Study 2: John 1:5-34


STUDY 2: JOHN 1:5-34 - WHO IS JESUS

Copyright © Rosemary Bardsley 2009

In Study One we saw that the Word is the eternal God, the Creator, the source of both physical life and spiritual life. This spiritual life is more specifically termed ‘light’, and consists in the knowledge of God, which is accessible from one source only: the Word, Jesus Christ.

 

A. THE LIGHT

1:5 ‘the light shines in the darkness’

Here we immediately become aware that there is something that is called ‘the darkness’ that exists in opposition to the light. The light shines ‘in the darkness’. There is ‘the light’ which John has told us has its source in the Word, and there is everything else - ‘the darkness’ in which ‘the light’ shines.

Again John is preparing us for what he will teach later, planting seeds of truth into our thoughts. Here in particular he is preparing us for the connections between light and life, and between darkness and death: the death in which we all live apart from knowledge of Christ, and the life that is regained through the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Let us note in passing the present tense of the verb ‘shines’. The light, John says, shines in the darkness. Present, continuous tense. God’s life-giving light, God’s truth, has always been shining, shines at this moment, and will continue to shine. God is, by his very nature, a self-revealing God. He is the light that shines.

From these scriptures, comment on the ever-present, ever available light of God’s truth. Where appropriate, comment also on what human beings have done with God’s self-revelation.

Psalm 19:1-4

 

 

Romans 1:18-23

 

 

 

Romans 1:24,28,32

 

 

Hebrews 1:1

 

 

2Peter 1:16 -21

 

 

 

As part of this continuity of self-revelation, and particularly as we study further in John’s Gospel, we understand that whenever God reveals himself, that light, that revelation, is in or through the Word. Thus we find: · It is ‘by the word of the Lord’ that the heavens were made, and these heavens declare the glory of God. · The written word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, speaks of Jesus Christ, the Word. · The incarnation of the Word is God’s final self-revelation.

1:5 … but the darkness has not understood it [alternate reading: but the darkness has not overcome it]

In this statement John continues to prepare us for the eternal truths and the time/space historical facts which he is about to record immediately and throughout his Gospel. Jesus, the Light, was rejected. Men preferred darkness over light. Yet the very reason he came was to rescue us from the darkness.

 

B. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST [1:6-9]

Lest we should mistake John the Baptist for the expected Messiah, John is careful to contrast John the Baptist and Jesus, and to highlight their contrasting origins and roles, right here at the beginning.

John the Baptist Jesus Christ

Came [egeneto = ‘came into existence’]

a man sent from God

not the light

a witness to the light

points men to the light

existed eternally

the Word, God

the light, the source of light

the true light

gives light to men

 

C. THE INCARNATE GOD – GOD IN HUMAN FLESH

1:10-11 the rejection of the incarnate Word

Read verse 10. How does this verse describe:

[1] the incarnation

 

[2] the fact that Jesus is God

 

[3] the world’s failure to recognize who he is

 

Read verse 11. How does this verse describe the rejection of Jesus?

 

How does John communicate the pathos of the failure to recognize and receive Jesus as God?

 

Jesus, the Creator of the world, and the owner of the world, came into the world, and by that world was not recognized and was not received. In these two verses John sums up the continued lack of recognition that he reports right through his Gospel.

1:12-13 the extreme significance of receiving Jesus

In the midst of the general failure to recognize and receive Jesus Christ there were those who did recognize and receive him. Here John makes a number of important points about this reception of Jesus:

 

1:14 the incarnation as the revelation of God

Lest we should have missed it in the previous four verses John now makes a bold and definitive statement: ‘the Word became flesh’. That Word whom he has described so powerfully in verses 1-4, that Word whom he has identified as ‘God’ – the eternal Creator upon whom all that exists depends for its original and its continued existence – that Word ‘became flesh and made his dwelling among us’.

Here is an amazing and incredible thing: That at this given point in time [the verbs ‘became’ and ‘made his dwelling’ is Aorist Tense] -

This amazing, unbelievable fact was still impacting John when he wrote his first letter:

‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard …’ [1John 1:1-3]

Here in this visible, physical form God is revealed, here God makes himself known to us. John sums this whole incredible incarnation event with the words: ‘We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’

1:15-18 further comments on the incarnation

How does 1:15 express the deity of Christ?

 

 

What is there is verse 16 that necessitates the deity of Christ?

 

 

How does verse 17 teach that Christ reveals more than Moses?

 

 

How does verse 18 teach that incarnation is revelation?

 

 


 

D. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND JESUS [1:19-34]

John the Baptist identified himself as ‘the voice of one calling in the desert, “Make straight the way for the Lord”’ and by that statement also identifies Jesus.

As far as John the Baptist is concerned Jesus is:

John the Baptist has, at this point of time, no doubt about the awesome identity of Jesus Christ. He knows where Jesus, the Christ, fits in in relation to the eternal God: he is the eternal Son of God; he knows where Jesus, the Christ, fits in in relation to human beings: he is, as man, one with them, yet as God, far above them; he knows where Jesus, the Christ, fits in in relation to human sin: he came to bear it away as the sacrificial Lamb; he knows where Jesus, the Christ, fits into the eternal plan and purpose of God: he is its focus and its fulfilment, the One towards whom it has all been moving through all the ages.

For personal meditation: Read Isaiah 40. Make notes about what it reveals about the aspects of the Lord Jesus Christ listed below.

Jesus Christ and the revelation of God’s glory:

 

The compassion and tenderness of Jesus Christ:

 

The creative power of Jesus Christ:

 

The awesome authority and sovereignty of Jesus Christ:

 

The constant trustworthiness and dependability of Jesus Christ:

 

 

 

E. THE FIRST DISCIPLES [1:35-51]

In this section of Chapter One John reports varying initial perceptions of Jesus Christ:

We see an interesting dynamic in each of these perceptions of Jesus: that these perceptions are all actually right: that Jesus actually is all that John the Baptist and these first disciples affirmed, but also, that these men had very little realisation of the deep meaning of what they were saying. Yet, by their affirmations John introduces to his readers perceptions of Jesus that he will fill out with that deep meaning as we read through his Gospel.

Jesus pointed out this discrepancy and this contrast between this initial, largely ignorant and uneducated, ‘belief’ in him and the ‘greater’ belief that would come later. Their current belief had a simple and superficial basis. Their future belief would be based on the revelation of God that he, the Son of Man, would placard before them [50-51].

NOTE: Jesus’ first contact with these disciples occurred in Bethany [ 1:28 ], and somewhere along the way between Bethany and Galilee [1:43ff], while John was still baptizing people. It does not contradict his later challenge to them, after the imprisonment of John the Baptist [Matthew 4:12ff, Mark 1:14 ], recorded in Matthew and Mark [Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20]. At this time, after the beginning of his public ministry, he challenged them to follow him, and he would make them ‘fishers of men’.