The Gospel according to John is the gospel of “believing and receiving”, and that is the message that will be communicated all throughout our studies, because simply enough, that is the message that this record records! And having said that, we see that John starts out by clearly presenting to us Jesus, the Son of His Father, God, as the Life-giver and the Light-giver to mankind, at least to all those who would believe on His Name.
Now, I don’t know what you believe about creation, but certainly you believe something…TheBigBang, the s-l-o-w, e-t-e-r-n-a-l, i-n-f-e-r-n-a-l evolution of every currently existing living being, or perhaps, some freaky quirk or accident of nature; or maybe you believe, along with me, the holy inspired Word of God, which teaches that “all things were made by Him”, 1.3. Certainly you believe something, and certainly, the opening vss. of Jn.1 agree pretty nicely with Moses’ creation account, found in the opening vss. of the book of the Genesis, recorded perhaps, as much as 4000 years earlier! And why not? They both have the same heavenly Author!
The Gospel of John gives us a theological basis for our belief about creation, the reason being that God knew full well that this sacred text would stand as the official and the final word on the matter, for all people for all time. The fact is however, that not everyone who reads this book believes what is written there. Believe it or not, different people and different cultures have different opinions…about God, about creation, and about Jesus and salvation. So we must take notice of four things from this first portion of ch. 1.
First of all, we have…
1. The Person of creation, 1.1-4
The fact is, what you believe about creation, is determined by what you believe about the Creator…who, or what made us, and how? When you consider the magnitude of creation, from absolutely nothing, it blows our minds! It’s almost too much for us to think about, and yet John says …”all things were made by Him”. Made by who? “…made by the Word…(Who) was with God…and (Who) was God”, vs.1. Now there’s a realm into which no man enters lightly! The fact of the matter is, according to all we have ever learned, a word is an expression, a means of communication, and Who is it that communicates on the behalf of God? Why, Jesus of course, by Holy Spirit in these days, and by His word. And we’re told that the Word was in the beginning; not that He had a beginning, but that He was present when the beginning began!
Now, it doesn’t matter in the least what you believe about when time began, because what we must be concerned with, is eternity… eternity future, as well as eternity past. God doesn’t have a clock, or a calendar, or a beginning, either one, but He did, and does, have a plan. And this plan included creation, for whatever purpose, and He gave His Son, “in Whom (He was) well-pleased”, Matt. 17.5, the responsibility of carrying it out. “All things were made by Him…”; or as Col. 1.16 & 17 states, ”For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him, all things consist”!
To think that God, the Creator, through Jesus, the Word, spoke the universes into existence! He spoke, and it was! That must have been a powerful word. Big bang, indeed! It would be a power beyond imagination that would stand in the void, in the openness of eternity past, and speak that life-giving word. Evolution indeed!
That’s a Person that I’m proud to know, and I’m proud that He knows me! Having all creation power, and all resurrection power and all eternal life-giving power, He’s a Person that everyone needs to know…the Word…the very Person of eternity!
Next time…the Purpose of creation, in Part 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment