Let Me Introduce You to This Jesus

John 1:1-2

---

Have you ever wondered what came first? I mean, something had to come first, right? Many stories have been told about the origins of all that exists in what we perceive as a very material, raw, and observable universe. Perhaps it was a chance universe with chance physical laws amid many other chance universes with different sets of physical laws all being randomly computed by some cosmic universe gum-ball machine. Then, we have the same question. How did the gum-ball machine get there? What’s causing the gum-balls to fall? I’ve heard other stories about how the earth was formed on the back of a giant sea-turtle or how the gods needed to separate order from chaos. There is always a battle between order and chaos, isn’t there? There is a universal war of ideas raging. On one side of the valley, we have those who say everything happened by chance. We are here by an amazing stroke of luck, and only the fittest have survived and become what we are now. On the other side, we have those who believe the universe is intentionally emergent with clear purpose in mind.

John started his gospel with a very Old Testament view of origins. He claimed that the Word was in the beginning with God. Word, or λογος, literally refers to a spoken word—not light, singularity, giant turtle, multiverse, or anything material. There was the spoken word, and the word was with God. Neither the word nor God have an origin. In the beginning, they were simply there—an ontological necessity. They are either timeless or eternal… or both.

That’s not even John’s main point. The spoken word was not merely with God, it was God. Not only was the word distinct from God. It was also one with God, meaning of the same essence. The word was a distinct person with the same essence. Later, John reveals that the word is the preincarnate Christ—the word at the beginning. Jesus, God the Son, is a distinct person who was with God, is timeless, and is yet God. By now we know that there are at least two distinct persons composing the single God essence. Later, John will introduce the Holy Spirit as the third person of this trinity (John 1:32-33). John represents each divine person as distinct. He also represents each person as being God in essence. Though the word, “Trinity,” is never used in Scripture to describe the Godhead, all three persons are clearly identified as both distinct persons and one essence. Therefore, the Bible describes exactly what we call a Trinity as the divine reality. We get to talk about the Spirit later. First, we get to consider this Word—Jesus the Christ.

Consider Genesis 1, when God spoke the world into existence and thereafter spoke to order the world and fill it. His word was with Him and was Him. Consider Genesis 3, when the voice (or sound) of God walked in the Garden, seeking Adam and Eve and then covering their shame. That was Jesus!

The Bible is clear from beginning to end about Jesus’s divine nature. There are many people who want to say that Jesus never claimed to be God, or that Paul invented the Christian religion. These are John’s words. John is appealing to a strictly Old Testament view of trinitarian theology. He chooses to start his gospel with such a truth. Jesus is the Word of God from the beginning.

It’s always good to go back and check the Old Testament to be sure we are interpreting the New Testament correctly. In Genesis 1, there is really no way to distinguish God speaking as a distinct trinitarian person. God’s Spirit is mentioned as a separate person, yet the Spirit is still of God—a single essence.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters (Genesis 1:1-2).

God created, but the Spirit of God moved over the surface of the waters. There are two persons doing distinct but inseparable things—they are one essence. Look further down in verse 26,

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26).

God, a singular essence, refers to Himself in the plural, “Let Us…” His singular essence exists in a plurality of persons.

Most people know the story. After God created people in His own image, people sinned against Him. People pursued their own knowledge and tried to be gods instead of simply living in relationship with the true creator.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:7-8).

Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden… What an awkward way to say that in any language. Why not simply say they heard God walking? Why the extra word? Sound, קול, can just as easily be translated, “voice”—particularly the voice of God like we see the word translated in Deuteronomy 5:25, when Israel was afraid of hearing God’s voice. The voice of God is walking in the Garden, calling out to Adam and Eve. I believe this to be the preincarnate Christ walking in the Garden. I believe Jesus slaughtered the first animal sacrifice to cover the shame of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:21.

All three persons of the Trinity are present in the first three chapters of the Bible. Notice what Jesus was doing in the Garden of Eden. He came to seek Adam and Eve out after they sinned against God. After voicing their consequences, Jesus symbolically clothed them in His righteousness. He’s been doing this from the beginning! John’s Gospel is an account of Jesus coming to seek out His people who have sinned, who are lost. Only this time, He will give His own life as a perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of His people instead of sacrificing an animal.

Jesus is the focal point of John’s Gospel. Jesus’s work has not changed since the beginning. We can trust Him because He is with God and is God. He comes to seek us and bring us into His kingdom because He loves us, just like He did in the beginning with Adam and Eve. This is the Gospel.

I sinned.

I hid.

Jesus found me.

I repented.

Like with Adam and Eve, that means restored purpose, a better outlook on life, everlasting life, and I don’t have to be enslaved to all the sin and self-righteousness that once weighed me down.

What about you? You have sinned. Have you tried to hide yourself from God? Jesus is seeking you. “Where are you?” He calls. Will you answer? Will you repent of your sin and win the victory that is only in Jesus Christ?

---