundation of the world—when there were no depths, no fountains abounding with water—before the mountains were settled and before the hills—while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. Even then and eternally before then, the Word and the Father were in blissful loving fellowship.
Sharing in purpose as well as privilege the Word was with God. So in creation they said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Even in the beginning Christ was Counselor, taking part in all the grand designs of the Father and participating in his sovereign will.
In his rich, his free redemption also, Christ was one with the Father. Though he knew from eternity he was the Lamb slain, yet the Son said, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” That eternal self-dedication to the redemptive will of God was continued through the garden and the Cross as he had expressed in his high-priestly prayer, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” None but the Man of Calvary knows all the profound depths of wisdom and grace in redemption.
But Thy rich, Thy free redemption,
Dark through brightness all along.
Thought is poor, and poor expression,
Who dare sing that awful song?
The Word Is Inherent Deity
“… and the Word was God.” This has already been implied in his eternal existence and divine companionship with the Father. Now it is categorically stated. Our Redeemer is God. “But unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.…” Christ the Word was God in the beginning, and he has never ceased to be God. Corinthian Gnostics denied that Christ was God before his baptism or at his passion. But he was God in the manger at Bethlehem—“My Creator contracted to a span.” He was God on the Cross when through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God. He is God now at the right hand of the Father, and he will still be our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ at the appearing of his glory. The true deity of our Lord Jesus is announced in his names. He is the Almighty and the Alpha and Omega and Amen in Revelation; the Arm of the Lord in Isaiah; the Author and Finisher of faith; Author of eternal salvation; Beginning of the Creation of God; Beloved Son; Blessed and only Potentate; Captain of salvation; God blessed for evermore; First and Last; Holy One of Israel; I AM; Immanuel; King of kings; Lord of lords; Lord of glory; the Lord of our Righteousness; Prince of peace.
Join all the glorious names
Of wisdom, love, and power,
That mortals ever knew,
That angels ever bore:
All are too mean to speak His worth,
Too mean to set my Saviour forth.
Our Lord’s Godhood is set forth in his divine attributes and character. He is light and love, wisdom and power, righteousness and peace, pre-existent and preeminent; omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
The full deity of the Son of God is manifested in his knowledge and deeds. No one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him. His touch has still its ancient power, for the lepers still are cleansed of the loathsomeness of sin; and he still makes all things new wherever he works, for if any man be in Christ he is a new creation.
His deity is attested by all the millions who worship him in many lands; and they sing, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. The praise of Jesus is heard in the greatest hymns of the church: Thou art the King of glory; O Christ, Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
In Thee most perfectly expressed
The Father’s glories shine;
Of the full Deity possessed,
Eternally Divine.
The Son of God took part in historic manhood. He was made in the likeness of men. He lived in a real human body, not a mere apparition as the Docetic Gnostics asserted. He was God and continued to be God even when he became flesh, dwelling in a family there at Nazareth, and living under the law. He tabernacled among us, and what the tabernacle had been to Israel, that the body of Christ became to us.
The Glory Of The Tabernacle
The tabernacle was the place of God’s symbolic and manifested glory. Every part of it uttered God’s glory. When it was set up a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And that same uncreated glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle of our Lord’s body when on the Mount of Transfiguration they beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. The disciples with him there were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. No wonder at his birth the angels said, Glory to God in the highest.
True image of the Infinite,
Whose essence is concealed;
Brightness of uncreated light;
The heart of God revealed.
In the tabernacle the sacrifice was offered; and in the tabernacle of his human body, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He was wounded for us when he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. They pierced his hands and feet; they pierced his side; they crowned his brow with thorns; and they smote his back with many stripes. “Thy form was scarred, thy visage marred; now cloudless peace for me.”
God’s appointed meeting place was at the tabernacle, and through Christ we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. He that hath the Son hath the Father also. In Christ God comes near to man, and through Christ we draw near to God. “O trysting-place, where heaven’s love and heaven’s justice meet.” Our love and faith are forever focused and centered in Christ, the Incarnate Word.
Throughout the universe of bliss,
The centre, Thou, the sun;
The eternal theme of praise is this,
To heaven’s beloved One:
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow.
