The Eternal Word Who Became Flesh

Reflecting on John 1:1–18

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All four Gospels show the humanity and deity of Jesus. But the Fourth Gospel talks about Jesus’s deity first. At the beginning of John 1, we read these majestic words: “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).

The beginning of John’s Gospel draws from Genesis 1, which opens with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This allusion to Genesis 1:1 matters because John is telling the story of God’s grand work, a work of redemption, of new creation. God is bringing light to the darkness, but the light in John 1 is greater than the one in Genesis.