John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
I set up with a local Assisted Care Living facility in my community to start a weekly 30-45-minute Bible Study for the residents of that community, as they have a need for this ministry. We shall begin our study with the Gospel According to the Apostle John and work our way through the book chapter-by-chapter and verse by verse The Book of John begins with a prologue in the first eighteen verses, and in the very first verse of that first chapter, the word “Word” is used three times. The Greek word used here is “Logos”, denoting the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world's life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man's salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds.”
John 1:18 declares, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
Commentator Matthew Henry states that the Apostle, in the close of his discourse, plainly tells us why he calls Christ the Word—because he is the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and has declared him. Word is two-fold: logos endiathetos—word conceived; and logos prophorikos—word uttered. The logos ho esoµ and ho exoµ, ratio and oratio—intelligence and utterance. There is the word conceived, that is, thought, which is the first and only immediate product and conception of the soul (all the operations of which are performed by thought), and it is one with the soul. And thus the second person in the Trinity is fitly called the Word; for he is the first-begotten of the Father. Christ is the Word speaking from God to us, and to God for us. John Baptist was the voice, but Christ the Word: being the Word, he is the Truth, the
Amen, the faithful Witness of the mind of God.
The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines “Word” as: 12. The Scripture; divine revelation, or any part of it. This is called the word of God. 13. Christ. (John 1). The eternal Word is Jesus Christ. Henry points out that His existence was in the beginning: In the beginning was the Word. This bespeaks his existence, not only before his incarnation, but before all time. The beginning of time, in which all creatures were produced and brought into being, found this eternal Word in being. The world was from the beginning, but the Word was in the beginning.
John 1:14 “ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Word [Jesus Christ] was with God, and the Word was God communicates His co-existence with the Father; He was so from eternity. God’s over-arching “Plan of Salvation”, this grand affair of man's reconciliation to God was concerted between the Father and Son from eternity. Mankind fell in sin, but God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life [John 3:16]. Rejoice in the Word!
In Christ, Brian
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