November 30 - Introduction

John 1:-3: “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 came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him is Life…….”

It is somewhat striking how the gospel of John begins in the same manner as the Book of Genesis. The striking nature of these words occurs to me for at least two reasons. Firstly, the time period between the words of Genesis 1, In The Beginning God, and the words of John 1, In the beginning was the Word, is a period close to a couple of millennium. The Reality of God’s presence at Creation and the Reality of God’s presence as The New Creation is born cannot be viewed as incidental. God as the foundation for all things is built into the very fabric of both the Old Testament and New Testament narrative. Without the Word of God as the agent of Creation in Genesis, there is no Creation. The same God who brings Light into being in the beginning of time by the power of His Word: “Let there be Light”; is the same God who brings Light into the darkness of a fallen world as He speaks life into the womb of a Young Jewish Maiden. The Creator is the Redeemer. The Giver of Life in the beginning is the Giver of New Life in the New Beginning. The One who speaks Being into existence with the resounding eternal phrase: “Let there be……”, is the same One who speaks New Being into existence with the resounding phrase: “The Word was with God, The Word was God……and The Word become flesh” and walked and talked an played among us. Both the Old and New Testaments begin with Advent. In Genesis, the Advent of Life becomes reality as God breathes into Adam and Eve the Rurah of God, the very breath of God. In John, the Advent of New Life becomes reality as God breathes into humanity the Rurah (or Spirit) of God into the Word of God who we call Jesus. No amount of time can eliminate the connection between Creator and Creation which the authors of Genesis and John announce.

Secondly, the naming of Jesus in John’s Gospel, The Word, ties Jesus to the Personhood of God in such a way that it is impossible to deny His Divinity. Making a case for the Divinity of Jesus is most certainly John’s intent. John wants us to realize that when we speak of Jesus we are not speaking of an ordinary man. We speak of One who has always been. We call on One who will always be. We are about to read about a man who was with God when the foundations of the universe were laid, when the first molecule of creation was conceived, when the first wave of Light shone over the horizon. Life began when the Son rose. The universe did not precede The Word because the universe was called forth and created by The Word. John wants us to understand that the Eternal God has visited us. It is in his first Epistle that John will announce to us that God is Love, that Love is the essence of who God is. It is in this gospel that John tells us how God can be Love in essence. It is because God has always existed as Father and Son, united by Rurah (The breath or Spirit of God). One cannot be or even know love unless there be an object of Love. God and Word, Father and Son, have existed from eternity past within an eternal community of Love – God loving The Word, the Word Loving God; Father loving Son, the Son loving The Father. And now, at the perfect time, when the world needed more than anything to hear and see and experience this love in Flesh and Blood reality, Jesus is born – The Eternal Word dwelling among us.