The Proclaimer

"The Word Was God"

John begins his gospel saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).  John speaks of the deity of Jesus Christ in this verse, as he takes us back to the beginning of all things, the creation of the world (Gen. 1:1), and makes it plain that the Word already was.  John declares further that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” as the only begotten Son of God (1:14).  But the fact that He was in the beginning indicates that Christ is without beginning, not created and eternal.  Not only so, He was with God in the beginning.  This indicates more than simple co-existence.  It shows relationship as well as identity.  For Him to be with God identifies Him as one of the persons of the Godhead.  Furthermore, “the Word was God.”  So often we hear this read with the emphasis on the word “was.”  But John is emphasizing that Christ was God or Deity. 

Jesus possessed all the attributes of God.  In fact, the Hebrews writer says Christ was “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3).  Jesus was God incarnate.  Paul says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 3:9).  There are those, even some professing to be Christians, that believe Jesus was just a man.  But the Bible says “the Word was God.”

“The Word was God,” (John 1:1) and as deity, Christ claimed all the attributes of God.  In His controversy with the Jews over the subject of the true children of Abraham, Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:57).  These Jews realized the significance of this statement for it is reminiscent of what Jehovah told Moses at the burning bush, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14).  They understood that Jehovah declared Himself to be the eternal, uncreated, all-provident One.  Now Jesus makes the same claim of eternal being.  Christ professed His pre-fleshy eternal being when He prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). 

Christ was God before He became flesh and He was God in the flesh (Col. 2:9).  The miracles He performed clearly attest to His deity.  In fact, John says that these miracles were recorded “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).  Of all the miracles Jesus performed none more dramatically demonstrated His deity than the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. 

As Jesus stood before the tomb of His friend who had died some four days before, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43)  Immediately the living body of His deceased friend came forth from the tomb. Some have suggested that Lazarus was not really dead and that no actual resurrection took place.  But the reaction of Jesus’ critics, the chief priests and the Pharisees, attest to the authenticity of the miracle, for they said, “What shall we do?  For this Man works many signs.  If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him” (John 11:47, 48).  Not only so, the enthusiasm of the multitude at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem a few days later was the result of His raising Lazarus (John 12:18).  In the first century, the authenticity of the miracle was never at issue, but rather whether one accepted that to which the miracle testified: the deity of Jesus. Do you believe in the deity of Christ?

                                                                   -- Clark Dugger

The Proclaimer