Each of the four Gospels begins with an introduction to Jesus that places Him in the historical setting of His earthly ministry. Matthew connected Him with David and Abraham. Mark associated Him directly with John the Baptist. Luke recorded the predictions of His birth. John, however, declared Him to be the eternal Son of God. Many writers have referred to John's prologue as a theological prologue because this evangelist stressed Jesus' connection with the eternal God.
As with many introductions, this one contains several key terms that recur throughout the remainder of the book. These terms include life and light (v. 4), darkness (v. 5), witness (v. 7), true (i.e., genuine or ultimate) and world (v. 9), as well as Son, Father, glory, and truth (v. 14). The Word (as a Christological title, v. 1) and grace (v. 14) are also important theological terms, but they occur only in the prologue.
"But supremely, the Prologue summarizes how the Word' which was with God in the very beginning came into the sphere of time, history, tangibility--in other words, how the Son of God was sent into the world to become the Jesus of history, so that the glory and grace of God might be uniquely and perfectly disclosed. The rest of the book is nothing other than an expansion of this theme."29
Some writers have identified a chiastic structure in the prologue. R. Alan Culpepper's is essentially as follows.30
AThe eternal Word with God vv. 1-2
BWhat came through the Word: creation v. 3
CWhat we have received from the Word: life vv. 4-5
DJohn's purpose: to testify vv. 6-8
EThe Incarnation and the world's response vv. 9-10
FThe Word and His own (Israel) v. 11
GThose who accepted the Word v. 12a
HHe gave them authority to become God's children v. 12b
G'Those who believed in the Word v. 12c
F'The Word and His own (Christians) v. 13
E'The Incarnation and the church's response v. 14
D'John's testimony v. 15
C'What we have received from the Word: grace v. 16
B'What came through the Word: grace and truth v. 17
A'The eternal Word from God v. 18
Jeff Staley also saw a chiasm in these verses, though his perception of the parts is slightly different from Culpepper's.31
AThe relationship of the Logos to God, creation, and humanity vv. 1-5
BThe witness of John (negative) vv. 6-8
CThe journey of the Light/Logos (negative) vv. 9-11
DThe gift of empowerment (positive) vv. 12-13
C'The journey of the Logos (positive) v. 14
B'The witness of John (positive) v. 15
A'The relationship of the Logos to humankind, re-creation, and God vv. 16-18
These structural analyses point out that all that John wrote in this prologue centers on God's gift of eternal life that comes to people through the Word (v. 12). This emphasis on salvation through Jesus continues to be central throughout the Gospel (cf. 20:30-31).
John began his Gospel by locating Jesus before the beginning of His ministry, before His virgin birth, and even before Creation. He identified Jesus as co-existent with God the Father and the Father's agent in providing creation and salvation.
1:1 The Bible identifies many beginnings. The beginning that John spoke of was not really the beginning of something new at a particular time. It was rather the time before anything that has come into existence began. The Bible does not teach a timeless state either before Creation or after the consummation of all things.32Time is the way God and we measure events in relationship to one another. Even before God created the universe (Gen. 1:1) there was succession of events. We often refer to this pre-creation time as eternity past. This is the time that John referred to here. At the beginning of this eternity, when there was nothing else, the Word existed.
"John is writing about a new beginning, a new creation, and he uses words that recall the first creation. He soon goes on to use other words that are important in Genesis 1, such as life' (v. 4), light' (v. 4), and darkness' (v. 5). Genesis 1 described God's first creation; John's theme is God's new creation. Like the first, the second is not carried out by some subordinate being. It is brought about through the agency of the Logos, the very Word of God."33
Obviously the word "Word"(Gr. logos) to which John referred was a title for God. Later in this verse he identified the Word as God. He evidently chose this title because it communicates the fact that the Word was not only God but also the expression of God. A spoken or written word expresses what is in the mind of its speaker or writer. Likewise Jesus, the Word (v. 14), was not only God, but He was the expression of God to humankind. Jesus' life and ministry expressed to humankind what God wanted us to know.
The word "word"had this metaphorical meaning in Jewish and Greek literature when John wrote his Gospel.
"To the Hebrew the word of God' was the self-assertion of the divine personality; to the Greek the formula denoted the rational mind that ruled the universe."34
"It has not been proven beyond doubt whether the term logos, as John used it, derives from Jewish or Greek (Hellenistic) backgrounds or from some other source. Nor is it plain what associations John meant to convey by his use of it. Readers are left to work out the precise allusions and significance for themselves. John was working with allusions to the Old Testament, but he was also writing to an audience familiar with Hellenistic (Greek) thought, and certain aspects of his use of logoswould occur to them. Both backgrounds are important for understanding this title as John used it in 1:1, 14."35
John adopted this word and used it in personification to express Jesus as the ultimate divine self-revelation (cf. Heb. 1:1-2). In view of Old Testament usage it carries connotations of creation (Gen. 1:3, 6, 9; Ps. 33:6), revelation (Isa. 9:8; Jer. 1:4; Ezek. 33:7; Amos 3:1, 8), and deliverance (Ps. 107:20; Isa. 55:1).
John's description of the Word as with God shows that Jesus was in one sense distinct from God. He was the second person of the Trinity who is distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of His subsistence. However, John was also careful to note that Jesus was in another sense fully God. He was not less God than the Father or the Spirit in His essence. Thus John made one of the great Trinitarian statements in the Bible in this verse. In His essence Jesus is equal with the Father, but He subsists as a separate person within the Godhead.
There is probably no fully adequate illustration of the Trinity in the natural world. Perhaps the egg is one of the best. An egg consists of three parts: shell, yolk, and white. Each part is fully egg yet each has its own identity that distinguishes it from the other parts. The human family is another illustration. Father, mother, and child are all separate entities yet each one is fully a member of its own family. Each has a different first name, but all bear the same family name.
Jehovah's Witnesses appeal to this verse to support their doctrine that Jesus was not fully God but the highest created being. They translate it "the Word was a god."Grammatically this is a possible translation since it is legitimate to supply the indefinite article ("a") when no article is present in the Greek text. However, that translation here is definitely incorrect because it reduces Jesus to less than God. Other Scriptures affirm Jesus' full deity (e.g., vv. 2, 18; Phil. 2:6; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3; et al.). Here the absence of the indefinite article was deliberate.
"As a rule the predicate is without the article, even when the subject uses it [cf. vv. 6, 12, 13, 18, et al.]."36
Jesus was not a god. He is God.
"John intends that the whole of his gospel shall be read in the light of this verse. The deeds and words of Jesus are the deeds and words of God; if this be not true the book is blasphemous."37
John 1:1 is the first of many "asides"in this Gospel. An aside is a direct statement that tells the reader something. They are never observable events but are interpretive commentary on observable events. This commentary reveals information below the surface of the action.
"Some asides function to stagean event by defining the physical context in which it occurs. Other asides function to defineor specify something. Still other asides explain discourse, telling why something was said (or was not said, e.g., 7:13, 30). Parallel to these are others that function to explain actions, noting why something happened (or did not happen)."38
1:2 The Word was not only in the beginning and with God (v. 1). He (v. 14) was also in the beginning with God. This statement clarifies further that Jesus was with God before the creation of the universe. It is a further assertion of Jesus' deity. He did not come into existence. He always existed. Moreover Jesus did not become deity. He always was deity. Verse 2 clarifies the revelation of verse 1 that is so concise and profound.
1:3 John next explicitly declared what was implicit in the Old Testament use of the word "word."Jesus was God's agent in creating everything that has come into existence (cf. 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; Rev. 3:14). It was the second person of the Trinity who created the universe and all it contains. However, John described the Word as God's agent. The Word did not act independently from the Father. Thus John presented Jesus as under God's authority but over every created thing in authority. Jesus' work of revealing God began with Creation because all creation reveals God (Ps. 19:1-6; Rom. 1:19-20).
John characteristically stated a proposition positively and then immediately repeated it negatively for emphasis and clarification.
1:4 ". . . we move on from creation in general to the creation of life, the most significant element in creation. Life is one of John's characteristic concepts: he uses the word 36 times, whereas no other New Testament writing has it more than 17 times (Revelation; next come Romans with 14 times and 1 John with 13 times). Thus more than a quarter of all the New Testament references to life occur in this one writing."39
Jesus was the source of life. Therefore He could impart life to the things He created. Every living thing owes its life to the Creator, Jesus. Life for humankind constitutes light. Where there is life there is light, metaphorically speaking, and where there is no light there is darkness. John proceeded to show that Jesus is the source of spiritual life and light as well as physical life and light (cf. 5:26; 6:57; 8:12; 9:5; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6; 17:3; 20:31). Metaphorically God's presence dispels the darkness of ignorance and sin by providing revelation and salvation (cf. Isa. 9:2). Jesus did this in the Incarnation.
1:5 As light shines (present tense for the first time) in the darkness, so Jesus brought the revelation and salvation of God to humanity in its fallen and lost condition. He did this in the Incarnation. As the word of God brought light to the chaos before Creation, so Jesus brought light to fallen mankind when He became a man.
Furthermore the light that Jesus brought was superior to the darkness that existed both physically and spiritually. The darkness did not overcome (Gr. katelaben, "lay hold of,"cf. 6:17; 8:3-4; 12:35; Mark 9:18) and consume the light, but the light overcame the darkness. John did not view the world as a stage on which two equal and opposing forces battle; He was not a philosophical dualist. He viewed Jesus as superior to the forces of darkness that sought to overcome Him but could not. This gives humankind hope. The forces of light are stronger than the forces of darkness. John was here anticipating the outcome of the story that he would tell, specifically Calvary. Though darkness continues to prevail, the light can overcome it.
"The imagery of John, though limited to certain concepts and expressed in a fixed vocabulary, is integrated with the total theme of the Gospel. It expresses the conflict of good with evil, culminating in the incarnation and death of Christ, who brought light into darkness, and, though He suffered death, was not overcome by it."40
Throughout these introductory verses John was clearly hinting at parallels between what Jesus did physically in Creation and what He did spiritually through the Incarnation. These parallels continue through the Gospel as do the figures of light and darkness. Light represents both revelation and salvation. Likewise darkness stands for ignorance and sin (3:19-20; 8:12; 12:35, 46).
John the Apostle introduced John the Baptist because John the Baptist bore witness to the light, namely Jesus. John the Baptist was both a model evangelist pointing those in darkness to the light and a model witness providing an excellent example for believers who would follow him. John the Baptist introduced the Light to a dark world. He inaugurated Jesus' ministry. Therefore mention of him was appropriate at the beginning of the Apostle John's account of Jesus' ministry.
1:6 In introducing John the Baptist the writer stressed that God had sent him. He was a prophet in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets who bore witness to the light (Exod. 3:10-15; Isa. 6:8; Jer. 1:4; cf. John 3:17). He was a man in contrast to the Word who was God. The other Gospel writers described John with the words "the Baptist,"but John the Evangelist did not. He probably called him simply John because this is the only John that the Apostle John mentioned by name in his Gospel. He always referred to himself obliquely either as the disciple whom Jesus loved or as the other disciple or in some other veiled way.
1:7 John the Baptist was the first of many witnesses to the light that John the Apostle identified in this Gospel (cf. 4:39; 5:32, 36-37, 39-40; 8:18; 10:25; 12:17; 15:26-27; 18:13-18, 37). The Apostle John frequently used courtroom terminology in his Gospel to stress the truthfulness of the witnesses to the Light. John the Baptist bore witness to the light of God's revelation but also to the person of the Light of the World (8:12). This Gospel stresses the function of John the Baptist as a witness to the light.41The other Gospels also identified his origin and character in their introductions (Matt. 3; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 1:5-24, 57-80).
John the Baptist's ultimate purpose was eliciting belief in Jesus (cf. vv. 35-37). That was also John the Evangelist's purpose in writing this book (20:30-31). Consequently John the Baptist's witness is an important part of the argument of the fourth Gospel. It was not immediately apparent to everyone that Jesus was the Light. John needed to identify Him as such to them.
1:8 Perhaps the writer stressed the fact that John the Baptist was not the Light because some people continued to follow John as his disciples long after he died (cf. 4:1; Mark 6:29; Luke 5:33; Acts 18:25; 19:1-7).
"A Mandaean sect still continues south of Baghdad which, though hostile to Christianity, claims an ancestral link to the Baptist."42
John the Baptist's function was clearly to testify that Jesus was the Light. He was not that Light himself.
The reason the writer referred to John the Baptist in his prologue seems obvious. As the Word came to bring light to humanity, so God sent John the Baptist to illuminate the identity of the Light to people.
The first section of the prologue (vv. 1-5) presents the preincarnate Word. The second section (vv. 6-8) identifies the forerunner of the Word's earthly ministry. This third section introduces the ministry of the Incarnate Word.
"Two points receive special emphasis: one is the astonishing fact that the Word of God, true God as he is, took upon him human nature, and the other is the even more astonishing fact that when he did this, people would have nothing to do with him."43
1:9 There are two possible interpretations of this verse. One is that the true Light enlightens every person who comes into the world (Gr. masculine participle erchomenon, AV, and NASB and NIV margins). The other is that the true Light comes into the world and enlightens everyone (Gr. neuter participle erchomenon, NASB and NIV). The second option seems preferable since the Incarnation is so much in view in the context. The point is that Jesus as the Light affects everyone. Everyone lives under the spotlight of God's illuminating revelation in Jesus Christ since the Incarnation (cf. 1 John 1). His light clarifies the sinfulness and spiritual need of human beings. Those who respond to this convicting revelation positively experience salvation. Those who reject it and turn from the light will end up in outer darkness. They will experience eternal damnation.
The Quakers prefer the first of the two interpretations above. They use this verse to support their doctrine of the "inner light."They believe that God has placed some revelation in the heart of every person. A person can elicit that revelation by meditation. This is not general but special revelation. Their view is very close to the charismatic belief that God gives new revelation today. Non-charismatics see no basis in Scripture for this view. We believe that while God now illuminates the revelation that He has previously given He does not give new revelation now.
The word "true"is one that John used repeatedly in this Gospel. "True"(Gr. alethinon) here refers to what is the ultimate form of the genuine article, the real as opposed to the counterfeit. John did not mean that Jesus was "truthful"(Gr. alethes). Jesus was not only a genuine revelation from God, but He was also the ultimate revelation (cf. 4:23; 6:32; 15:1; 17:3).
John usually used the word "world"(Gr. kosmos) in a negative sense in this Gospel (cf. v. 10; 7:7; 14:17, 22, 27, 30; 15:18-19; 16:8, 20, 33; 17:6, 9, 14). It does not refer to this planet as a planet but to the inhabited earth fallen in sin and in rebellion against God. It is a world darkened by sin.
1:10 Jesus entered the world that He had created in the Incarnation. Yet the world did not recognize Him for who He was because people's minds had become darkened by the Fall and sin (12:37). Even the Light of the World was incomprehensible to them (cf. Matt. 13:55). The Light shines on everyone even though most people do not see it.
John drew attention to the world by repeating this word three times. However the meaning shifts a bit from the world and all that is in it, in the first two occurrences of the word, to the people in the world who came in contact with Jesus, in the third occurrence.
"The world's characteristic reaction to the Word is one of indifference."44
1:11 More seriously, when Jesus visited His own creation (Gr. idia, neuter), the creatures whom He had created (Gr. idioi, masculine) did not receive Him but rejected Him. The specific people whom Jesus visited in the Incarnation were the Jews. They were His own in a double sense. He had not only created them but also bought them for Himself out from the nations. Jesus had created the earth as a house, but when He visited it He found it inhabited by people who refused to acknowledge Him for who He was. In the Incarnation Jesus did not come as an alien; He came home.
1:12 The contrast with rejection is acceptance. Not everyone rejected Jesus when He came. Some accepted Him. To these He gave as a gift the authority (Gr. exousian) to become God's children (Gr. tekna). Receiving Jesus consists of believing in His name. Believing therefore equals receiving. "His name"summarizes all that He is. To believe in His name means to accept the revelation of who Jesus is that God has given. Because that revelation includes the fact that Jesus died as a substitute sacrifice in the place of sinners, belief involves reliance on Jesus for salvation rather than on self. It does not just mean believing facts intellectually. It involves volitional trust as well.
"In the gospel of John belief is viewed in terms of a relationship with Jesus Christ, which begins with a decision to accept rather than reject who Jesus claims to be. This leads to a new relationship with God . . .
". . . in the Johannine writings . . . pisteuo["believe"] with eis["in"or "into"] refers to belief in a person."45
In one sense all human beings are the children of God: we are His creatures. However the Bible speaks of the children of God primarily as those who are His spiritual children by faith in Jesus Christ. The new birth brings us into a new family with new relationships. Clearly John was referring to this family of believers since he wrote that believing in Jesus gives people the right to become God's children. The New Testament speaks of the believer as a child of God and as a son of God. Technically it describes us as children by birth, the new birth, and as sons by adoption. John consistently referred to believers only as children of God in his Gospel. He did not call us the sons of God. In this Gospel Jesus is the only son of God. "Children"draws attention to community of nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4) whereas "sons"emphasizes rights and privileges.
When a person offers you a gift that has cost him or her much, it does not become yours until you receive it from that person. The beautifully wrapped package in the outstretched hand of the giver will do the receiver no good until he or she reaches out and takes it. Likewise reception of God's gracious gift of eternal life is necessary before a person can benefit from it. Receiving a gift from someone else does not constitute a meritorious act or good work, and the Bible never regards it as a work. It is simply a response to the work of another.
1:13 The antecedent of "who"is those who believe in Jesus' name (v. 12). Their new life as children of God comes from God. It does not come because of their blood, namely their physical ancestors. Many of the Jews believed that because they were Abraham's descendants they were the spiritual children of God (cf. ch. 8; Rom. 4; Gal. 3). Even today some people think that the faith or works of their ancestors somehow guarantees their salvation. However, God has no grandchildren.
New life does not come because of physical desire either. No amount of wanting it and striving for it will bring it. The only thing that will is belief in Jesus.
"The term flesh' (sarx) is not used by John to convey the idea of sinfulness, as it often does in Paul's writings. . . . Rather, it is indicative of weakness and humiliation as seen in 1:14. It simply affirms that in the Incarnation Jesus became fully human."46
Third, new spiritual life does not come because of a human decision either, specifically the choice of a husband to produce a child. It comes as the result of a spiritual decision to trust in Jesus Christ. The Greek word for "man"here is androsmeaning "male."The NIV interpreted it properly as "husband"here.
New spiritual life does not come from any of these sources but from God Himself. Ultimately it is the result of God's choice, not man's (cf. Eph. 1:4). Therefore the object of our faith must be God rather than our heritage or race, our works, or our own initiative.
This section of the prologue summarizes the theological issue involved in the Incarnation. It is in a sense a miniature of the whole Gospel.
John's return to the Word in verse 14 from verse 1 introduces new revelation about Him. Though still part of the prologue, the present section focuses on the Incarnation of the Word.
1:14 The Word, who existed equal with God before anything else came into being, became a human.47This is the most concise statement of the Incarnation. He did not just appear to be a man; He became one (cf. Phil. 2:5-9). Yet He maintained His full deity. The word "became"(Gr. egeneto) usually implies a complete change, but that was not true in Jesus' case. He did not cease to be God. Flesh in Scripture has a literal meaning, namely material human flesh, and a metaphorical meaning, human nature.48Here John used it in the metaphorical sense. God the Son assumed a human, though not sinful, nature.
"John does not say, the Word became man,' nor the Word took a body.' He chooses that form of expression which puts what he wants to say most bluntly. It seems probable that he was confronted by opponents of a docetic type, people who were ready to think of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God but who denied the reality of his humanity. They thought of him as only appearing to live a human life. Since God could not, on their premises, defile himself by real contact with humankind, the whole life of Jesus must be appearance only. John's strong term leaves no room for such fancies. He is clear on the deity of the Word. But he is just as clear on the genuineness of his humanity."49
Jesus literally lived among His disciples. The Greek word eskenosen, translated "dwelt"or "lived,"is related to skene, meaning tabernacle. As God's presence dwelt among the Israelites in the tabernacle, so it lived among them in the person of Jesus temporarily (cf. Exod. 25:8-9; 33:7, 11).50Solomon thought it incredible that God would dwell on the earth (1 Kings 8:27), but that is precisely what He did in Jesus.
For the first time, John equated the Word and Jesus, but this is the last reference to the Word in this Gospel. From now on, John referred to the Word by His historical name, Jesus, and to the personal terms "Father"and "Son."
"As the preexistent Son of God, he was the Creator of the world and the Executor of the will of the Father. As the incarnate Son of God, he exercised in his human existence these same powers and revealed effectively the person of the Father."51
The glory that John and the other disciples beheld as eyewitnesses refers to the god-like characteristics of Jesus (cf. Exod. 33:22; Deut. 5:22; Isa. 60:1; 1 John 1:1-2). God's character and qualities came through Jesus as a human son resembles his human father, except that the likeness in Jesus' case was exact (Phil. 2:6). The disciples saw Jesus' glory clearest at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:2-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36). His relationship to the Father was unique, and so was His similarity to the Father. Jesus' relationship to God as His Son was unique (Gr. monogenous, cf. v. 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9) even though we can become children of God (vv. 12-13). He is eternal and of the same essence as the Father. "Only begotten"does not mean that there was a time when Jesus was not, and then the Father brought Him into being.52
Particularly grace and truth marked the glory of God that Jesus manifested. Grace in this context refers to graciousness (i.e., goodness, Heb. hesed), and truth means integrity (i.e., truthfulness, Heb. yemet, cf. v. 17). The Incarnation was the greatest possible expression of God's grace to humankind. It was also the best way to communicate truth accurately to human understanding. Nevertheless many people who encountered Jesus during His ministry failed to see these things (v. 10). Neither grace nor truth are knowable apart from God who has revealed them through Jesus Christ.53
1:15 John the Baptist was another witness beside John the Apostle and the other disciples of Jesus who testified to Jesus' person.
"John the Baptist is one of six persons named in the Gospel of John who gave witness that Jesus Is God. The others are Nathanael (John 1:49), Peter (John 6:69), the blind man who was healed (John 9:35-38), Martha (John 11:27), and Thomas (John 20:28). If you add our Lord Himself (John 5:25; 10:36), then you have seven clear witnesses."54
Even though John the Baptist was older and began his ministry before Jesus, He acknowledged Jesus' superiority to himself.
"In a society where age and precedence bestowed peculiar honour, that might have been taken by superficial observers to mean John the Baptist was greater than Jesus."55
Jesus' superiority rested in His preexistence with the Father and therefore His deity. John the Baptist's witness to Jesus' identity was important to the writer of this Gospel (cf. vv. 6-8, 19-36).
1:16 The glory of God that Jesus manifested was full of grace and truth (v. 14). From the fullness of that grace all people have received one expression of grace after another.
There are several possible interpretations of the phrase "grace upon grace"(NASB, Gr. charin anti charitos). The problem is the meaning of the preposition antihere. Some interpreters believe that John was saying grace follows grace as ocean wave follows wave washing believers with successive blessings.56The NIV "one blessing after another"effectively expresses this view, and the NASB "grace upon grace"implies it. Another translation that gives the same sense is "grace to meet every need that arises (see 2 Cor. xii. 9)."57It is true that God keeps pouring out His inexhaustible grace on the believer through Jesus Christ, but is this what John meant here?
A second view is that the Greek preposition antimeans "instead of"here as it often does elsewhere.58According to this interpretation John meant that God's grace though Jesus Christ replaces the grace that He bestowed through Moses when He gave the law. Verse 17 seems to continue this thought and so supports this interpretation.
I wonder if John may have intended both ideas. He could have been thinking of God's grace in Jesus Christ superseding His grace through Moses and continuing to supply the Christian day by day. This interpretation recognizes John's mention of the fullness of God's grace as well as the contrast in verse 17.
Another less acceptable view is that antimeans "corresponds to."59The grace we receive corresponds in some way to the grace Jesus receives from the Father. However, antirarely has this meaning by itself, though it does occasionally when it combines with other nouns. Furthermore this interpretation offers no connection with verse 17.
A fourth view, also inadequate from my viewpoint, is that antimeans "in return for."60Yet the idea of God giving us grace in return for grace that we give to him is foreign to the New Testament.
1:17 Whereas Moses was the individual through whom God gave His law to His people, Jesus Christ is the one through whom He has manifested abundant grace and truth.61This statement shows the superiority of the gracious dispensation that Jesus introduced over the legal dispensation that Moses inaugurated (cf. Rom. 5:20-21; Eph. 2:8). The legal age contained grace, and the gracious age contains laws.62John was contrasting their dominant characteristics. Law expresses God's standards, but grace provides help so we can do His will.63
"What God showed Himself to be through His revelation in the Torah, so now Jesus shows Himself to be through the Incarnation. And what was the Torah? It was not handcuffs, but Yahweh's pointed finger, graciously marking out to the redeemed the path of life and fellowship with Him [cf. Deut. 6:1-3]. The point of John 1:17 is not Then bad, now good'; the point is rather, Then, wonderful! And now, better than ever!'"64
This verse clearly contrasts the two dispensations in view. Even non-dispensationalists acknowledge this and admit that they recognize two different economies, the Old Testament legal economy and the New Testament gracious economy. They are more dispensational than they are willing to admit.
1:18 There are many passages of Scripture that record various individuals seeing God (e.g., Exod. 33:21-23; Isa. 6:1-5; Rev. 1:10-18). Those instances involved visions, theophanies, or anthropomorphic representations of God rather than encounters with His unveiled spiritual essence (cf. Exod. 33:20; Deut. 4:12; Ps. 97:2; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16; 1 John 4:12). The way we know what God is like is not by viewing His essence. No one can do that and live. God has sent His unique and only Son (monogenous, cf. v. 14) from His own most intimate presence to reveal God to humankind.
"In the bosom ofis a Hebrew idiom expressing the intimate relationship of child and parent, and of friend and friend (cf. xiii. 23)."65
In the system that Moses inaugurated, no one could "see"God, but Jesus has revealed Him now to everyone. Note also that John called Jesus God here again.66
Jesus "explained"(NASB) God in the sense of revealing Him. The Greek word is exegesatofrom which we get "exegete."The Son has exegeted (i.e., explained, interpreted, or narrated) the Father to humankind. The reference to Jesus being in the bosom of the Father softens and brings affection to the idea of Jesus exegeting the Father. The nature of God is in view here, not His external appearance.
"God is invisible, not because he is unreal, but because physical eyes are incapable of detecting him. The infrared and ultraviolet rays of the light spectrum are invisible because the human eye is not sensitive enough to register them. However, photographic plates or a spectroscope can make them visible to us. Deity as a being is consequently known only through spiritual means that are able to receive its (his) communications."67
John ended his prologue as he began it, with a reference to Jesus' deity. He began by saying the Word was with God (v. 1), and he concluded by saying that He was at the Father's side. This indicates the intimate fellowship, love, and knowledge that the Father and the Son shared. It also gives us confidence that the revelation of the Father that Jesus revealed is accurate. John's main point in this prologue was that Jesus is the ultimate revealer of God.
". . . John in his use of Logosis cutting clean across one of the fundamental Greek ideas. The Greeks thought of the gods as detached from the world, as regarding its struggles and heartaches and joys and fears with serene divine lack of feeling. John's idea of the Logosconveys exactly the opposite idea. John's Logosdoes not show us a God who is serenely detached, but a God who is passionately involved."68
Later John described himself as reclining on Jesus' bosom (cf. 13:23). His Gospel is an accurate revelation of the Word because John enjoyed intimate fellowship with Him just as Jesus was an accurate revelation of God that came from intimate relationship with Him.
