Today’s passage: John 1:1-18
Helpful thoughts:
- Jesus Christ is “the Word.”
- The beginning words of this Gospel are the same as the book of Genesis.
- Jesus is not just any man. He is God. He is our creator. He is preexistent (He existed before anything outside of the Godhead existed, therefore He is eternal). He has been incarnated (He took on flesh – Philippians 2:5-8).
- It was the grace of God that brought revelation and the Law to God’s people through the prophet Moses. It was the grace of God that brought forgiveness and eternal life through the shed blood of Jesus. Grace upon grace.
- God brought the Law to Israel. Salvation in Christ is to be made known to all people.
- Being in God’s family is not something that is achieved through physical birth (An ethnic people group, i.e. the Jews), nor of our own will (Romans 3:11).
- By the will of God there are and will be people from all over the earth who hear of “the Word,” who then receive Him and believe in His name. These are the children of God.
Questions to consider:
- What can we learn about the Trinity from this passage? Was the Son of God created or made? What verse makes the idea that God the Son came into being at a point in time an impossibility? In other words, how do verses 1-3 explain the eternality and deity of Jesus?
- What is the way of salvation? How does a person become a child of God?
- Who is being referred to when John writes God (Twice) in verse 18? Who is God who is at the Father’s side and who made God the Father known (John 14:9)?