ADVENT: INCARNATION: A PARALLEL ACT TO CREATION, John 1:4-5

John’s prologue to his gospel of Jesus (1:1-5) is set within the theological context of Genesis 1, “In the beginning” (1:1).  That context is important for understanding John.  (See “Advent: And the Word Was God?” 11/30/25.)  John’s narrative proper begins at v. 6 with the introduction of John the Baptist with his announcement of the Incarnation at v 14, when God’s Utterance (the Logos/Word) became flesh.  I have been thinking about 1:4-5 in this prologue:

“In Him [referring back to the Utterance] was Life and the Life was the Light of all people.  And the Light in the darkness shines, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

It strikes me that with the Utterance becoming flesh a parallel act of creation to that of Genesis 1 has taken place.

Proper context
To explain, I have to set to one side a popular doctrine, that of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing).  It was important to the early Church Fathers to espouse creation ex nihilo in order to counter a couple of popular notions of their day, that the cosmos was eternal and that there had always been opposing forces of good and bad or spirit and matter.  They needed to teach, rightly, about God as the Creator who was sovereign.  However, that teaching is not found in the narrative of Genesis 1 and should not be read into it.
    Genesis 1 begins with the same starting point as the earlier ancient Near Eastern creation accounts of the Israelites’ culture, accounts which the biblical writers adopted and then adapted to speak the truth about God and reality.  Those accounts start with the reality that all humans face, chaos that constantly seeks to overpower life.  Illustration: before one can farm land, one must bring order into the physical chaos of the land; and, once one has planted a crop, one constantly has to fight the forces of chaos that would consume the garden.  Survival is a struggle against physical forces of chaos as a well moral chaos.  
    Genesis 1 begins with three elements that are contra life: a topsy-turvy “earth,” that is encased in a watery deep and surrounded in utter darkness (Gen 1:2).  However, God speaks, and the Spirit that breaths out the Utterance of God, speaks light into darkness, order into the chaotic watery deep and topsy-turvy earth, and brings forth life. This is what John is thinking about. 

Application
John is thinking about Jesus as the God’s Utterance by which all things came into being (1:3).  But as John is thinking about how the Utterance (logos) became flesh (1:14), he is recognizing in verse 4-5 how that Utterance will/does function as the Life who is the Light of all people (see, too v. 9).  In other words, it seems to me that John is thinking of the Incarnation as a parallel creational act of God.
    The reality of life as we face it is full of chaos and darkness, physical and moral, just as the “world” was before God began to speak light, order, and life into that chaos in Genesis 1.  In this new beginning work of God, the Incarnation, the Utterance of God became flesh and dwelt with us bringing light, order, and life into our existence which constantly struggles with that which is contra life.  Jesus is this Light, and the forces of chaos, darkness, and death cannot overcome the Light.  Rather, the Light exposes all that is of darkness and done in darkness so that people do not have to walk in darkness (e.g. 8:12).  The Light offers eternal life to those who receive Jesus and entrust themselves (“believe into”) Jesus (1:12).  The Utterance become flesh parallels the work of God in Genesis 1.

Lord, before surrendering to Jesus, I walked in darkness.  Darkness, chaos, and sin still envelop my world, yet by the Light you guide me.  Darkness cannot overcome your Light.  Help me to always desire to stay in the Light.  Amen.

 

 

 

ADVENT: AND THE WORD WAS GOD? (John 1:1-2)

What was John saying in 1:1-2 about the Word (logos)?  I, like others, do not think I can capture the Greek concepts in English.  I will try, but what I notice is that many commentators get hung up on the individual word issues and miss the broader cultural understanding of speaking that lies behind John’s imagery.

Issues
“In beginning”: indicating temporality or causality is not as important as the fact that John is thinking of Genesis 1:1.
“Word” (logos): can mean word, speech act, reason or plan, etc.  The context of a speech act that alludes to Genesis 1 matter.
“With God”: the preposition pros can have a wide range of nuances; appropriate to the context here is a nuance of extension and an expression of relationship.
“Was God”: 1) Mormons want to translate it as “was a God” because there is no definite article; however, 2) the predicate noun stated first can be definite without the definite article; but more significantly 3) it could be qualitative, as in “fully divine.” [See Net Bible for a discussion.]  Again, the context matters.

Cultural Concept
Understanding the cultural concept of the speech act is more important than debating the words individually.  In that culture, when someone spoke, that person did so by their very life essence, their spirit or breath (Hebrew: ruach; Greek: pneuma).  As a result, the utterance was something real and “tangibly” of the speaker.  One can even feel words breathe out of the person’s mouth.  This is why words of blessing and words of cursing were taken as real and powerful as the speaker.  

In Genesis 1, of which John is thinking, God utters forth creation: “God said … and it came to be.”  God’s utterance divides light from darkness.  God’s utterance divides order from chaos.  God’s utterance brings about life.  God’s utterance in creation was understood to be continually efficacious, maintaining the creational order in the presence of chaos. God’s utterance was of the very life essence (Spirit) of God.

Application
John’s parallel to Genesis 1 is identifying Jesus as that creational ordering, efficacious utterance of God that is itself (Himself) inseparably of the essence and person of God.*  Through this Utterance, “All things through Him came into being; and apart from Him nothing has come into being” (1:3).  Here is a paraphrase, inadequate but maybe helpful, of 1:1-2:
    In the beginning, was God’s Ordering, Life-giving Utterance [the Word].
    And the Ordering Utterance was the extension of God.
    And fully expressing the Divine was the Ordering Utterance.
    This One was from the beginning the extension of God.
As I think about Jesus, I am overwhelmed by the realization that the Divine Utterance became flesh, became a person.  This is the Christ.  This is the Savior of the world.  The world came into being through Him.  I came into being through Him.  I am moved to worship.
Lord, Jesus, I am yours.  Amen.
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*Although I am not saying that John was attempting to give a theological metaphor for the Trinity, if I was to put words in John’s mouth, I would use the image of God the Utterer (Father), God the articulating Breath (Spirit), and God the Utterance (Son) – all of the same Godhead, all distinct, all in unity.

I GRIEVE BECAUSE OF CHRISTIANS.

I grieve that people are not walking with Jesus because of Christians.  I am speaking about something much deeper than political division.  I have friends who are atheists or agnostics due to their experience with Christians.  Today, again, I met another fine man who is an agnostic.  He would like to believe in a God, but because Christians have taught him that all non-Christians will “go to hell,” he does not want anything to do with Jesus.  That is what grieves me deeply.  That is not good biblical theology.  Very briefly and without full explanations, this is what I would like to tell such people, if they were open to listening:

1.   The basic biblical message is that God wants to be in a close, eternal relationship with those whom God created.  God humbles God-self to effect such relationships.

2.   Read literally the key biblical texts, such as John 3:16: and Rom 6:23, tell us that there two spiritual options: people either can accept eternal life with God or they will die, not that they will either live eternally with God or live eternally tormented.

a.   The popular teaching that everyone has an eternal soul and can never die comes from ancient Greek thought. It is not biblical. It is read into the Bible.

b.   In Gen 3, when Adam and Eve seek to become like God, they do die; they are banned from eating from the Tree of Life.  The clear implication is that they were created mortal but had the opportunity of living forever removed because of their sin.

c.   The popular-level doctrine of “hell” comes from conflating two different concepts: Gehenna, the depository place of dead bodies, and Hades, the holding place until the resurrection of the dead. (The conflation can be seen in 9^th century Anglo-Saxon translations that render both terms by “hel/helle” [underworld].)  Revelation calls the final judgement of death, after the resurrection of the dead, the “second death” (20:6,14; 21:8).  In the 1^st century AD, mortals (vs. angels) being thrown into a lake fire symbolized the complete destruction of the person.

3.   God does not limit the option of life to the “informed” (e.g. Jews or Christians).  Paul recognizes in Romans 2 that non-Jews who did not have the law and were not circumcised (a sign of being a member of the covenant community) could have the law “in their hearts” and be spiritually “circumcise” (i.e. belong to the community of faith; see 2:11-16, 26-29).  God welcomes people from every nation who totally respect God (Luke 1:50; Acts 10:34-35).

4.   The main Christ redemption event was to reveal fully the heart of God who is willing lower God-self and then to “lift up” and remove sin, that is to bring people into a state of forgiveness and reconciliation.

5.   The salvific language in the Gospels is that people now can participate in the Kingdom of God (eternal life); they can now become participants in Christ, in God; and that God participates now in them through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

When we do not communicate the biblical message of God’s love accurately or well, we hinder people from walking closely with Jesus.  It is not their fault.  It is ours, Christians.

Note: I understand that my points above do not conform to popular, Christian “orthodoxy.”  My efforts as a biblical scholar – recognizing that I am frail and fallible – are to understand to the best of my ability what the biblical terms and concepts meant to the original Jewish and Christian audiences in their time and culture.  Here is an example, although it is centuries later than the New Testament.  Probably millions of people in the US every Sunday recite from one of the ancient Christian creeds something to the effect of how they “believe in the resurrection of the dead.”  I wonder how many of them realize that they are affirming the belief that at the Second Coming of Jesus the dead will then be resurrected?  How many understand the biblical teaching of the resurrection of the dead?  Much like Jesus’ teaching on participating in the Kingdom of God now, it is generally a lost concept.

 

A PRAYER FOR THOUGHTS AND DREAMS

I have friends struggling with bad dreams.  For one person, they go back to his time of service in Vietnam.  My friends have memories that have been triggered by recent personal events.  I wonder how to pray for my friends.  As in their cases, one’s “mind” may be outside of willful control due to the non-conscious release of chemicals that trigger neurological responses.  One’s “mind” is deeply embedded.  It is not just a matter of brain neurology.  Mind is enacted through bodily experiences as well as one’s environmental embeddedness, and, consequently, thoughts and dreams may be triggered by various factors.

I have published earlier posts on basic Christianity, the nature of temptation,and the active mental discipline of rejecting evil thoughts that come to mind (7/10/24, 2/6/25, and 2/17/25).  One’s mindset can be on the things of the sinful nature or on the desires of the Spirit (Rom 8:5-6).  But my friends’ situations are different.  They are not allowing temptations to dwell in their thought lives.

I am reminded though, that the Spirit who searches all things and knows the deep things of God (1Cor 2:10b-11), must fully know the depths of their minds.  And, if the Spirit can bring to the disciples’ minds what Jesus taught them (John 14:26), then I imagine that the Spirit can bring fresh and healing thoughts to my friends’ minds even as they sleep.  That is my prayer.

Come Holy Spirit.  I pray that You, who know the thoughts and memories that come to our minds, will nurture those of my friends even as they sleep.  Provide thoughts that are healing, care for the thoughts that need comforting, and turn back any that would cast shadows in their hearts.  Amen.

THE “TOO MUCH” JESUS

At the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry in Luke (4:14-30), Jesus confronts us – me anyway – with too much.  (Detailed discussion follows.  One might want to skip to the application.)

Problem
In the typical summary of this text, Jesus, having been well received in other synagogues, comes to his home town of Nazareth and reads the prophetic text of that sabbath (14-21), people complement him (22), he rebukes them over a prophet not being accepted in his home town and gentiles being blessed instead (23-27), and the people then try unsuccessfully to kill him (28-30).  So, why did Jesus tell them off?

Exegetical Comments
The key to me is that a rather ambiguous text of verse 22 is usually translated with a positive spin when the context calls for a negative interpretation.
Neutral translation:

And all were bearing witness about him and wondering at the-coming-out-of-his-mouth words of grace, and saying, “Is not this the son of Joseph?”

Sample positive translation:

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.  They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" (NRSV) 

There must be a reason that prompted Jesus to tell them off right after this report of verse 22.  He had just a read a messianic, end-time prophetic word to them from Isaiah 61:1-2a:

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor ( NRSV).

Then, when all eyes were fixed on him, he said these incredible words, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.”  Their response is in verse 22.  So, let’s look at the text in context more closely.

1)     “Bearing witness about X” does not necessarily mean a positive witness. 

2)     “Wondering/marveling'” can be in a good or bad sense.

3)     “Words of grace” may be an adjectival genitive (“gracious words,” so with NRSV, NIV, NET), but objective genitive also makes sense to me here (“words about/concerning grace/favor” as in Acts 20:32).

a.      Since Jesus has just read a messianic, forward-looking text from Isaiah, and with prophetic-like authority then pronounced those words as fulfilled “today” and in their presence (“their ears”) – that is, indicating himself – I think the phrase points to those words and his self-application and not to some gracious manner of speaking.

4)     In Luke, Jesus’ opponents sometimes ask rhetorical questions to make a point; and, the question with ouxi (“not”) expects an affirmative response that Jesus is indeed the son of Joseph.

5)     It is well recognized that in Luke and Acts that the word “today” points to something new happening in divine activity (see NET translators note at Lk 2:11).

6)     Again, most importantly, Jesus has just made an outrageous self-claim of a prophetic promise being fulfilled in their midst; that is, the “words about God’s grace/favor” of Isaiah about a new divine activity in the future applied to himself!

Putting it all together, the sense of the text (v 22) is:

And they all bore witness concerning him and they demurred about the words of [self] favor that came out of his [own] mouth.  And they said, "Isn't this [just] Joseph's son?"

Application:
Jesus’ self-claim was too much for them.  His home town folk of Nazareth were rejecting him and his claim rather sarcastically in verse 22.  I have been thinking about how Jesus’ is too much: the one anointed by God’s Spirit, pronouncing forgiveness of sin as if he were God, calming a storm, claiming to be life and light, saying that we must abide in him, etc.  It is too much.  To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, Jesus was either an egomaniacal lunatic, or Jesus was an authoritarian con-man, or – well, it’s too much.  If it is true, my worldview must change.  I must give myself over to his claims.  I must submit to them, to him.

Jesus, I accept your claims.  Please open my eyes and heart to fully accept your claims and respond obediently to them just as fully.  Amen.

SERVANT GOD: IT’S DISTURBING

God is an unusual God, shockingly, disturbingly so.  In Jesus’ parable of the watchful servants (Luke 12:35-40), the master’s servants are to be dressed to serve with lamps burning, alert and ready attend to their master at any time he might return home.  However, should the master return and find them thus ready, he turns their world upside down.  The master prepares his clothing to serve, has them recline at the table, and attends to them!  How shocked Jesus’ disciples must have felt about this anomalous, backward, and unthinkable behavior of the master.

Although this parable is told in the context of disciples of Jesus needing to be prepared for his return, this inconceivable divine behavior is consistent with the character of God.  Starting with the creation, unlike ancient Near Eastern stories in which the gods create subservient humans, Yahweh (the Israelite personal name of God) plants a garden of fruitful trees, even a tree of life; and, Yahweh is present to walk and talk in intimate relationship (Gen 2).  Jumping ahead to the covenant the people made with Yahweh: Were a people to make a covenant with the Creator and break it, that should be the end.  Not so with Yahweh, despite repeated violations, God remains faithful to the covenant.  Unthinkable!

In all honesty, I do not fathom God’s upheaval of what is right and just in order to condescend to care for me.  It is disturbing.  But in my sinfulness, it is not as disturbing as it should be.  I should be on my face weeping.  Quite obviously, mentally I cannot wrap my arms around this stunning behavior of my Creator.

Lord, may your astonishing grace sink ever deeper into my realization of who You are and what I am in your sight.  I am an ungrateful blind man who has been given sight.  Keep me disturbed.  I do want to be faithful to You.  Amen.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS: A SIGN OF WEAKNESS

My devotions today were basically about how what I have to offer God is not my strengths but my weaknesses.  My strengths tend to lead me to relying on myself.  My weaknesses move me to rely on God.  I find an analogy to this truth in regard to spiritual gifts. 

In my church-life experiences, I have found two stultifying attitudes toward spiritual gifts.  There are those people who are proud of themselves and their churches for their abundant use of spiritual gifts.  And, there are people and their churches who are proud that they are not like those “holy-roller” churches. 

Ironically, both attitudes are wrong.  Neither the presence nor the absence of spiritual gifts makes room for pride.  In their godly use, spiritual gifts are a sign of weakness – a good sign of weakness.  To the first group, as Paul says in his discussion of proper and improper use of spiritual gifts (1Corinthians 12-14), such gifts are not of ourselves. They are undeserved “graces” (charisma).  They are not for us, but for the common good (12:7).  Spiritual gifts are the means through which God can bless others through me in ways that I could not have done through my own strengths.  The Presence of spiritual gifts in me is directly related to my weakness.  To the second group Paul commands, “earnestly desire spiritual gifts!” (14:1).*  Why?  Because Paul’s whole corrective to the proper use of spiritual gifts is that they are to be enveloped and enfolded by that which never fails, love (Ch13, esp. v. 8-10).  If one is abiding in God, God’s love abides in that person, and that person will desire spiritual gifts in order to serve others.

Lord, help me to run to you in my poverty and to offer you my weaknesses, so that I might better love and serve others.  Amen.
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*The reason Paul gives for putting prophecy about other gifts, particularly tongues, is because it is so other-directed, building them up, encouraging them, and comforting them (14:3-4)