In The Beginning

¹ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1 – 3, 14 ESV). There are a number of interesting words we will look at in these verses. The first is “beginning”, the second is “Word”, the third is “him”, and the fourth one we will look at is “flesh”.

When was the “beginning” when the Word was with God? To answer that question we will go to the first verse found in the Bible. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 ESV). The beginning was the time when God created the heavens and the earth and if we look further in the Bible we find it includes all that exists.

At the time of creation the “Word” was with God, but the “Word” was also God. The “Word” is also described as “him” which describes a person. The Word is a person who is also God. The Word is also described as becoming “flesh”. We thus have God the Father, God the Son who is the Word. A little over 2000 years ago God the Son took on the flesh of a man and became the person we know as Jesus. Jesus as the Word is described as existing before creation and “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

Jesus of the New Testament has always existed as God’s Son, who created all that exists with God the Father. The Son of God took on a body of flesh, as Jesus, and lived a perfect life among us and then died on the cross. We will consider this further in our next lesson.