Scripture Reading: John 1:1-2, 14, 29, 32, 36, 42, 51
In the following two chapters we will consider in some detail the extract of chapter 1 of John as seen in the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, the stone, and the house of God. We will consider in particular the significance of these six signs. In this chapter we will give a preliminary word regarding the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, the stone, and the house of God. Our focus here will be on the meaning of the Word in John 1:1.
From the time I began to study the Bible as a youth, I have been trying to find out the definition of the Word in John 1:1. Although I have read some excellent books on this matter, nothing I have read concerning this has been fully satisfying to me. Some expositors and Bible teachers say that the Word in John 1:1 refers to the concept of the Logos in Greek philosophy. According to these writings, the Logos was a basic element or substance in Greek philosophical thinking. One book I read recently says that the Logos involves the inner conception plus the outward expression. According to this understanding of the Word, the Logos, first there is the inner conception. When this conception is uttered, there is the outward expression. Therefore, according to this interpretation, the inner conception plus the outward expression equals the Word, the Logos.
This definition of the Word in John 1:1 is not adequate. Deep within me there is still the desire to know what this term means in the divine revelation, in the Bible. Therefore, I have been exercising my inner being and looking to the Lord that He would give us the proper understanding of the Word in John 1:1.
When I was young, I was taught some basic things that have been helpful through the years in my study of the Bible. One of these basic matters is that we should interpret the Bible by the Bible. According to this principle, a particular verse in the holy Word requires the rest of the Bible to define it. This means that the entire Bible is the full, whole, complete, and perfect definition of any word or term used in the Bible. For more than fifty years I have been keeping this principle in my reading and study of the Word of God. I cannot deny that I have been helped by consulting reference books and expositions. Nevertheless, even after receiving help from such books, there is still the hunger and the thirst to know the real significance, the proper connotation, of the different terms in the Bible. Therefore, after studying the writings of others, I have always had to come back to the principle of interpreting any verse in the Bible by the entire Bible itself.
Recently, I began to receive light from the Lord according to His entire divine revelation concerning the real significance of the Word in John 1:1. Many years ago I learned that Christ is the living Word and that the Bible is the written Word. Actually, these are not two words. The living Word and the written Word are one and correspond to each other. Although I knew this, I did not apply this understanding to the Word in John 1:1. Now I see that the Word in John 1:1 involves the written Word with the living Word as its reality.
In order to have the proper understanding of the Word in John 1:1, we need to come to the Bible and see what the Word refers to in the Holy Scriptures. If we do this, we will see that first it refers to Christ as the living Word. This living Word needs a written Word. Without the written Word, we are not able to apprehend the living Word. We need a book, the Bible, to define and explain the living person of Christ. Christ, the universal person, is the living Word of God, and the Bible is the written Word. The Bible is the Book of books, and Christ is the person. The Book is the definition of the person. The written Word, the Bible, is the definition of the living Word, the living person of Christ. This is the living Word with the written Word.
When we have the living Word with the written Word, we have the defined God. Because God is abstract, mysterious, and invisible, there is the need for God to be the Word in order to explain Himself, define Himself, and reveal Himself. The Word in John 1:1 refers to the defined God, the explained God, the expressed God, the revealed God, the God made known to human beings. This is the Word. The Word in John 1:1 refers to our Lord, the living Word, with the Bible, the written Word.
In Revelation 19:11-13 we have a picture of Christ judging and making war. Verse 13 says, “He is clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and His name is called the Word of God.” The name on the Lord’s thigh may be likened to a badge, label, or sign. As He fights against the enemy, He wears a sign saying “the Word of God.” This indicates that the Lord Himself is the Word of God. Do you want to know God? In order to know God, you need to read Christ, study Christ, behold Christ, contemplate Christ, gaze on Christ.
However, we cannot know the Lord, the living Word, simply by studying Him or contemplating Him. We also need the Book, the Bible, the written Word. If we would know God, on the one hand, we need to contemplate this living person and, on the other hand, we need to study the Book.
We have seen that the Word in John 1:1 refers both to the living Word and the written Word. The Word in this verse is great! This Word is actually God Himself.
Throughout the centuries there has been much debate among theologians concerning John 1:1. We have pointed out that, according to John 1:1, Christ is God. Others claim that the last part of this verse should not be translated “and the Word was God” but should be rendered “and the Word was deity.” Some who prefer this translation deny that Jesus Christ is the very God Himself. They may say that He is deity but not that He is God. They may hold the concept that the Lord Jesus is the Logos and is deity but deny that He is God Himself.
The Word in John 1:1 is the Triune God defined in a living person. That living person is not only the Son of God — He is the entire God. Speaking of Christ, Colossians 2:9 says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” It is difficult to define the word fullness as it is used in the Bible. Can you explain the difference between fullness and riches? Some who are familiar with what we have written elsewhere may say that the riches are what Christ is, and the fullness is what we become as Christ’s Body as a result of enjoying Christ. However, this explanation is not so helpful here. According to biblical usage, the significance of the word fullness surpasses that of the word riches. Fullness is more formal. First we have the riches and then the fullness. We may say, therefore, that fullness surpasses riches. Colossians 2:9 says that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. This fullness does not dwell in Christ theoretically or invisibly; it dwells in Him bodily.
What does the expression the fullness of the Godhead refer to? Does it not refer to the entire Godhead, to the complete person of God? Yes, the fullness of the Godhead is the entire Godhead, including the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. How, then, could we say that the fullness of the Godhead includes only God the Son and not also God the Father and God the Spirit? This would not be logical. Since the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead must be the fullness of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. As the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, Christ is not only the Son of God but the entire God.
John 1:1 and 2 say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” In the beginning, that is, in eternity past, the Word that defined God, explained God, and revealed God was with God. He was with God before the foundation of the world. Then one day He became a man. In John 1:14 the Word became flesh. The translation “was made” in the King James Version is not correct. The proper rendering of the Greek word is “became.” The Greek word here indicates a strong step related to having a new beginning. In eternity Christ, the living Word, was God without humanity. But through incarnation He took a strong step to have a new beginning. He became a man.
John 1:14 says that the Word not only became flesh but also tabernacled among us. In this verse there are two predicates: became and tabernacled. The story recorded in the four Gospels is a story of God incarnate tabernacling among us. The word tabernacling covers the four Gospels.
Toward the end of the record in the Gospels, the Lord Jesus went to the cross to die for our redemption. He died as the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36). Therefore, in the four Gospels we see Christ as the tabernacle, and at the end of the Gospels we see Him crucified as the Lamb of God.
After accomplishing redemption as the Lamb, Christ was resurrected and came as the dove, as the life-giving Spirit. The dove is actually Christ Himself in another form. First Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. This verse points to another new beginning, also indicated by the word became. When the Word became flesh, that was a new beginning. When in resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit, that was another new beginning. Now Christ is with us as the dove. In John 20 and 21 we see Him as the dove.
In Acts and in the Epistles we have the record of the heavenly dove, the dove out of heaven. As the Lamb Christ walked upon the earth, but as the dove He soars in the air. This soaring dove descends upon us. When we lay our hand upon the Lamb, the dove descends upon us. Now what we have is not the Lamb and the dove but the Lamb with the dove. The dove does not stand beside the Lamb. Rather, the dove rests upon the Lamb. The dove descends upon the Lamb and abides upon the Lamb. Therefore, the dove and the Lamb are one. This Dove-Lamb is a single entity with two parts — the Lamb, the first part, and the dove, the second part. As the Lamb He is the Redeemer; as the dove He is the Life-giver.
In the Epistles we see the transforming work of the dove to make us stones. In the Epistles many stones are produced. The issue of these stones is the building up of a spiritual house. As Peter says, we are living stones being built up as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). This spiritual house will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
In this chapter we have seen a sketch of the whole New Testament. First, we have the Word, the living Word with the written Word. Then we have the tabernacling of the incarnated Word among us. This tabernacling of the Word is described in detail in the four Gospels. At the end of the Gospels we see that the Lamb was crucified for our redemption. In resurrection the Lamb became the dove. In the book of Acts and in the Epistles, we see Christ as the dove. Furthermore, in the Epistles we see that the believers are transformed into stones and that all these stones are being built up together to be a spiritual house, which consummates in the New Jerusalem. This is God’s economy. This is the central lane of God’s operation revealed in the Bible.
