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God in a Word

Joe Godwin

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

If someone were to ask you to define Christianity in as short a statement as possible, how would you answer?

You might say, “Believing that Jesus is God.”

Or maybe, “The belief that Jesus died for my sins and rose again.”

Now imagine the same person asking you, “How would you define Christianity in a word?” Would you know what to say? Is it even possible? Whether you’re young in the Lord or a seasoned believer in Jesus, certain keywords would probably come to mind: Jesus, crucifixion, and resurrection, for starters. Perhaps even atonement or forgiveness. But as important as these words are to the central truths of Christianity, none of them tells enough of the story to adequately define the gospel according to the Bible.

Fortunately, Christians don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to anything about Christianity—especially when it comes to defining Christianity. We couldn’t if we tried, and people who do try inevitably minimize truths God does not want minimized, putting the whole truth about Jesus at risk and potentially leading others astray.

This is what makes the first statements in the Gospel of John so impressive. It is fair to say the apostle John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, defined Christianity in literally one word. What word did he use?

Logos. And what does this Greek word translate to in English? Word.

In this word Word, John defined Christianity. He defined God himself. And he defined everything in creation in relation to these—which means he defined our relation to God. How does this work?

Christmas Remix?

John’s opener tells the whole story of creation in brief, and in terms different yet complementary to Genesis 1. “In the beginning was the Logos [lit., “Word”], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Who is John talking about when he writes “He”? (Pretend for a moment that you don’t know the answer, which you probably do from having spent years in the church. In fact, pretend you’re new to this Christianity thing, as every member of John’s immediate audience was.)

John reveals who the “He” is—the “He” who was with God in the beginning; the “He” who is himself the Logos, or Word—in verse 14. He unpacks and defines this clearly for us, writing, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

In other words, Jesus is that Word—the “He” who was with God in the beginning. He alone is the Word of which the Gospel of John writes to us. That’s a claim most of us today are used to—but it must have shocked some of John’s audience two thousand years ago, when Christians were a fiercely persecuted minority and the idea of a crucified man being God was repugnant to both pagan Greeks and Romans—and to practitioners of Judaism.

And there’s something else here for us. With a pen stroke, John turns his Gospel’s creation story into a Christmas story.

Following John’s lead, I want to tell you a Christmas story, and I’m going to resist loading its title with classic Christmas keywords. This story isn’t “The Baby in the Manger,” “The Shepherds and the Wise Men,” “Mary and Elizabeth,” or “Zechariah in the Temple.” Those are all immensely true, good, beautiful stories, and you should read them in the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke.

I’m going to tell you the Christmas story according to the Gospel of John and call it like John saw it: “God in a Word: Jesus Christ Is Truly God and Truly Man.”

Or, in a word: Logos.

High Thoughts

I’m often reminded of the words of Isaiah, the prophet, who wrote, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:9). So high are the ways of God above our ways and the thoughts of God above our thoughts that we cannot begin to comprehend the expanse.

So, when we begin to try to figure out how in the world Jesus Christ could be both truly God and truly man, it plays with the circuits in our brains. Does it not? How do we understand? How is that even possible? But again, the ways of the Lord are much greater than our ways. He is the majestic God, the all-powerful, sovereign, eternal God, whom we want to know. We want to know him more. We want to know him better. But it is by faith—not merely by book knowledge or logical proofs—that we come to know him better, that we deepen our trust that he is who he says he is.

And that faith walk depends completely on what he has revealed to us in his word.

Why Bother?

Let me jump ahead for a moment to the end of the Gospel of John and remind you of what John said about the purpose for which he wrote. You would think John might have mentioned that in the very first part of the book, but he held this insightful piece of information back until he had only two chapters left before his concluding remarks (which are lengthy). In John 20:30–31, John writes,

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Let that sink in. John wrote all twenty-one chapters of his Gospel so that you and I would believe in and have life in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In other words, John wrote that we might know Jesus Christ—that we might know he is the Son of God.

John’s “purpose statement” in chapter twenty illuminates what John is really telling us about the Creator, and Christ, and even Christmas, in chapter one. This purpose is critically important for understanding that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). When John writes “And the Word was God,” he is emphasizing that Jesus is God.

Understanding that truth is John’s purpose in writing everything that follows.

True God from True God

John writes his book so that you may know Jesus is the Son of God, and that by knowing, you might believe in his name. In fact, John records Jesus very clearly claiming to be God several times. Jesus claims deity. He claims to be one with the Father and that the Father is one with him. At the Last Supper, the night before he was crucified, Jesus put it this way to his disciples: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Orthodox biblical Christianity holds that God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that not one of these persons is less God than any of the others. That’s why we refer to these as God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. John’s focus—and ours, especially at Christmas and Easter—is on the fact that Jesus is truly God.

If you have read any church history, you know that this claim of Jesus’s deity has been one of the most debated issues in the past two thousand years, especially in the days of the early church. Those first couple hundred years were times when those who were committed to ministry were trying to figure out some of these doctrines that so many have written about. As a result, any self-respecting seminary student soon finds his shelves groaning under the weight of systematic theology books and other doctrinal books that attempt to explain the person of Jesus Christ and who he is in relation to the Father.

But those early church leaders found it difficult to express the reality of who Jesus really is. So, they came together in their councils and often held great debates about whether or not Jesus is God. And from those early councils, many confessions and creeds were brought forth. For example, consider what the Nicene Creed specifically said about the Lord Jesus Christ:

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

through him all things were made.

So the Nicene Creed declares that we believe Jesus is the Son of God, not just a Son of God. Jesus is very God of very God. He is truly God. And of course, in the next chapter, we will see that he is truly man as well, from the passage beginning with John 1:14.

If it could be somehow proven that Jesus is not God—that he is not one with the Father—then Scripture has deceived us. Scripture clearly teaches he is one with the Father. It would also mean Jesus himself has deceived us. “I and the Father are one,” Jesus said, and “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 10:30; 14:9). If he is not truly God, as he claimed often in one way or another, then he lied. And if Jesus were merely human, then, like us, he would have needed a Savior who was both fully God and fully man to bridge the divide between holy God and sinful man. He would need someone to provide his salvation, or his redemption, for he would be no different from us.

John...