The Author of our being

John 1:1-4 “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 nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

 

God in this passage of Gospel Scripture is the Greek word “Theos”, meaning the Godhead, the Divine Trinity - God the Father, the first person in the trinity / Christ, the second person of the trinity / Holy Spirit, the third person in the trinity. The word “God” is defined in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary as: The Supreme Being; Jehovah; the eternal and infinite Spirit, the Creator, and the Sovereign of the universe. And quotes “God is a spirit; and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth” from John 4:24. From Theos we get the English words “theology” (the study of God & “enthusiasm” (Greek ἐνθουσιασμός from ἐν (en, “in”) and θεός (theós, “God”) and οὐσία (ousía, “essence”) meaning intense & eager enjoyment, religious fervor resulting directly by divine inspiration, possessed by God, in God’s essence.

 

Time, Space and Matter were created “from” the beginning, but the Word was “in” the beginning. The Word is Jesus Christ as evidenced by John 1:14, which states, “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” and John 3:16which confirms, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The original Nicene Creed profession of faith was first adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. In 381, and proclaims: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things were made.

 

In the first chapter of his book “Mere Christianity”, C.S. Lewis gets right to the crux of Christianity. “The Nicene Creed says that Christ is the Son of God ‘begotten, not created’; and it adds ‘begotten by his Father before all worlds (ages)’.” Lewis correctly points us to the “before the beginning”. Though the virgin birth of Jesus is the onset of a whole new revelation of God to his creation, “We are thinking about something that happened before God’s physical realm of Nature and Life was created at all,” Lewis says, “before time began. ‘Before all worlds’ Christ is begotten, not created.” Lewis explains begetting is of the same being with the Father, as the creed affirms. “When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself.”

 

Bible Commentator Matthew Henry explains that this passage in John 1:1-4 speaks to Christ’s work in making the world. All things were made by Him. Jesus was with God to be active in the divine operations in the beginning of time. God made the world by a word as Psalm 33:6 declares, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth”, and Christ was the Word. By Him, not as a subordinate instrument, but as a co-ordinate agent, God made the world and universe as Hebrews 1:1-2 asserts, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.”

 

And as John 1:3 affirms, the contrary is denied: “Without Him [Christ] was not anything made that was made”. God the Father did nothing without Christ in that work. Now, this proves that He is God; for He that created and built all things is God. This also proves the excellency of the Christian religion, that the author and founder of Christianity (Christ’s church body) is the same that was the author and founder of the world. He is the fountain (the source) of all excellency because as Romans 1:19-20 declares, “what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse”! When we worship Christ, we worship the Creator of the world, and on whom all creatures depend; the Author of our being.

 

In Christ, Brian