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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain John 1:3:
The Sabbath in the Time of ChristJohn 1:1-5
Excerpted from: Four Views of Christ (Part 6)The beginning of the book of John sets the tone immediately. There is no birth, no genealogy, but what an awesome, wondrous announcement that is given here. "In the beginning, the Word—God, Creator, Life, Light—is made flesh and He dwells among us." Instead of a King, as in Matthew, we have the life and the light of men. Instead of a Servant, as we see in the book of Mark, we see the One who made everything. Instead of the Son of Man, born of woman, in the book of Luke, we see the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, and who is revealing Him and who is communicating life among those He is with. It's a STUPENDOUS, BREATHTAKING opening.
It's even more awesome in its significance than Genesis 1 because here we are introduced to the Author of what happened in Genesis 1. We are introduced to His life and character and they are about to be described on the pages that follow. Here He is being introduced as coping with life on the terms of a man.
These are staggering assertions. John is talking about somebody that he viewed with his own eyes who was the Maker of everything man knows that was made. The Creator of life—and he saw Him! He spoke with Him! He touched Him! He was impressed in a way that others were not. We see some of that coming out in his writing.
In verse 4 it says, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." This is a major theme in the book of John and it needs to be, because all our lives we live in fear, we're held in bondage to the fear of death. Life is the opposite of death. "In Him was life." Life is everything that is the opposite of what is represented by death. We are talking here about destruction and condemnation. That's what death represents because that's the way those things end, in death.
What we're beginning to look at here is the unraveling of condemnation, of destruction, and death. Christ conquered those things, but I want you to understand what it was that conquered them. It was life! We're going to see how life can conquer destruction, condemnation, and death! That is what the book is about. It was a life lived! This is important! The life lived is what is the light of men. It was how He lived it. It was the kind of life that He lived that gives us direction and enables us to see.
John 1:1-5
Excerpted from: Our Awesome Destiny (1993)What the Bible is revealing here is that there is a purposeful creation made by two Personalities who are both God. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God." Two personalities, and both are God. The life existing in their creation was something imparted to it from already existing life. Mankind, and all the other parts of creation that are alive, has life because these two Beings imparted life to them. They did it purposefully. It was not accidental. They set their mind and will to give life, and things began living.
It was not something they were constrained to do in the sense of obligation, but rather they were constrained to give life to their creation because they wanted to share what they are with what they were creating. That is the purpose behind everything that is made, as we will see as this unfolds. It is so simple in its logic, that what motivated this creation was the love of God who wanted to share what He is, and what He is able to do with what He makes. He had to give life because He is life. You cannot share these things without life. And so, He purposefully, then, imparted life to what He was making.
These verses do not explain the purpose of life, but John is laying the foundation for teaching that life, which imparted life, became flesh, and was the light of men. That is, it opened up to mankind this life that was lived; it opened up to mankind by mankind being able to, first of all, view it with their own eyes, and later on be able to read about it and understand what this life did. It gave life, and it gave form and shape to life. It gave direction to life. It enabled mankind to perceive what is around it; why things were there; where it was headed.
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