The Logos

What do you think of Jesus Christ? Who is he? According to Christianity this is the most important question you or anyone else will ever have to face. It is important because it is inescapable; you will have to answer it sooner or later.

Who is Jesus Christ? If he was only a man, then you can forget about him. If he is God, as he claimed to be, then you should surrender your life to him; you should worship him and serve him faithfully.

IF you are one who has never answered this question or if you have assumed that Jesus was just a man or just a prophet or just a philosopher, then The Gospel of John was written for you. Theologians say that The Gospel of Matthew proves that Jesus is the Messiah, and The Gospel of Mark proves that Jesus is God’s Servant, and The Gospel of Luke proves that Jesus was truly a man. And all Bible teachers agree that the Gospel of John proves that Jesus is truly God.

The Gospel opens with one of the most elevated statements about Jesus found in the New Testament. Only the texts of Col 1:15–20 and Heb 1:1–13 come close to approximating the profound view of God’s Son presented in John 1:1–18.

These 1st 18 verses are one of the most complex theological statements in the Bible. Study of this text takes time, but those who ponder these magnificent words will learn that God will reward his children who diligently and prayerfully seek for understanding. The reader is welcomed to an intellectual, spiritual, and life-challenging pilgrimage with an evangelist who continues to call us to new dimensions of believing.

Jesus is Eternally God

John 1:1 begins with the truth, “In the beginning was the Word (logos).” Logos is a Greek word used to describe “wisdom”. The Hebrews went further in their definition of this word, from thoughts to thinker. In other words, John is referring to the thinker, the omniscient genius behind all of Creation. Namely, Jesus is the logos of God: preexistent, eternal.

Jesus is Equally God

Christianity recognizes the fact that the Bible reveals God as a godhead of three equal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Note the second phrase in John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…” In other words, there is more than one person within the godhead, and Jesus is one of those persons.

Jesus is Essentially God

Notice the third phrase in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Jesus is in his nature, person, attributes, and character all God. Jesus is all that God is. He is as much Deity as Deity can be. Everything that can be said about the essence of God the Father can be said of Jesus. A proper understanding of this verse flies in the face of the cultist Jehovah Witnesses who thinks that Jesus was not actually God as God the Father is. One translation renders this phrase: “what God was, the Word was.”

The Father is an extension of God.
The Spirit is an extension of God.
The Son, Jesus, is an extension of 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 that is not true, then the book is blasphemous. If true, then we understand that God entered humanity in the Son.

So what…

If Jesus Christ is God is to say that we can know the truth about God. If Jesus Christ is God then we can know what God is like. And without Jesus we would not be able to know about God. So to know Jesus is to know God. In fact, to know the Bible is to know Jesus is to know God.

If Jesus is God then God is always like Jesus. Jesus hates sin so we know God hates sin. Jesus loves us so we know God loves us. Jesus is angry towards the wicked so we know that God is angry towards the wicked. Jesus is merciful to the repenting sinner so we know that God is a God of mercy.

William Barclay, “What Jesus did was to open a window in time that we might see the eternal and unchanging love of God.”

Furthermore, if Jesus is God then his death on the Cross was immensely significant: it was holy, infinite, sufficient to pay for our sins, and effective in accomplishing all it was intended to accomplish.

Finally, if Jesus is God then he is able to save you today if you will believe in him as the Son of God. Arthur W. Pink once wrote that we are shown in John’s Gospel that the One who was heralded by the angels to the Bethlehem shepherds, who walked this earth for 33 years , who was crucified at Calvary, who rose in triumph form the grave, and who 40 days later departed from the scenes, was none other than the Lord of Glory. The evidence for this is overwhelming, the proofs almost without number, and the effect of contemplating them must be to bow our hearts in worship before “the great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”