What if? A Picture Being Painted

A Picture Being Painted…
The apostle John does an amazing job at painting a brilliant picture of who Jesus is. Right from the start, John wants to make sure it is perfectly clear to his readers, who he is writing about. But not only do we see who he’s writing about, John takes away any possibility for misunderstanding or erroneous conclusions about his subject.

How does he do this? He connects the history and prophesies of the Old Testament, or in those days, the Hebrew Law, with the person and purpose of Jesus as Christ.

Read John 1:1-18. Click Here.
Let’s break this down.

Verse 1-2, Johns establishes that Jesus was divine. But not just a god. Jesus was God.

V1. ’In the beginning…’
For the believer, what historical account do those words bring to our minds? Yes, the creation account found in Genesis 1. And it would have done the same  thing for the Jew. They would have read those words and immediately think, ah, Creation, Genesis.

So Let's look at Genesis 1:1,2.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

In Genesis 1:1, we read about God that He creates the heavens and the earth.

Now keep that fact in your mind for a second and let’s go back to John 1.

John 1:1,2
"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

Ah, now we have something interesting.

In the beginning was the…Word. And the Word was WITH God, and the Word WAS God. HE was with God in the BEGINNING!

Now as we look at this we have to think, Wait a minute, were there two at the time of Creation?

What if…there were two, and what if they were both active at the beginning.

Look again to Genesis 1.

Verse 3.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Did you catch it?
- God SAID… God SPOKE… God used the WORD… and there was light.

Look at verse 6, “And God said….”
- Verse 9, “And God said…”
- Verse 11, “Then God said…”
- Verse 14, “And God said…”
- Verse 20, “And God said…”
- Verse 24, “And God said…”
- Verse 26, “Then God said, ‘Let US make mankind in OUR image, in OUR likeness…”

Whoa, wait a minute, there were two… US, OUR, these are plural!

You see, there was God, and there was the Word. And through him (the WORD) all things were made, and WITHOUT him nothing was made that has been made.

The work of creation involved two, the One who spoke and the One who created…

But who is the Word?

John says, In the beginning was the Word. The Word was WITH God and the Word WAS God. And He was with God at the beginning.

Alright, stop right there. Pretend you have a cord board in front of you, take that thought, the Word being God, and lets pin it to the board, because we’ll come back to it. But let's continue to unwrap some more evidence as to WHO exactly this WORD is. And we'll do that tomorrow!

Thanks for joining me for part 2 of the What if? week 1. Be sure to check in again on Wednesday as we continue to unpack what John has to say in chapter 1. And be sure to check out the What if? readings posted Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

- jay


Did you miss part one? Read it here...What if? New Series at Harvest Church

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