Is Jesus God – Part I The answer to this question is found by first understanding the reason why John wrote his gospel. We find his purpose clearly stated in John 20:30-31. “30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” Once we understand that John’s purpose was to introduce the readers of his gospel to Jesus Christ, establishing Who Jesus is (God in the flesh) and what He did, all with the sole aim of leading them to embrace the saving work of Christ in faith, we will be better able to understand why John introduces Jesus as “The Word” in John 1:1. In John, we are revealed the great, understandable mystery of Jesus. “1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Further, verse 14 states “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” By starting his gospel and stating, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” John is introducing Jesus with a word or a term that both his Jewish and Gentile readers would have been familiar with. The Greek word translated “Word” in this passage is Logos. in its special meaning refers to the special revelation of God to people. Mark 7:13 “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” Logos in its unique meaning personifies the revelation of God as Jesus the Messiah. John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh.” For example, in the Old Testament, the “word” of God is often personified as an instrument for the execution of God’s will. Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” So, for his Jewish readers, by introducing Jesus as the “Word,” John is in a sense pointing them back to the Old Testament where the Logos or “Word” of God is associated with the personification of God’s revelation. In the Greek worldview, the Logos was thought of as a bridge between the transcendent God and the material universe. Therefore, for his Greek readers, the use of the term Logos would have likely brought forth the idea of a mediating principle between God and the world. What John is doing by introducing Jesus as the Word and as a link between God and the material world, but he also goes beyond by saying that He is also a personal being, fully divine, yet fully human. Christ was God’s perfect revelation of Himself in the flesh, so much so that John writes in John 14:9, “ Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” Jesus is thus God and one with God. Dr Ashwin Drummond Laddertoheaven.co.in