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Thoughts on John's Gospel
No.1.
pp. 95 - 100
John, having finished his account of the gospel story, writes:
"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be
written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that
should be written" (John 21: 25).
Thus we see that a selection of events concerning our Lord and His word was made
with this in view:
"And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not
written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ
(the anointed or appointed One), the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life
through His Name" (John 20: 30, 31).
Here then is a simple and plain statement of what we shall expect to find in this
Gospel. The first two verses of chapter 1: speak of the `Word'. For the human mind to
begin to understand an idea or thought, it must be made manifest to our senses of sight or
sound. We cannot know God without an intermediate medium for He is spirit. God now
declares the link between Him and us is the Word and then identifies that word with the
Lord Jesus Christ and Himself:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God . . . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us" (John 1: 1, 2, 14).
Again to anticipate the message of this Gospel we shall find it is that the Father, the
Son, the original written word in our Bible and the Spirit of Truth (see John 16: 13, etc.)
are all one, and are linked for the purposes of God. Each of the manifestations of God
has to be accepted in its respective context and with our human limitations we cannot
expect to understand how God can be the Father, Son and Spirit at the same time.
"All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was
made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1: 3, 4).
The writer consulted the many volume of Encyclopaedia Britannica to learn how the
pundits defined "life". It was: "There is no generally accepted definition of life"
(13/1083).
Col. 1: 16-17 reads:
"All things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by
Him all things consist."
"Consist" has the sense of `put together' or `set'. When we consider all life about us
there is design and an ordered balance. For example, the interchange of gases in the