John 1:1   In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.

Three short sentences. Compact. Concise. Three simple subject-predicate sentences. Yet you will not find any other three sentences that are more theologically rich and deep as these three. So begins the Gospel of John and its exploration of Jesus the Messiah. What do these three sentences tell us about Jesus? What is it about these three sentences that has generated so much discussion and theological reflection over the centuries? John’s Gospel is a selective penetrating reflection about Jesus Christ and the salvation that he has brought to his people. In its introductory verses, John gives us a summary of who Jesus is. In the first verse alone he introduces us to Jesus’ eternity, self-sufficiency, deity, and relationship in the Trinity.

“In the beginning was the Word…” John begins by denoting Jesus’ eternity. He is not simply looking at Jesus’ starting point. He uses the imperfect verb ἦν. It denotes that Jesus was in existence before the beginning. But the beginning of what? This appears to be an allusion to Gen 1:1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Note the remarks from the NET Bible on John 1:1:

For John, the words “In the beginning” are most likely a conscious allusion to the opening words of Genesis — “In the beginning.” Other concepts which occur prominently in Gen 1 are also found in John’s prologue: “life” (1:4) “light” (1:4) and “darkness” (1:5). Gen 1 describes the first (physical) creation; John 1 describes the new (spiritual) creation. But this is not to play off a false dichotomy between “physical” and “spiritual”; the first creation was both physical and spiritual. The new creation is really a re-creation, of the spiritual (first) but also the physical.

So it is at least a reference to the beginning of the creation of the universe. However, it is also an abbreviated way of describing eternity past. In other words, Jesus has always existed. If he has always existed, then he is self-sufficient. He needs nothing to sustain him outside of himself.

Second, note to how Jesus is referred here. He is designated as the Word (ὁ λόγος). This is suggestive of the fact that Jesus is a revelation or that he reveals. John 1:18 will round out this idea by denoting that Jesus explains God. So Jesus, as the Word, is the full revelation of God.

This leads us to the next short sentence: “…and the Word was with God,…” In what sense was Jesus with God? Does this simply mean that he was in God’s presence simply hanging out. No, the phrase, πρὸς τὸν θεόν (with God), suggests that Jesus has an intimate relationship with God. The preposition πρός (pros) suggests intimate personal relationship, not just proximity. M. Dods stated, “Πρός …means more than μετά or παρά, and is regularly employed in expressing the presence of one person with another” (“The Gospel of St. John,” The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 1:684). So Jesus has an intimate personal relationship with God, one that has been going on since eternity past and will continue into eternity future.

Finally, the last of the three sentences, “and the Word was fully God.” (καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος) states that Jesus is God. But how can Jesus be with God and God at the same time? This has generated much discussion since the earliest centuries of the Church. Some have argued, like the Jehovah Witnesses and Arius before them, that Jesus is a god, a creature of the highest order, but not God in the same sense as the Father, Almighty God, because the noun θεὸς (theos) does not have the definite article. Therefore, θεὸς must mean “a god” rather than God. However, a noun does not need the article to be definite. Nouns can be definite, indefinite, or qualitative all by themselves, without any article or adjective. The fact that θεὸς is placed first in the sentence suggests that there is some emphasis being placed on it. Also, in other places in the New Testament, in which the predicate nominative occurs before the verb, the predicate nominative is usually qualitative, sometimes definite, and rarely indefinite. This means that the meaning “a god” is the least likely meaning. Add to this the fact that nouns rarely change their meanings in the space of a few words, unless there are clear contextual reasons, suggests that “a god” is not the point.

But how does this nuance of grammar answer our question? What difference does it make whether the noun is qualitative rather than definite or indefinite? If θεὸς is qualitative, then the referent for ὁ λόγος (the Word) does not have to be the same as that for τὸν θεόν (God). In other words, the Word is every bit as God as God is, but the Word (ὁ λόγος) is a different person than τὸν θεόν. As one translation has put it, “what God was the Word was.” Or as another has suggested, “just as much God as God the Father.” What John has done is to communicate the deity of Jesus Christ and the triune nature of God in as brief a way as possible. As much as this concept boggles the mind, Jesus, as fully God as God the Father, has an intimate personal relationship with the Father, and that has been true for all eternity.

What, then, does this mean for us? First, because Jesus is eternal, the life he gives us is also eternal. He gives us out of his own life. Second, his relationship with the Father suggests that he is a relational being and desires a relationship with us. He wants us to be part of his family. Third, he is fully God and is able to accomplish all that he promises. Whatever he promises us he will do. That should be a great comfort and encouragement to us.