Background Reading: Proverbs 8:22-36
Main Reading: John 1:1-18
Focus Text: John 1:1-3

[Please ensure that you consult all the Bible references in the text, because there are many and they add a vital sense to it. At one time, anyone reading a piece like this would be poring over the references “to see if the teachings are true” (Acts 17:11). But not today. Most will not even read an article like this, nevermind look into all the references! But such are these times. I just hope all my readers are Bereans, because it is important for you to check me out and ensure that my teachings are true! I welcome such scrutiny. In fact, it would be refreshing.]

INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS

What is the Christian teaching which is most under threat today? What is the link in the chain of truth which, if removed, breaks the entire scheme of redemption? Surely it is the Deity of Christ — that Jesus Christ is actually God — Very God of Very God. For if He is not Divine, then the Gospel would be of no effect, as this precious text reveals:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created, things 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. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have pre-eminence. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:15-20).

One could spend a lifetime meditating on that text. If it does not speak of the Deity of Christ, then I do not know what does. And we see here that the purpose behind the Gospel is indelibly tied to that Deity. Yet, the Deity of Christ would be denied by many — especially the more liberal wing of the visible church! Many are even ignorant of the vital necessity that Jesus is God manifested in the flesh and that there would be no Gospel without that. They think that just ‘cuddling up to Jesus’ is all that counts. But if Jesus is not God then all the cuddling in the world will come to nothing, for He would be just another ordinary bloke. But He isn’t. He is God.

So this is why I am laying it out here — not only to convince you that Jesus is God but also demonstrate why it is so important and why it is a teaching which is always under such tremendous attack. This is easily the most important subject that I have ever written about. That is because everything else in the cosmos or in anyone’s life is derivative to it. Everything. In a way, there is nothing else to say other than that God was manifested in the flesh on this earth two thousand years ago (1 Timothy 3:16; John 1:14). All history before that is what inexorably led up to that moment. All history since then is the outworking of it. If a mind-soul could envisage the full significance of this for just one microsecond, it would be transformed forever.

Theology and Evangelism are linked to the Deity of Christ

Of the four Gospels, John’s is the one which has been written in order to fulfil a powerful theological agenda. He carefully preserves and presents us with seven sermons given by Christ and seven signs shown by Christ. Then, near the close of the gospel, he tells us the purpose of his Spirit-inspired book:-

“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. 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” (John 20:30-31).

That states perfectly the dual-purpose of John’s Gospel. It is at once theological, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”, and it is also evangelistic, “that believing you may have life in His name”. Theology and evangelism are the two great works of the Church in the world. The church which theologises but never evangelises has suffered a cardiac arrest (has no heart). The church which evangelises but never theologises is brain dead (has no mind). The two stand or fall together. Mind and heart.

And John begins his Gospel by showing us plainly that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. “The Christ, the Son of God”. What do these two phrases mean?

The Christ (Greek: ὁ Χριστὸς, ho kristos) means, literally, the anointed One. It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word, הַמָּשִׁיחַ, hamashiach — the Messiah. He is the One who has been specially and uniquely anointed as King, Redeemer, and Saviour of the world. He is the fulfilment of the promised Seed or offspring of the woman prophesied by God in the presence of Satan, Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15.

“Son of Man” and “Son of God” are Divine Terms

“That you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God”. The Son of God means nothing less than His Deity, the fact that He IS God. He didn’t become the Son of God at His Incarnation. He is the eternal Son of God. He has always been the only-begotten Son of God. It was unto US that a Son was born. However, He never became God’s Son at a certain point in history, but He always has been so. ‘Eternally begotten’, to put it correctly.

Now in calling Christ “the Son of God”, John is without a doubt referring to His Deity — the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ — asserting the fact that Jesus Christ is God. This use of the phrase “Son of God” with reference to Christ as a sign of His deity is shown everywhere in Scripture. For example, the following examples show that the Son and Father are co-equal in Deity:

“Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well” (1 John 2:23).

“But about the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the sceptre of Your kingdom” (Hebrews 1:8).

“Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

In the four Gospels, Christ refers to Himself as “the Son of Man” almost eighty times. This is a clear reference back to a prophecy about Himself (the Messiah) in the Book of Daniel:

“In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).

This passage refers to all authority in the world being given to “the Son of Man” at His ascension, then to be publicly, universally and cosmically ratified at the end of the age. Christ clearly ascribes this exact Old Testament text to Himself when He says that “the son of man” will return to earth “in a cloud” at the end of the age with all authority and power:

“There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves. Men will faint from fear and anxiety over what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:25-28)

Yet again, Christ is ascribing Divinity to Himself as He brings the day of judgement to pass. The same Divinity can be said of those places where He refers to Himself as “the Son of God”. For example, praying to the Father, Christ said:

“When Jesus had spoken these things, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him”” (John 17:1-2).

Only God could have that kind of power and authority — the kind of authority of which emperors would be extremely jealous and which the Antichrist will vainly try to counterfeit. He is God the Son. It is ironic that so many humans will not confess the Deity of Christ when even the demons recognised His Divinity, actually calling Him by the title, “Son of God” (Matthew 8:28-29)!

And when John says this in reference to the new heavens and new earth, “There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him”, the text is plainly ratifying that the throne of Divinity belongs to both the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb (Revelation 22:3). Co-equally Divine.

When Jesus said to Thomas: “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe”, Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:27-28). He said, “My God” to the Lord Jesus. Thomas clearly recognised His Deity and Jesus did not even attempt to correct him, because it is true! Is that how we see the Lord Jesus too? As very God of very God?

Jesus Ascribes Divinity to Himself

You may not realise it but the main reason that the Jews wanted Christ dead was because He plainly claimed Divine status for Himself — firstly, by saying that He could forgive sins when only God can have that power (please see Matthew 9:6 with Mark 2:6-7), but especially also by calling Himself “the Son of God”. That was the “clincher”, as far as the religious authorities were concerned, which proved His “blasphemy”:

“So the Sanhedrin all asked, ‘Are You then the Son of God?’ He replied, ‘You say that I am’. ‘Why do we need any more testimony?’ they declared. ‘We have heard it for ourselves from His own lips’ Then the whole council rose and led Jesus away to Pilate” (Luke 22:70-71; 23:1).

“’We have a law,’ answered the Jews, ‘and according to that law He must die, because He declared Himself to be the Son of God’” (John 19:7).

And here is the law which they thought they were upholding:

“Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD must surely be put to death; the whole assembly must surely stone him, whether he is a foreign resident or native; if he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death” (Leviticus 24:16).

“Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18).

The Jews of Christ’s time knew very well that they were dealing with a man who claimed that he is God, and it disturbed them considerably. For them, this was a blasphemy worthy of death. Ultimately, on the religious level at least, that is the justification they used for killing Him (though there were also many ways in which they were hugely threatened because Christ triggered their psychological issues as well as their rank spiritual hypocrisy).

Then Christ claimed outright that He is God in the flesh. During an encounter with them, the repartee goes like this: Christ says, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires” (John 8:44). They then said to Him: “Are we not right to say that You are a Samaritan and You have a demon?” (John 8:48), the ludicrous charge of which Christ of course denied. Then He said to them: “Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death” (John 8:51). They then responded: “Now we know that You have a demon!” declared the Jews. “Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet You say that anyone who keeps Your word will never taste death’” (John 8:52). Then Christ replied: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). The text then gives the astonishing conclusion to this exchange:

“Then the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?’ ‘Truly, truly, I tell you,’ Jesus declared, ‘before Abraham was, I AM!’ At this, they picked up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple area, going through the midst of them, and so He passed by” (John 8:57-59).

I love it when the Bible says that He just walked away through them or miraculously disappeared out of their sight when His pompous critics tried to grab Him or kill Him. This shows that they were only going to be able to do it on God’s terms, in His timing, which indeed it was. They were dealing with the Creator of the cosmos yet they were arguing with Him! It is just astonishing.

“Before Abraham came into existence, I AM!” Wow! That was like a red rag to a bull for those guys, and He knew it. The mighty “I AM” is a name of God emblazoned in the Old Testament. When Moses asked God what His name is and how should he report it to the Egyptians, He replied “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14). Yet here Christ was ascribing this Divine name to Himself. No wonder those unbelieving Jews wanted to stone Him to death! Their whole system of control was under threat.

Imagine, though, meeting face-to-face with God Himself in the flesh when you are a supposed leader of Israel who should be living in expectancy of this Messiah — their Messiah — and not only telling Him that He is demonically-possessed but then trying to kill Him too! In the face of all that unique blessing, they were in such a deep state of blindness and hardness of heart (just as most of those who claim to be Jews in Israel are to this day), to which Christ replied very poignantly:

“Jesus replied, “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh… If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me? Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God” (John 8:14-15; 46-47).

Here, Christ equates His words to those of God, thus again claiming Divinity. Those unbelieving Jews were expecting their Messiah to be some fancy king-like character with a lot of obvious worldly “bling” and spiritual ‘clout’; whereas Jesus the Christ was, to the casual onlooker, a rather nondescript-looking man who could only be recognised with spiritual eyesight; just as had been prophesied about Him in the Book of Isaiah:

“He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isaiah 53:2-3).

If a person “belongs to God”, s/he will listen and respond to Christ and His words for they are the words of God. S/he will not judge by outward appearances and say, “This guy doesn’t fit with what I think a spiritual person should look like, so I won’t believe him”. Far too many are fooled by outward religious appearance, such as how the hair is worn (e.g. long, special bun, dreadlocks, etc.), the manner of dress (cassock, kaftan, fancy hats, or other elaborate outfits), Eastern facial features (e.g. dark complexion, “religious” beard, etc.), ‘kewl’ hypnotic way of speaking (e.g. Osho and other gurus, or Benny Hinn and all that evil lot in the churches), religious phrasing (using all the ‘right’ clichés), having an imposing physical stature, etc. The appearance of Jesus did not fulfil the stereotypes of the Messiah. A person who “belongs to God” will know instantly who Christ is and recognise that they are standing before God and throw themselves to their faces in front of Him rather than throwing stones in His direction!

So, Christ clearly claimed Divinity for Himself before the people. There are other such references of self-proclaimed Divinity too.

After His resurrection, He could comfort His disciples with the assurance that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18). How much authority in heaven and on earth would indicate Divinity? There cannot be anything more than “all” authority! If you need any more convincing, He then stated to the Father in his renowned prayer:

“I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed” (John 17:4-5).

The glory that He had with the Father before the creation of the world! Surely that is Divinity. And if you still need any further convincing, He continued saying to the Father: “All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine” (John 17:10). That is Divinity. He was and is God. The Jews knew that this is what He was claiming and it scared the pants off them. He asserted it Himself. We can read it and we should wholly believe it.

As well as the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is also accredited with Divine attributes, such as eternality, omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence in many places (For example, Psalm 139:7-8; 1 Corinthians 2:10-11; Hebrews 10:14). It is interesting to note that one of the Hebrew words for God in the Old Testament, אֱלֹהִים֙, Elohim, is actually a plural form. This is used right at the beginning of the Bible in the story of the creation. Similarly, in that early part of the Bible, God self-speaks in the plural forms of “us” and “we” (Genesis 1:26; 3:22). That was just a little thought for the day to tantalise your mind. I’m not keen to over-intellectualise anything to do with the Divine. We cannot really get our heads round all this; and neither should we. It is way above our pay-grade to be able to fathom it all. Yet. For the time will come when we will certainly know a whole lot more.

Only One Human Has Ever Been Divine

Now here’s a thought: All believers are sons of God by adoption (John 1:12; Romans 814-17); but only One Person has ever been THE Son of God by nature — the Lord Jesus Christ. And that was the essence of His battle with the religious authorities. It was over His Deity. And so it has always been. The great battleground concerns the Godhood of the Man Jesus Christ. Satan, from the beginning, tried to convince human beings that they can be God, and therefore that the One True God has no exclusive claim on Deity. This is why so much of world religion foolishly deifies gurus or falsely teaches that people themselves can realise godhood through various techniques and practices.

The unbelieving world wants to say that Jesus Christ is anything BUT God! It wants to make Him into a mere Prophet (that’s what Islam says). It wants to make Him into a Great Man (that’s what the liberals say). It wants to make Him into an Ascended Master (that’s what the New Agers say). It wants to make Him into a Communist (that’s what Fidel Castro said on July 14th, 2000, see the piece in https://nypost.com/2000/07/15/jesus-christ-was-a-commie-castro/ ). It wants to make Him into a psychologist (that’s what I read in a psychology journal). It wants to make Him seem less popular than the Beatles (as the pretentious musician, John Lennon, claimed in an interview in February 1966). But regardless of what every ignorant person claims, the reality is that He is only ever one thing: God come in the flesh as the only spiritual Saviour for humanity! The very heart and soul of Christianity is the fact that God Himself has come in the flesh in the Person of Jesus the Christ. Take that away and you have no basis for the faith. Small wonder, then, that the world should forever be tearing away at that fact.

Fact: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God”.

No other human being in this world has ever been God or will be God or indeed CAN be God. Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Sai Baba, Vivekananda, the Maharishi, Osho, etc., etc. — you name the gurus of all the religions which have ever been — and none of them has been, will be, or can be God, despite any ludicrous claims to be so. They all lived and died like everyone else and were never resurrected or ascended to heaven.

Why the Deity of Christ is the Most Attacked Teaching of all

Now you need to know here that alongside of the great truth of the Deity of Christ, there has been a massive deception at work in the world throughout this evil age. It is what Paul called “the mystery of iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). John calls it “the spirit of the Antichrist”.  This deceptive process was at work in Paul’s and John’s time, and it is just as avidly at work in our own time. A big part of that process is the denial that Christ has come in the flesh:

“By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time” (1 John 4:2-3).

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, refusing to confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Any such person is the deceiver and an antichrist” (2 John 7).

Although there will one day be an actual Antichrist who will show up on the world’s stage, throughout this age there have been (and will continue to be) many what I call “mini-antichrists” who have some of his characteristics and who set the stage for the ultimate debacle of this age (1 John 2:18). A cardinal feature of these mini-antichrists is that they avidly deny the Deity of Christ.

You see, my friends, the Big Lie has always been that God is not God but that Satan is the real ruler of the world. That is what Satan wants everyone to believe. He even tried to convince the Lord Jesus that it was true: “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ‘All this I will give You,’ he said, ‘if You will fall down and worship me’” (Matthew 4:8). For Satan believes that HE is God, rather than Jehovah/Christ. When Satan’s ultimate man is revealed in the world — the Antichrist — “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

“All who dwell on the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8).

The whole antichristian world system is geared up to dethroning Christ as God and instead exalting Satan to that position, which is the big lie that is referenced in the Scriptures (e.g. see 2 Thessalonians 2:11 where we see that lie in its horrifying climax in this world). Satan has certainly been the usurper ruler of the world, with the permission of God. But the Lord Jesus Christ put that in its true perspective shortly before His victorious atonement, resurrection and ascension, when He said: “Now is the judgement of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). And it is precisely on this battleground that things are going to pan out in the coming months and years of this present evil age.

Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh. Period. No contest. “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

“Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world”.

Now that the introductory substance of our subject has been expounded on through various facets, let us have a closer look here in our three verses from John 1 at the manner in which John reveals the fact that Jesus Christ is God:

I. JOHN REVEALS THAT CHRIST IS GOD JUST BY CALLING HIM “THE WORD”

“In the beginning was the Word…”

The Greek word is ὁ Λόγος , the Logos. Why Logos? Why “The Word”? There are three main reasons:

1) John Calls Him the Logos – “Word”- Because He is the Heart of the Written Word Of God

From the start to the finish of Scripture, Christ is the principal thing. The whole of Scripture reveals Christ as God and Saviour. He is present at the creation and actually effects it (more on that shortly). He is promised as the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15. He appears in numerous ways to various people in the Old Testament in pre-incarnate form, known as “theophanies” (e.g. Joshua 5:13-15; Judges 13:3). Abraham actually rejoiced to see the day of Christ (John 8:56). The pre-incarnate Christ accompanied the children of Israel in numerous ways. Those Israelites “all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:3-4). He was represented graphically and sanguinely in all the sacrifices and laws in the Law of Moses. He was David’s Lord: “The Lord said to my Lord…” (Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:41-46). Virtually all the prophets explicitly testified of His coming. Isaiah revealed Him as a Light who would come to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:5-6). Malachi spoke of Him as “the Sun of Righteousness” who would “arise with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2; cf. Mark 2:9-11). The whole of the New Testament is devoted to revealing who He really is, how He took that awful penalty from the Father in His own body and soul for the sins of many (1 Corinthians 5:21), how He rose from the dead because it was not possible that death could hold Him (Acts 2:24), and how He is “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). And at the end of the Bible, the Book of Revelation is in fact “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1), who will one day return to judge the world and create a new universe.

John reveals that Jesus Christ is God by calling Him the Word, the Logos, because He is at the heart of the Word of God, the Bible.

2) John Calls Him the Logos – “Word” – Because He is the Revealer Of the Father

As a word reveals the identity of something, so Christ reveals the nature of the Father. This is why He is called the “Word”. Let me allow the amazing Scriptures about this to speak for themselves:

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3).

“All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27).

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known” (John 1:18).

“Jesus replied, ‘Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?’“ (John 14:9-10).

As a word reveals the identity of something, so Christ reveals the nature of the Father. And He and the Father are one (see John 10:30). This is why He is called “the Logos”.

3) John Calls Him the Logos – “Word” – Because He is the Creator

“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3).

God is seen to create by the words: “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). The reality is that “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him” (John 1:10). Christ the Creator of the universe! But the world does not recognise Him. We see this creative power of Christ as God in many other places:

“There is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6).

“…and to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:9).

“On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

And to the Son the Father says: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands” (Hebrews 1:10).

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created, things 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. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17).

He is not only the Creator, but also the Sustainer: “in him all things hold together”. “…upholding all things by power of His word” (Hebrews 1:3). The moment-to-moment continuation of the universe hangs on the existence, power and work of Christ! Surely He is God!

We must also realise here the great love of God in Christ in His act of creation: “Then I was a skilled craftsman at His side, and His delight day by day, rejoicing always in His presence. I was rejoicing in His whole world, delighting together in the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:30-31). There the pre-incarnate Christ is speaking as wisdom personified in the presence of the Father.

You may think that all this wonderment is strange because of all the awful things which happen in the world. But this has not been caused by God but has come about because of human sin in the Fall. But remember, He created not only the world but also the solution to its Fall, which did not take Him by surprise. This present world was created by God in Christ and that same Christ is the Saviour working in His world to bring those who are His to Himself; and He will also be the One who winds this world up in a cataclysmic judgement and creates the new cosmos in which those He has saved will dwell.

II. JOHN PROVES CHRIST’S DEITY IN MANY OTHER WAYS

Even in the first few verses of John’s Gospel, which is our focus text, he overturns numerous heresies at a stroke! Let us examine them:

1) John Reveals That Christ is God by Showing that He was not a Created Being

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

It is no coincidence that these are like the words of Genesis 1:1. In Genesis 1:1, the ‘beginning’ is the beginning of history. In John 1:1, the ‘beginning’ is before the beginning of history. That is eternity, even before the creation of the universe! As Augustine of Hippo put it: “This is the beginning which had no beginning”.

Genesis begins with creation to show the work of God. John begins with eternity to show the being of God. And Christ is the heart and soul of that being.

There have been many throughout history who have tried to prove that there was no pre-existence of Christ. The Arians in the early church, who persecuted the hero Athanasius who held out against them despite all odds and on whom there was even a contract for assassination put out. Then there are the Jehovah Witnesses of today, who have even radically altered the Bible to back up their heresy. For the pre-existence of Christ to the creation is a vital proof of His Deity and the world wants to snuff out any suggestion of that.

2) John Reveals that Christ is God By Showing that He was not Merely Some Force Emanating from God

“The Word was with God”.

There is separate personality. There is “the Word”, and there is “God”. Although one in essence, they are two distinct personalities. However, in spite of this fact, the false idea that Christ is some kind of force emanating from God has been specifically taught by some. Unfortunately, this is also often unintentionally implied by many others. It is very common in some religious circles to abandon completely the concept of the physical Incarnation and Atonement of Christ in favour of a mere personal experience of Him as some kind of mystical Christ-force which impinges on one’s life in a nebulous fashion. Such mysticism can also be attractive to many who call themselves “Christian” but who plainly have no understanding of who Christ is or what His Gospel represents.

3) John Reveals That Christ is God By Showing that He was not a Mere Attribute, Mode or Aspect of God

“The Word was with God”.

There is a dynamic twosome here. There is separate personality. It is common in the minds of some professing Christians to picture Christ merely as some kind of mode or aspect of God. This ‘Modalism’ (Sabellianism) was a heresy which happened frequently in the early church and into which many believers can be tempted. However, not only this verse in John 1:1, but also many others in Scripture prove conclusively that the Son of God is a separate personality from the Father. For example, when Christ as the Wisdom of God cries out His joyous declaration about the Father: “Then I was a skilled craftsman at His side, and His delight day by day, rejoicing always in His presence” (Proverbs 8:30). There we see Christ is no mere attribute, mode or aspect of God, but a distinct Divine personality and even also the co-Creator of the universe!

The same is true regarding whenever Christ spoke about the relationship He has with the Father. It is very obvious that they are not merely different modes of God but separate personalities — though at present we cannot get our heads around how all this works. It is currently above our paygrade. But I do not want to pry into such things as that would be akin to the practices of the occult, which is always a trap.

4) John Reveals That Christ is God By Showing that He was not Inferior to God

“And the Word was God”.

Even though Christ as the Word is a separate personality from the Father, in case there are any who would want to show any inferiority on Christ’s part, John demonstrates that they are still one in essence. One God, three Persons.

It is true that, insofar as Christ is the Mediator between God and people, there is a subordination of office between the Father and the Son (e.g. John 12:49-50; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28). But this in no way implies any inferiority on the part of the Son or createdness of His being. And that distinction of office could be a whole separate article! But I will not digress here…

CONCLUSION

In a world in which trivia and banality hold sway over so many minds, what a relief it is to realise that it is the Deity of Christ which actually holds every atom in the universe together, as we have seen in a number of texts! We think we are so important. Well, I can tell you that compared to this subject we are insignificant nobodies strutting and fretting our hour upon this stage.

Getting on to the New Tapestry of Creation

We forget that we are only here to provide one little stitch in the overall grand tapestry of this cosmos. However, there is another tapestry being woven which will represent the cosmos to come. Let us ensure that we are a stitch on that one too. For not all will be. In fact, as Jesus clearly showed, very much fewer human stitches will be on that one (see Matthew 7:14).

Our purpose in this life is to do everything we can to ensure that we will be among the “few” who will be on that new tapestry. That is the purpose of the Gospel: To be sewn by God into it through our penitence and our desire to be adopted into God’s family. It is not enough to be a child of God by creation. That only gets us onto the old tapestry. We need to become children of God by adoption (Romans 8:15-17), which will get us onto the new tapestry of creation. For this, we need to yearn for that and desire it more than our next breath of air. Such yearning and desire from the heart will always get the attention of God and the ministrations of Christ and His Spirit, by which we will then indeed become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

So how do we respond to all this mind-boggling information? John has dealt here with many heresies — false Christology — in just three brief verses. Surely these words in John 1:1-3 could only have been written by God Himself to undo erroneous ways of thinking about God in Christ and also to encourage our own lofty thoughts. Because John, in his Gospel, is going to show us that everything has already been conceived in the mind of God in eternity — in that “beginning which had no beginning”.

A Beginning Implies an End

One final thought: In the phrase “in the beginning” which comes at the start of the Bible, we have the first implicit prophecy of the “time of the end”. For anything which has a beginning must have an end! The universe was not — at the beginning — created in the highest perfection. It was still possible for there to be a Fall and thereby an end to this present creation. But when the end of this present universe comes, out of the phoenix of the ashes of this world will come the new universe reworked in the highest perfection, as prophesied in Isaiah 65:17: “For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind”, and in Revelation 21:1: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more”.

Do you see the implications of this? The goal of all creation lies in a future recreation of the universe which will be perfect, in which no Fall is even possible. When Jesus returns there will be a universal judgement, but there will also be the restoration of all things by the might of His power. Christ is the centre of all creation — the old world, and the new — all things.

“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).

And so we come back to what we said at the beginning. That John’s gospel is both theological and evangelistic. His portrayal of the Deity of Christ is to prove who Christ really is and he wrote it all down to show that without that Deity there would be no Gospel to proclaim:

“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. 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” (John 20:30-31).

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]