Christmas Apologetics (John 1:1-18)

“In the beginning was the word,” here John is making an allusion to Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created...” but there is another allusion: to “the word.” The allusion here is to wisdom as developed especially in Proverbs, by which God laid the foundations of the world.

 

We can say that at the very root of everything, there was an ordering principle. And now John adds “and the Word was with God.” which we actually already knew from Proverbs, where wisdom says "God possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old." (Prob 8:22). But John goes further: not only was the Word with God, but “the Word was God.” Now we would be confused if we were the original readers of this text: the Word was with God and the Word was God. John seems to be saying that the Word is and is not identical with God! If you are a good monotheist, this causes trouble for you. Christmas causes trouble for you, because it is God becoming flesh, yet this God become flesh is distinct from God in some other sense.

 

V.2: “He was in the beginning with God.” John is not backing down: we now tie together the whole package above. He, the Word, was at the foundation of things with God. Genesis says “In the beginning God” John now tells us that “In the beginning God and also the Word who is God.”

 

John now shifts to a new theme--but remember that John moves in spirals, so we have to keep the prior theme in mind. “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” We have finally reached the second half of the first sentence of Genesis. First we had “In the beginning God...” now we reach John’s recapitulation of “...created the heavens and the earth.” Notice that John is doubling down on the deity of the Word: nothing was made without the Word. The Word must not have been made, since then it would have had to be involved in its own creation, which is (probably) absurd. But John’s point is not some piece of abstract theology. The trinity, the nature of Christ as fully God and fully man, these are not simply abstract theology. They have important implications for us. Let us ask the text, let us ask John, “Why is this so important that you would risk losing good Jewish readers over emphasizing this confusing doctrine in the opening of your Gospel account?” This is more like click-bait than probably any other opening to a book of the Bible.

 

John is focused on the deity of the Word because God created the heavens and the earth. John is going to draw some implications from this, using some poetry drawn from Genesis 1. When God says “Let there be light” many readers have seen something more than a mere account of the origins of photons. John, I think, is one of those readers. So we hear “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” That is, in the Word was life… The Word is the source of life, our life. Because the Word is creator, he is also sustainer.

 

Now we have to ask what this word, “light” means. Light is tied up closely with life, as here, and truth. Indeed, much of the poetic imagery of light we might expect just from our cultural upbringing is found in Scripture. Light is truth, hope, goodness. But scripture adds that living in light is living in God’s presence. So when John goes on to say “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” he means not only that when God, the Word, created light, it shone in the darkness and that this creative activity was irresistible, but also a couple of deeper points:

 

The Life of humanity is drawn from a source which cannot be defeated.

& Our hope is rooted in an undefeatable source.

 

At this point in the text, we have been told of the Word who both is and is not God, in different ways, who is the source of creaturely life and goodness, in whom our hope must rest. But this Word is far off, so now John starts in on the story proper. He tells us of John the Baptist, who comes as a witness to the light. Verse 8 reminds us, as John the Baptist had to remind his hearers “Not yet! This is not the One! But soon!”

 

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” This is a crescendo. Light to everyone. And he is coming here. But then we have what feels like a let down: “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.” The very source of all our life, all that is good in life, entered creation, and John adds that he came to “his own” the Jewish people who had every resource available to recognize him, and yet, even with every human advantage, we did not recognize him. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” But! We have this let down “The very world which the Word made did not know its maker” but then an exception: not everyone was so ignorant. Some have recognized him. Yet again we see that the darkness has not overcome the Light, and John emphasizes this connection by saying that this “right to become children of God” is not something we manage, but that we are made children by God. The light is unconquerable, every human advantage does not suffice to recognize him, but the light shines where it wills, and no amount of darkness can overcome it.

 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” Here we have the incarnation of the Word who is God. He became flesh, took on human form. He did not merely clothe himself in or veil himself in human flesh, he became flesh, he became human. And not only did he become flesh, but he also “dwelt among us.” The fullness of deity in full human form entered human society. There is a theological principle which says that whatever Christ did not take on, he did not save. The point of this principle is to emphasize how thoroughly Christ took on human flesh and dwelt among us: he took up residence in a fallen world, in fallen human flesh, and he did not run from fallen human beings. He took on the fallen society of his day, engaged perfectly with fallen humans in fallen conversations, and was killed by those who could not see that he was the source of their very lives. This is not some easy visit that Jesus made to earth. When God dwells with sinners, someone has to die. Usually, that would be the sinners. Rightfully, that should be the sinners. So when John says “and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,” we expect casualties. The glory of God is deadly to sinners! But instead John tells us that this glory is “full of grace and truth.” When we watch Jesus throughout the Gospels, we can see this remarkable combination of grace and truth. Somehow, dwelling amongst sinners who are actively trying to trap him into either being ungracious or untruthful, he manages to be both truthful and gracious at every turn.

 

The point has been made over and over: the truth alone is deadly, grace alone is saccharine. If we knew only our sinfulness, we would be crushed beneath a depression too deep to bear. If we knew only the grace offered us, we would take it too lightly and reject it as unnecessary. Instead, Christ comes to us with both grace and truth. He tells us we are sinners and offers us the solution to our sin. When we see our sin, we see that the only solution possible is the one offered by Christ: his death for ours. Depression is basically not a lie. You and I really are that bad. But all that guilt and shame has been thoroughly dealt with by Christ. The light has entered our lives, and the darkness of depression has not overcome it. We may still struggle with this darkness, even feel swallowed up by it, but the victory is the Word’s to win. He is the source of life and light, and his victory is final, total, and unconquerable. We can answer the depression “yes, but Christ died for precisely that.”

 

John now says, “Here, this is the One.” He mentioned John the Baptist before and said “Not yet!” and here we have “Now! Here he is!” Here is the Word, who was from the foundation of the world, who formed the world out of darkness, who ranks before everyone, because he was before everyone--and who nevertheless condescends to be human and bear with us human sinners.

 

This Word, whose glory we have seen full of grace and truth… let us back up. I said above that we should expect casualties when John tells us we have seen his glory. How have we seen this glory, yet lived? V.16 answers this: “For from his fullness”--the fullness of grace and truth--“we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

 

There is a line here which is difficult to translate: “grace upon grace.” Alternatively we may have “grace in place of grace.” We can bear the glory of God now, mediated through Jesus Christ, because we have received this “grace upon grace,” but why have we received this? Here, I think, is the hint for how to understand “grace upon grace”: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” We have received, as it were, a new grace in place of the old. There was a grace to the law of Moses, where animal sacrifices took our place, but now that has been surpassed by the grace and truth of Jesus Christ, who died "once for all." We can now see God in Jesus, the Son who is God.

 

This text bears no commands, nor even any explicit offer. It is simply news: the Messiah has come! We may ignore him or receive him, but his light is unstoppable.

 

There are some lessons we may draw from this text, however. Three principles I would like to make explicit: God's grace is God's business; God's goodness advances in darkness; and The fundamental logic of this world is a God who is full of grace and truth.

 

1. God's grace is God's business and we can neither procure it for ourselves nor stop it.

We have no right to grace. Rather, we who receive Christ are freely given the privilege of being children of God. We did not attain this through intellect or luck or even compassion, but by the will of God working through whatever means he saw fit. When we pray "bind my wandering heart to these" we are praying for what we need and what God promises to his chosen ones.

 

2. God's goodness advances in darkness.

This is, perhaps, the central message of Christmas. After the Jews were quite thoroughly subjugated, having already tried to free themselves, and as they were being imposed upon by Ceaser, after 400 years of silence, God sent, not another prophet, not a judge or a king or a priest, but all of these rolled into one and more: the Messiah, God himself, the fulfillment of all his promises to Israel. This is a lens for watching current events in hope: what bright light will penetrate such a dark shadow? This is the answer to the problem of evil: God became flesh and dwelt among us, suffered for us, to put an end to evil. It is also the backdrop to how I live with depression and all sorts of evils I have seen. "He comes to make his blessings known, far as the curse is found"

 

3. The fundamental logic of this world is a God who is full of grace and truth.

Notice that there are not two principles: one of grace, one of truth, but a single, personal, unified, creative being full of both grace and truth bound together. Perfect grace and perfect truth are inseparable in the person of Jesus. However we speak, let us aspire to this glorious example, and when we think, let us likewise exercise grace lest we fall into falsehood. This is, to my mind, the basis of true Christian apologetics: we are to be full of grace and truth toward others, elaborating the truth of the gospel graciously and the grace of the gospel truthfully.

 

So, if we are looking to apply this text to our lives, we can take these principles up as a lens, but the first thing to do is simpler and harder: hear and believe, trust Jesus to be the source of life and final, divine mediator between us and God, who makes God known in human flesh, who sets us right with God that we might behold his glory. This should excite us! This awesome God who ranks before us all, who created all that was made, he condescends to be human, to live in this world of sin, to take up all that is wrong in us and in our world, that in his death sin and death might die, and in his life we might live!