John 1 v 1 - 2

Just 24 words in the NLT, but what an incredible way to begin writing a book about the life of Jesus! John the apostle takes us all the way back to creation and even before that to remind us that Jesus is God the immortal. With echoes of Genesis chapter one these opening verses of the fourth Gospel emphasis that Jesus was no ordinary, if extraordinarily good man! So: 1. The Word was already there at the very beginning of things. He pre-existed before His human birth. What John wants us to know, primarily, from this statement of fact is that God was always like Jesus. If we think that Jesus came to be born as a baby and in doing this changed God's anger against humanity into love, then we are badly mistaken. What Jesus did, however, was to open a window in time that we could see the eternal and unchanging love of God. Before Jesus came, humanity could only grasp and understand God's nature and His ways in part. Jesus brought the full revelation of God to people: He showed them what God is truly like. That is why I encourage any new believer to begin reading the Bible from the Gospels. Once you have read about the life and ministry of Jesus, then you can read the rest of the Bible in the light of what He did and said. 2. John writes that the Word was with God. What he is saying here is that there has ALWAYS been the closest connection between the Word and God. No one else can tell us what God is like to the degree that Jesus can! 3. John writes that the Word was God. He was of the same essence as God. In Jesus and in Him alone there is perfectly revealed all that God was and always will be. God made Himself extraordinarily vulnerable by coming to be born to a poor family in a disease and war-ravaged first century Judea. When others tell you that there are plenty of ways to get to God, remind yourself and them that there is only one person who fully reflected God to us, the man Jesus.