Testifying About the Light

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light,
that all men through him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.”
John 1:6–8

John is showing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, God’s Son, and we must believe on Him (John 20:31). Jesus is God, has always existed, and has created the universe. God the Father sent Him to earth as the true Light of Life, but no one even noticed.
God also sent another man, John, ahead of Jesus to testify about the coming of God’s Light. We usually call this man “John the Baptist,” or better, “John the Baptizer.” He was distinguished from many others with the same name because his ministry was one of baptizing people as a sign of repentance (Mark 1:4).
Our verses say that John was not the Messiah, although he was asked about this several times (John 1:19–25). Rather, he was a forerunner, in the words Mark uses from Malachi, “Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee” (Mark 1:2). He came to testify about the Light of the World. He came proclaiming that Someone greater was coming (1:26–27). He called on those who heard him to believe on Jesus (John 1:29). He sent his disciples to Jesus (Luke 7:19–23). God sent John the Baptist to testify about the Light of Life, Jesus of Nazareth. John’s mission was to prepare the way for Jesus, and to show that He was the Messiah.
This is the gospel writer’s goal, too: to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, so that his readers will believe in Him. God sent His Son into the world to give life, and we must believe in Him.

They Didn’t Even Know

“In Him was life; and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
John 1:4–5

Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, God’s Son, and we must believe on Him (John 20:31). Jesus, “the Word,” has always existed as God, even before He created the universe. As Creator, He is the Source of Life. Every spark of life, whether plant, animal, or human being, finds its source in the Word.
But God’s special creation of life, mankind, was formed to have fellowship with God. Human beings are spiritual beings, designed to commune with the God who created them, and therefore the Source of Life is also the Light of Men. Every human being was created by God to respond to that spiritual Light which comes from God. This is man’s highest goal and his purpose in life.
However, as John goes on to say, human beings have without exception refused and ignored the Light of Life. God’s Light, in the person of Jesus Christ, goes on shining brightly, beaming out into the darkness of man’s sin and ignorance, and man keeps on choosing darkness over God’s Light.
Man uses the intelligence God has given him to invent ways to sin, he takes the wonderful body God has created and abuses it for his own pleasure, and he implements the talents God has given him to sinful and selfish ends. Man enjoys the life God has bestowed on him, but refuses to acknowledge the Light of God, Jesus Christ. He continues stumbling and groping through the darkness as if it didn’t even exist. God’s Son, Jesus Christ, came to men as God’s Word, communicating God’s life and light to men, but they continued on in the darkness—they didn’t even stop to look.

Who Else Can Say That?

“The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him;
and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”
John 1:2–3

John wants to make a point: he wants to demonstrate that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, God’s Son, and we must believe on Him (John 20:31). He begins his gospel by stating that Jesus (“the Word”) has always existed as God.

Furthermore, as he tells us in verses two and three, Jesus created the universe. Not only is Jesus God, but He created all things. Everything we see and know in the universe around us came from Jesus’ creative power. He spoke the word and the world came into being.

We might wonder, “But I thought it was God who created the universe; is John saying that Jesus is God?” John’s reply would be, “My point exactly.” When God called light and darkness into being on the first day of creation, Jesus was there. Jesus always was with God—He did not come into existence that night in Bethlehem.
Not only does John claim that Jesus is God and that He created the universe, he goes one step further: everything in the universe owes its very existence to Jesus Christ. You and I do not have the option of ignoring this Man Jesus of Nazareth, because each one of us was created by Him! Our very existence is proof of His deity!
What person in all the world could make the claim that he created all things? That would be ridiculous! The only way a person could have created the universe would be if He existed before the world began. And that is exactly what John says (and Jesus, too!). Jesus of Nazareth is not just a good man or a prophet—He is God’s Son, who eternally existed as God and created the entire universe.

Starting at the Beginning

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

The gospel of John describes what Jesus of Nazareth did and said during his ministry on earth. John’s purpose in telling these things it to make a point: Jesus is the Messiah, God’s Son, and we must believe on Him (John 20:31).
All records of Jesus Christ have to start somewhere. Mark’s gospel starts with the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when He was baptized by John the Baptist (Mark 1:9). Matthew goes back to the birth of Jesus (Matt 1:18). Luke goes back even further, to the events preceding the birth of Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist (Luke 1:5). But as John begins his gospel, he starts at the very beginning. “In the beginning,” he says, and he means before the birth of John, before David, Moses, Abraham, Noah, or even Adam. In fact, he is talking about before the beginning of time and the creation of the universe. Before anything else existed, the Word was.
John calls Jesus “the Word,” a name which highlights the fact that Jesus reveals God to us. Just like the words on this page are (hopefully!) communicating thoughts from my mind to yours, so Jesus Christ, the Word, communicated and revealed God the Father to mankind.
And there, before the dawn of the universe, the Word, Jesus Christ, existed. He was with God and always had been. And in fact, Jesus Christ is God. He was not a lesser being created earlier by God, nor was he a “secondary god.” He was equal with God. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who has always existed with God and as God. This is where John starts: the very beginning.