Can you please explain John 1:1-9?
Before we take a brief look at these verses, it’s important to know that the apostle John was especially inspired to write about Jesus Christ as the “Son of God” and how He in grace became a man to reveal God to men. We see in verses 1-9 that His LIFE (as the Incarnate Son of God) was a LIGHT to men.
Verses 1-3 read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (NASB). As noted above, John was used of God to direct our attention to the fact that Jesus Christ is God! Here He is called “the Word,” because He was the member of the Triune God who would REVEAL GOD’S THOUGHTS to mankind, just as our “words” express our thoughts to one another. Verses 2-3 bring before us another proof that He is God, for it states emphatically that “all things came into being through Him”; in other words, He is the CREATOR! I would encourage you to read Hebrews 1:2 & 10 and Colossians 1:16.
Verses 4-5 say, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” In verse 14 we read, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” We stated at the outset that the Eternal Word, the Son of God, “became a man to reveal God to men.” He was “God manifest in the flesh” (see 1st Timothy 3:16) and as He walked among men they were able to see, with their own eyes, the very life of God being manifested. John writes of this in 1st John 1:2, “And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” Of course John was writing as a believer who saw this truth with the “eye of faith.” The tragedy was that most men did NOT recognize that Jesus Christ was “God manifest in the flesh.” He was the Light shining the truth of who God is among men who were in moral and spiritual darkness, yet “the darkness did not comprehend it.” In a word, they were spiritually blind and could not see the Light! Verses 9-10 confirm this: “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and THE WORLD DID NOT KNOW HIM.”
We will conclude our short meditation with verses 6-8: “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.” This “John” is not the writer of this gospel; this is speaking of “John the Baptist” who was sent by God to “testify about the Light” to the nation of Israel. By doing so, he would prepare their hearts to receive Jesus Christ as their Messiah. He speaks of this in verse 23: “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the LORD,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” In verse 15 he bore testimony to Jesus being God, “John testified about Him and cried out, saying, this was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for HE EXISTED BEFORE ME.” Yet the nation refused to believe John’s testimony and in the end they rejected John and finally, the Lord Jesus Himself. How solemn are the words in verse 11, “He [the Lord Jesus] came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” They rejected the “Light of the world” and as a result they remained in moral and spiritual darkness! Thankfully, we also read, in verse 12, of those who had their eyes opened to see who Jesus Christ was: “But as many as received Him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” Has my reader seen the LIGHT and believed in His name? His name is “Jesus,” which means “Savior.” To believe in His name is to believe in Him as your Savior. (218.7) (DO)