Monday, Aug. 31

Monday

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. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  - John 1:1-5

Each gospel is distinct in its own way. In Matthew, for example, Jesus Christ is presented as the promised king and Messiah of Israel. Consequently Matthew's message to Israel and the world is this: Behold your king. Mark, on the other hand, does not present Christ as king, but presents Him as a servant/prophet. And that's the reason there's no genealogy in Mark because no servant had a genealogy that mattered. Mark's message to the world is behold your servant.  When you come to Luke's gospel you see that Luke presented Christ as the perfect man walking among the people of the world and so Luke's message is behold the man.

Matthew wants us to behold the king, Mark wants us to behold the servant, Luke wants us to behold the man, that is the humanity of Christ. When we come to the gospel of John we see a completely dimension. We see when we begin the gospel of John that heaven opens up and the first thing that happens is the eternal Son of God descends. God and man, in one blessed and glorious person, the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ.  John's message is behold your God!  And his revelation was written to establish the truth of the divinity and the deity of Jesus Christ, that He is absolute total God of very God living in a human body. He is not half-God, half-man, He is total God and total man. And so the genealogy that John presents doesn't name any human beings. It goes right back to the time before time, the time of eternity, and says that He was there when it all began. That's His genealogy. He didn't start; he always was. So John presents to us God.

In the first three verses John presents His pre-existence that He is from eternity. In verse 1, John writes, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." John ascends beyond the beginning of Genesis 1.  the very first words of Genesis say, "In the beginning God created the world."  This is a different beginning.  God says in the very beginning of beginnings.  From the very beginning of beginnings, which never began, the Word, Christ was there. He always was. He never came into existence because He always was.  In the beginning of beginnings before beginnings even began God was. Just the first three words, in the beginning transport us into a realm that is absolutely beyond comprehension. Praise God if you feel like you cannot quite grasp this, because if you could fully understand, then you’d be God.

John 1 is one of those sweeping inspirational passages that surpasses human thought. In the beginning past, when the heavens and the earth were created, the Word already existed. From all eternity the Word existed. The Word was in the beginning of beginnings. The Word was not created. It never began. It always was. And when God set out to create this world the Word was already there, and the Word, of course, refers to Jesus Christ!

Oh Lord, you have spoken to us through Your written word the Bible, and You continue to speak to us today through Your Holy Spirit and as the living Word Jesus.  Help us to hear what you have to say, open our minds and our hearts that we might receive Your Word to us - Amen.

Jeff Frazier