The Word Became Flesh
Genesis 1:1–2 & John 1:1–5
Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture. Also read Deuteronomy 31:24-26; Exodus 20:11; Isaiah 45:18–19; and John 1:1–5.
1. Both our passages in Genesis and John speak of a beginning, and intentionally so. The author of Genesis speaks of the creator God as creating all the physical universe. In John we find the Word, the Logos, was in the beginning also. The Word was not created however, but is God.
2. The verb of being, “was” found in John 1:1 three times has no past tense to it. The verb can be translated, was and is, all three times. Thus, it is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who created all that there is. The “was” highlights the idea of reality and certainty.
3. Genesis 1:1–2 is often understood as the introduction to the whole of the book of Genesis. Also, it is to be noted that the Hebrew word for God here in Genesis 1:1, transliterated from the Hebrew into English, is Elohim and is the plural of El. This literary device is used to describe “majesty” or “ultimate power.”
4. Both Genesis 1:1–2 and John 1:1–5 declare that the entire universe is created by God. The apostle John, as is made plain in John 1:14, states that the Word is Jesus when he says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”
5. We notice also that the darkness that was over all that there was hovered “over the face of the deep,” then in John’s Gospel the Word, through whom all things were created, is the Light which now shines in the darkness. And this darkness cannot overcome that Light.
6. Reading the opening words of both Genesis and the Gospel of
John we find the entire history of both our universe and the saving work of the
Creator God. However fallen our world, there is the bright Light of redemption
and glory.