The Eternal Word: Light Overcomes Darkness

It’s hard for us to accept that we live in a world of darkness. Think of all the scientific advancements, of our great social and technological progress. Think of all the great things we’ve done just in the last two hundred years.

But if we’re honest we have to admit that regardless of all of our impressive advances, we have not changed basic human problems of fear, hate, violence, injustice and crime.

The light is intellectually the truth and morally holiness, which is contrasted to the darkness of intellectual error, and moral wrong doing.

John was not suggesting that the whole activity of life is the fight between light and darkness. This isn’t yin and yang. What he was saying is that light will not ever be overcome by darkness – it’s the nature of light to always penetrate darkness, light can not be taken hold of, or even understood by darkness.

So in these opening lines John introduces an incredible mystery: this carpenter from Nazareth is not only a man but God Himself.

* The Creator had become a part of His own creation.

* The source of deepest wisdom had limited Himself to being born as a baby and learning as a little child.

* The origin of life and light was going to submit Himself to death and the darkness of a grave.

Everything in the universe owes its life to God, including you and me

Have you felt that your life is your own, that you can make decisions about your life, without bringing God into it?

Or are you seeking to know God, to know what He wants?

What areas of your life might still be shrouded in darkness?

How willing are you to let Jesus’ light pierce the darkness?

How determined are you to make the most of your opportunity to study God, and to study His word?

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment by clicking on the word "comments" below, and join the conversation

The Eternal Word: Source of Light and Life

Continuing in the theme of Genesis, John declared that Jesus is the Creator of all things. Look at the parallel between Genesis 1:3 “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’” and John's account,

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. [John 1:3-4]

Here is God the Son at work, He is Logos, Debar, the eternal Word, the force behind the universe, speaking into being what the Father has conceived and designed. Everything that was made, the material and spiritual worlds, were made by Jesus and for Him.

Jesus is the source of life and light. All other life depends on Jesus as the source of life. Think about life. What is life? You can tell the difference between life and death, but define exactly what life is without using that contrast.

In fact, life is one of the great mysteries of science and philosophy. No one really knows what life is, what it is that animates all these carbon-based enzymes and basic elements that make up life. But here is John saying that life is Jesus, He is the source of all life.

And with life comes light. Light, as John used the word, is a symbol of knowledge, understanding and truth, and it points to the kind of life that goes beyond our physical, temporary life. Understanding and truth point to eternal life.

Then John introduced a hint of the struggle that would happen when light came into the world

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. [John 1:5]

The original Greek word that is translated “overcome” actually means “to lay hold of, to lay hands on, to seize.” That can mean either as a hostile act, or in order to possess, so sometimes it’s translated “to understand.”

John was saying that darkness can’t get a hold of the light, darkness can’t possess light, it can’t apprehend or comprehend light. Think of what light does in a dark room. Darkness just can’t win. No matter how tiny the light is, darkness has to recede. Darkness and light cannot exist together.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment by clicking on the word "comments" below, and join the conversation

The Eternal Word

In the first few verses of his gospel, John makes the clear and uncompromising claim that Jesus is God

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 any thing made that was made. [John 1:1-3]

This was not written about some epic hero, or some ancient legend, but about a thirty year old carpenter out of Nazareth. A regular guy, by all outward appearances Who, sixty years before John wrote this gospel, had made headline news.

John was now saying that this man, this carpenter and itinerent preacher-healer, was God. You recognized how John tied in with Genesis “In the beginning...” – the first words of the Bible. Now John added more information to that – in the beginning, before Genesis, there was the Word, and the Word was with God and was God.

“Word,” the English word, comes from the Greek word Logos, which was familiar to the Greeks in their philosophy just as it was familiar to the Jews in their philosophy.

To the Greeks, Logos meant “First Cause,” the reason or the will behind the universe, an unknowable force. Plato once wrote that he hoped a Logos would come from God some day to make the meaning of life clear.

In Hebrew this word was called “Debar” and it was God’s expression of Himself, “Thus saith the Lord.” Logos, or “Debar,” was the word that proceeded from God’s mouth and accomplished what God intended to do, almost as a synonym for God Himself.

So this Logos concept incorporated the idea that this was God.

But John was saying that Logos, the Word, was another personality with God. The nuance of the word “with,” in Greek, meant that Logos looked God straight in the eye, did not kneel as a subject, or look down as a superior, but looked on as an equal. John was grappling with one of the deepest mysteries of God: the Trinity. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

How could one God be more than one Person? That’s impossible. Yet here is the mystery, that the Word was so intimately involved with God that their thoughts and purposes were one. The Word and God were one, as Jesus would later say, “I and the Father are one.”

But how could both Jesus and the Father be God? How could the Son be His own Father? Yet here John declared that the eternal Word was a Person separate from God, with God, and yet also was God.

There is no other way to translate these words without violating the laws of Greek grammar, though people have tried. John was taking great pains to make his point clear: There is only one God, and Jesus was one with that God, and Jesus is God.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment by clicking on the word "comments" below, and join the conversation