When Eternity Stepped into Time
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:1–3)
With these simple, profound words, John begins his Christmas story. Of the four gospel writers, he is by far the most theological. Writing to a largely Jewish audience, his message is unmistakable: Remember, these people are used to reading, “In the beginning God . . . .” Now the apostle has them read, “In the beginning was the Word . . . .” It’s an amazing sentence, almost monosyllabic Greek.
Four claims lie at the heart of John’s Christology: First, the Word is eternal. When everything that ever had a beginning began, Christ was already there. Waiting. Watching. Being. The imperfect tense of the verb “to be” here undeniably describes His open-ended existence. There never was a time when He was not. This clearly begs the question of the Word’s identity. For He existed when only God existed, the way only God can exist (by Himself, from Himself, and to Himself).
Second, the Word is personal. He is not an abstract idea, force, or thing. He is capable of an “I/Thou” relationship with God, “. . . and the Word was (lit.) towards God.” The idea is not so much of side by side, but face to face. What was God doing before Creation? He was looking into the face of His Son, and His Son was looking back. He was giving love and receiving love, with neither the need nor the desire to turn aside to find something better with which to occupy Himself. Ultimate reality, therefore, you might say, is a community of love. Here is an idea with consequences; that is, our own sinfulness, not to mention the sinfulness of others, can make us wary of connecting closely with people. We must resist this logic; fear is the enemy of love. And the isolation it produces withers the soul. We need community. Imaging the plurality of the Godhead can never be a solo sport.
Third, the Word is God. In the Greek, John’s last phrase is searingly direct, “. . . and God was the Word.” The apostle leaves absolutely no wiggle room here, nor did he ever mean to. The Word is not different to God, and He isn’t simply like God; He is God. All the prerogatives and paraphernalia of deity belong to Him. They belong to Him by right. He is, as Calvin so aptly summarizes, autotheos - God on His own terms. He doesn’t need the Father to confer deity upon Him. He has that station in Himself and from Himself. The substance of deity (and all the substance of deity) belongs to the Word just as much as it belongs to the Father and to the Spirit. He is not just a little piece of God or even a major piece of God, do you see? All of the Divine substance belongs to Him, to the Father, and to the Spirit equally.
Fourth, the Word is Creator. With these words, John stops up every possible bolt hole into which Arians might scurry. Arius was an early church heretic who believed that while Jesus was the greatest creature God ever made, He was not God. While his teaching was condemned in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicea, both before and after the Council, it was touch and go for quite some time before orthodox Christology finally won the day. During the struggle, Athanasius, an early church bishop and the hero of Nicea, would be banished five times for opposing Arius and his followers.
Listen to John’s description of the Word’s creative power (the NASB captures his language even better than the ESV): “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1:3 NASB 95). Do you see? John clearly sets forth the Word as the beginning of everything that ever had a beginning. Jesus couldn’t be a creature because all creatures, every last one of them, owe their existence to Him.
This knowledge has always encouraged the Church to engage in scientific study. Donald Macleod captures this well: “The creative force, the source of every other form of energy, is not impersonal, blind, capricious or malevolent, but Christlike. The creation expresses him, and in itself contains no un-Christlikeness at all. In that confidence, we harness its resources, assured that all of them are at least beneficent, and move over every horizon, expecting to find not black holes of sterility and absurdity but coherent and fecund expressions of the mind of Christ.” (MacLeod, Donald. From Glory to Golgotha: Controversial Issues in the Life of Christ)
When you read the book of nature, you are reading the mind of Christ, and isn’t it wonderful?
So as you lean into this Christmas season, stop and take a moment to wonder. The One who came for you, who refused to abandon you to sin’s curse, who loved you and would not let you go, and who sacrificed Himself for you, is none other than God the Son Himself. No matter how bleak this time of year might be, no matter how discouraging your circumstances might be today, like the lights on our trees this season, this knowledge really does change everything: You are not alone, you are loved, and your life has a purpose. Jesus is the Light of your world.