I’m not good at getting to my main point.
In school, my teachers often slashed huge paragraphs in my essays to weed through to my thesis. When I have to communicate something hard to someone I care about, I often begin with a segway or anecdote to soften the blow. It takes effort and strategy for me to come out with what I mean.
I think that’s why I love John so much. The book is written to be simple and clear with one key thought:
Jesus is the Son of God.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
If I were witness to the most significant even in history, been intimately close with the Savior of the human race, in fact–God in the flesh–how would I begin my narrative? What would be the first words on my page? If every other page were burned but the first, would the reader catch my drift?
But the truth goes deeper with John. He’s actually not just saying Jesus is deity. His language connects Christ back to us. Jesus in his pre-incarnate state is called ho logos, the Word, the first immaterial intelligence. What is a Word without a hearer? Jesus is the first expression of that intelligence in speech that humans could understand. He is THE Word. The first Word spoken that we could comprehend.
The Word was the first word that was spoken and is the first word that we should learn and the first word that we should speak.
What John is addressing is the preexistence and preeminence of Christ. And if his first words are fully accepted, the preeminence should work itself out in the Believer’s heart.
First Christ. Only Christ.
Amen.
Sixty-six books in a year 