The Logic of God Made Flesh Text: John 1:1-5
Introduction: The Unavoidable Premise
The Gospel of John does not begin with a manger scene. It does not start with shepherds, or wise men, or a decree from Caesar Augustus. John takes us back before all that. Before time. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever God had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, He is God. And with Him, from everlasting, was the Word.
John’s opening is a thunderclap. It is the most profound and foundational statement of reality ever penned. He is not easing us into the story; he is dropping us into the very mind of God. This is not just a different angle on the Christmas story; it is the ultimate presupposition upon which all stories, all histories, all philosophies, and all realities depend. If you get this wrong, you get everything wrong. If you try to begin anywhere else, you begin with nonsense.
Our modern world is built on a frantic attempt to begin somewhere else. It wants to start with man, or with matter, or with random chance. It wants a universe that just "is," without any ultimate reason or logic behind it. But a universe without the Logos is a universe without logic. It is an absurdity. To deny the Word who was in the beginning is to deny the possibility of a coherent sentence, a rational thought, or a meaningful existence. Every time an atheist attempts to frame an argument against God, he must use logic, language, and reason, thereby borrowing from the very Logos he seeks to deny. He is like a man sitting on a branch, furiously sawing it off between himself and the trunk.
John’s prologue is a direct assault on the pagan worldview, both ancient and modern. The Greeks had their concept of the logos as an impersonal, abstract principle of reason that ordered the cosmos. John seizes this term and fills it with personality, with deity, with flesh and blood. He is saying that the ultimate reality is not an "it," but a "He." The reason the universe holds together is not because of a formula, but because of a Person. This Person is the eternal Word of God, and His name is Jesus.
The Text
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
(John 1:1-5 LSB)
The Eternal Word (v. 1-2)
John begins at the ultimate beginning, echoing the first words of Genesis.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." (John 1:1-2)
Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created." This points to the beginning of time and space. John goes behind that. Before creation ever began, "was the Word." The verb "was" denotes continuous existence. The Word did not come into being at the beginning; He already was. This is a direct statement of His eternal pre-existence. He has no starting point.
Next, "the Word was with God." The Greek preposition here, pros, implies more than mere accompaniment. It suggests a face-to-face relationship, an active communion. This points to a distinction of Persons within the Godhead. The Word is not the same person as God the Father, yet He is in eternal, intimate fellowship with Him. This is the death knell for any form of modalism that would try to blur the persons of the Trinity into mere masks or modes.
And then, the staggering climax: "and the Word was God." Lest we think that being "with God" makes Him a lesser, secondary deity, John immediately asserts His full and absolute deity. The Word is not a god, or a divine emanation; He is God in substance and essence. There is no article before "God" in the Greek, which some cultists have twisted to mean He is a lesser being. But Greek grammar doesn't work that way. The structure of the sentence emphasizes the quality of the Word’s being. What is the nature of the Word? His nature is God. He is what God is. So here we have it, the doctrine of the Trinity in miniature: The Word is distinct from the Father ("with God"), yet fully equal to the Father in His divine nature ("was God").
Verse 2 repeats the central truth for emphasis: "He was in the beginning with God." This eternal, relational, triune God did not need to create in order to experience love or fellowship. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed from all eternity in a perfect, self-sufficient community of love. This is why love is woven into the fabric of the universe, because God is love.
The Word as Creator (v. 3)
Having established who the Word is, John now tells us what the Word does.
"All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." (John 1:3 LSB)
The Word is the agent of creation. The Father willed it, and the Son, the eternal Word, spoke it into existence. This is a direct parallel to Genesis 1, where God repeatedly says, "Let there be..." and it was so. The Word is that divine fiat. As Paul says in Colossians, "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible... all things have been created through Him and for Him" (Col. 1:16).
This verse establishes the most fundamental distinction in all of reality: the Creator/creature distinction. There are only two categories of existence: God, and everything else. God is uncreated, eternal, and self-existent. Everything else is created, temporal, and dependent. Everything that is not God was made by the Word. This means there is no third thing. There is no eternal matter for God to work with. There is no rival power. There is no neutral ground. Everything that exists, from archangels to atoms, owes its existence to Jesus Christ.
The second half of the verse is emphatic: "apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." Not one single thing. Not a quark, not a quasar, not a stray thought. This leaves no room for deism, which imagines God as a clockmaker who wound up the universe and let it go. No, the Word not only created all things, but He also upholds them by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3). The universe is not a machine that runs on its own; it is a continuous, personal thought in the mind of God, sustained moment by moment by Jesus Christ. If He were to cease willing it, it would all vanish into the nothingness from which it came.
The Word as Life and Light (v. 4)
The Word’s creative power is not impersonal. It is the source of all life and light.
"In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men." (John 1:4 LSB)
Life is not an accident. It is not a chemical fluke that occurred in some primordial soup. Life is in Christ. He is the fountain of all life, both biological and spiritual. All the teeming, breathing, growing things in creation exist because He is life. But John immediately focuses this cosmic reality onto mankind. For us, this life is not just biological existence; it is "the Light of men."
What does this mean? It means that true human existence, the life we were created to live, is one of spiritual illumination. To be truly alive is to see. To see God, to see reality, to see ourselves for who we are. This light is the light of reason, of conscience, of the knowledge of God that is written on every human heart (Rom. 1:19-20). Every man, whether he admits it or not, lives and moves and has his being in this light. He cannot escape it. He knows there is a God, and he knows he is accountable to Him. This is what we call general revelation.
The Unconquerable Light (v. 5)
This brings us to the great conflict, the central drama of history.
"And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it." (John 1:5 LSB)
The "darkness" is the state of mankind after the fall. It is a willful, rebellious blindness. It is not a passive absence of light, but an active hostility to it. Men loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19). The darkness is a moral and spiritual category. It is the kingdom of Satan, the realm of lies, rebellion, and death.
Into this active, hostile darkness, the Light shines. The verb "shines" is in the present tense. It is a continuous, ongoing action. From the moment of the fall, God did not abandon the world to total darkness. The light of His truth, His law, and His promise continued to shine. It shone in the conscience of every man, in the created order, and through the prophets of Israel. And in the incarnation, that Light stepped into the world in its most concentrated, brilliant form.
The final clause is a magnificent declaration of victory. "The darkness did not overtake it." The Greek word can mean "overcome," "comprehend," or "extinguish." All are true. The darkness cannot comprehend the light. A blind man cannot understand a sunset. The rebellious heart cannot grasp the logic of grace. And the darkness cannot overcome the light. It can try. It can scheme, and plot, and rage. It can nail the Light to a cross and bury Him in a tomb. But it cannot extinguish Him. The light of the resurrection shattered the darkness forever. The darkness has no power to put out the sun.
This is the central conflict of all history. It is not a dualistic struggle between two equal powers. It is the futile rebellion of a creaturely darkness against the uncreated, unconquerable Light. And the outcome has never been in doubt.
Conclusion: The Logic of Salvation
These first five verses are the foundation for everything that follows. Because Jesus is the eternal Word, God Himself, He is able to save. Because He created all things, He has the authority to redeem all things. Because He is the life, He can give life to the dead. And because He is the light, He can give sight to the blind.
The gospel is not a sentimental story about a good teacher. It is a cosmic announcement about the Creator of the universe stepping into His own creation to rescue it from the darkness it chose. When you hear the gospel, you are not being invited to consider a new philosophy. You are being confronted by the Logos, the logic and reason of the universe Himself.
To reject Him is not simply to choose a different path; it is to embrace incoherence. It is to love the darkness. It is to attempt to live in a world without a foundation, a story without an author, a life without meaning.
But to receive Him is to be brought out of the darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). It is to have your dead heart brought to life by the One in whom is life. It is to have your blind eyes opened by the Light of the world. It is to be reconnected to the very source of your being. It is to finally begin to make sense. For in the beginning was the Word, and all our new beginnings are found in Him.