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THE
PREINCARNATE WORD
By
Todd W.
Allen
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Preached at Midway Presbyterian Church 1/5/03
John 1:1-5 1In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the
beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart
from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was
life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
We speak of the incarnation as that event when God took on human flesh
and form and it all began when Christ was born on Christmas Day. We can
better understand and appreciate the Christmas incarnation if we examine
what the apostle reveals to us about the pre- Incarnate Word.
The little child asks, who made God? This is
a natural question, one that is sensible. We recognize intuitively that
all things have a beginning. The material world around us obviously had
a beginning. We see change occurring. Living things, vegetable and
animal, have a beginning and an ending. We all had a birthday. Once upon
a time we were born. Whatever story you read can begin once upon a
time. And we all have a termination point to our physical life
in this world.
But of course that is just the point. God had
no beginning. He is the self-existent, eternal being who had no
beginning, who from everlasting to everlasting is God.
I. WE
LEARN THREE SIGNIFICANT THINGS IN VERSE 1 ABOUT THE WORD OF GOD.
A.
First we learn;
In the Beginning was the Word.
What does that tell us? Simply this: The incarnate Word is eternal.
Before time began God's Word existed. Before anything existed the Word
existed. The Word of God has no beginning for in the very beginning
there was the Word.
B.
Secondly,
The Word was with God.
This tells us that the Word has personality separate and distinct within
the Being of God. The Word is not other than God but was with God in the
beginning.
C.
Thirdly,
and the Word was God.
This statement is as clear as clear can be. The Word is not a creation
of God but the Word is himself God.
The sect
known as Jehovah's Witnesses wrongfully translates this verse. They say
the Word, was a god. Why do they do that? Because they
follow Arius, a presbyter in the city of Alexandria who began teaching
in 318 that Christ, while he was the creator of the world, was himself a
creature of God, therefore not truly divine.
For their
denial of the deity of Christ, Arius and his followers, were deposed and
excommunicated by a council at Alexandria in 321. I should mention that
the Arian controversy, while it relates primarily to the deity of Christ
also touches the incarnation of God and the deity of the Holy Trinity,
which is the very center of the Christian revelation.
But this
issue festered in the church, so much so that the emperor Constantine
summoned the first universal council in the year 325 at Nicaea to settle
the matter. Out of this council came the Nicene Creed, which affirms the
deity of Christ. The books of Arius were burned and his followers
branded as enemies of Christianity. Unfortunately, the error of Arius or
Arianism as it is called, has persisted to this day.
II. VS.
2 HE WAS IN THE BEGINNING WITH GOD
A.
This verse gives added emphasis to the truth of the fact that the Word
could not have been created or have had a beginning at some point in
time but the Word himself coexisted eternally in the Godhead. Since God
has no beginning and no end but is eternal in his being the Word has
ever and always eternally existed with God the Father.
Further confirmation of this fact comes from the lips of the glorified
Jesus in heaven when he spoke to John while a prisoner of the Romans on
the Island of Patmos.
The risen Lord Jesus said to John, "I am
the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who
is to come, the Almighty."… And He placed His
right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid;
I am the first and the last, 18and
the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and
I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev. 1:8, Rev. 1:17-18
Moving on to verse 3 we read: All
things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into
being that has come into being. (See also Colossians 1:15-17)
B.
HE IS THE SOURCE OF ALL THAT EXISTS
The
preincarnate Word is the Creator God. Every single thing that came into
being came into being through Him. This statement is all-inclusive. It
includes both animate and inanimate matter; both material substances and
living creatures, all things have their genesis in the Word of God.
When God
said, "Let there be light," he did not speak in order that some
subordinate might hear, understand what the speaker wanted, and go and
perform the task. This is what happens in human affairs. But the Word
of God himself is creator and maker, and he "is" the Father's will.
-- Athanasius in The Wisdom of the Saints. Christianity Today, Vol. 31,
no. 9.
C.
John 1:4- 5
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
In him was
life refers to God's own eternal life as God. The spiritual life of God
has no beginning and no end. He is the everlasting God. The Word has
life in himself.
This life
is communicable to men. The evangelist says in verse 4 that the life was
the light of men. So we learn that life is equated with Light. This
speaks of God's life, eternal life, endless life.
This light
is not simply physical light; this is more than rays from a star, the
sun or the moon, a candle, light bulb or a laser. This refers to
something greater than physical light, though physical light enables us
to see the world around us and in that sense it can be considered
analogous. But spiritual light refers to knowledge, to truth, to wisdom.
Only man,
along with angels, was created with a God righteous potential for life.
God created man a living soul. He breathed into him the breath of life.
Man has the capacity to know, to understand, to think. When God created
Adam and Eve he gave them much more than physical life. He gave them
souls to know Him, to receive the light that has in it God's life,
eternal life, But something happened. God ordained one condition
for our first parents. They must remain sinless and righteous. They must
continue in the righteousness in which they had been created. God's Word
commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
upon pain of death. Observe just one commandment, not Ten Commandments.
Adam and Eve did not keep that one commandment. The penalty for
disobedience was death. This death was instantaneous. Physically they
lived on for many years, but spiritually they lost their communion with
God. And the tragedy of this broken relationship was far greater than
they imagined at first. It did not affect them alone. Their loss of
spiritual life and communion and their death sentence was passed on to
their offspring. All their children were born in a state of alienation
and separation from God. Adam and Eve bequeathed to their posterity a
legacy of death. Their children were all born with a sinful nature and
disposition. As our Confession says,
"By
this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with
God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties
and parts of soul and body. They being the root of all mankind, the
guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted
nature conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary
generation."
-
COF VI: 2, 3. (See Trinity Hymnal P. 852)
Thus we
read in verse 5 of our text:
5The Light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not comprehend it.
III.
BECAUSE MEN ARE SINNERS THEY DO NOT COMPREHEND THE LIGHT.
A.
The light of God's existence and power is still shining and men have
souls by which they can reason and think but because of sin the light of
God's Word is not comprehended. Men know there is a God by natural
revelation. By seeing the created order they know there is a God, a
Creator. But they do not worship him as God. The apostle says of fallen
mankind,
Rom. 1:18-20 18For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19because that which is known
about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
The
light of God shines but men are so sunken in sin and error that
they do not glorify God as God. They are not thankful. They become vain
in their imaginations. They claim to be wise and intellectual but they
are foolish when it comes to ascribing to God his rightful excellence
and glory. God is a righteous and holy God, a perfect God, a glorious
Being with infinite power and knowledge, but they change his glory into
an image of a man or a bird or an animal or some creeping thing. They
corrupt the truth about God so that the light about God is darkness.
They know there is a God but they do not know him at all. Sin has
blinded their eyes and corrupted their understanding. The light of God
shines but men do not see or comprehend it. They grope about as blind
men, fumbling after God with perverted notions, with superstition and
all manner of false religions.
B.
How are men to comprehend the light and have
life? Without God's light there is no life for any man. Only as God
communicates the light of the knowledge of the glory of God can men
experience the life of God. Man must be regenerated, and that
regeneration must come from God. Man does not have within him the
ability or power to recover himself out of his darkness and sin. God's
Word reveals to us how God communicates his light and life to men.
C.
THE WORD OF GOD BECAME A MAN TO REDEEM MAN FROM HIS SINFUL ESTATE
The Author
of life, the Giver of life, the fountain of life conquers death by
taking upon himself the form and nature of a man. He was born in a dirty
manger. You can read the Christmas story and unless you believe the Word
of God you won't believe that his birth was the incarnation event that
placed God in a human body. It is an amazing fact. He comes to do what
the first Adam failed to do. He lives out a perfect and holy life. He
had a public ministry for 3 1/2 years. Then he allowed himself to be
taken by sinful men to be falsely accused and then crucified as a common
criminal. By this act he takes the place of the sinners he came to save.
He pays for their crimes, their disobedience, and their sins. Payment
for sins committed is exacted of him. He takes upon himself in his own
body and soul the wrath of God against you and me. By that
substitutionary sacrifice he satisfied the justice of God. And after he
was dead and buried on the third day he rose victorious over death.
Death could not hold him, for he was God as well as man.
The Light
of God is shining to sinners, offering them God's mercy and life on the
basis of The Son of God having paid the ransom for their sins with his
own blood. He covers their sins from God's righteous wrath simply on the
basis of confessing faith in his redemptive work:
For He made Him who knew no sin to
be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God
in Him. (2 Cor.
5:21)
The Gospel is the light of God shining into our hearts the light
and life of Jesus Christ, as the apostle says,
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ
(II Cor. 4:6).
IV. THE
PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL IS GOD'S ORDAINED MEANS OF QUICKENING MEN TO THE
LIGHT AND LIFE OF CHRIST.
A.
Paul said, Rom. 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written,
“BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY
FAITH.”
1 Cor. 1:18-21 18For the word of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written,
“I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE,
AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.”
20Where is the wise man? Where is the
scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through
its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the
foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
B.
The Gospel communicates to man's soul the righteousness of God. Christ's
redemptive work provides a perfect salvation to satisfy the
righteousness of God and make the sinner righteous by imputing to him
the righteousness of Christ.
No person can be righteous in the
sight of God apart
from the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This righteousness is
communicated by the Gospel and becomes effectual when the sinner
believes on Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, even as the evangelist
says, John 1:12-13
But as
many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of
God, even to those who believe in His name, 13who were born, not of
blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
The all-important question is this, Have you understood and comprehended
the Gospel of Christ and believed on him? Are you one who professes a
righteousness of God by Jesus Christ's dying for your sins at Calvary's
tree? Are you trusting in him today? The Gospel is for whosoever will
may come and drink of the water of life freely. We receive him by
repenting of our sins and receiving the new life he offers us through
his shed blood. Come to the Light Today! Be saved Today!
Hymn #476
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD IS JESUS
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The paper and sermon manuscripts from
Pastor
Todd W. Allen
are made freely available for review and
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distributed for any reason. Please be
gracious to forgive typos and errors of
expression. These notes are faithful
approximations of what has been preached.
May God be glorified in the preaching of
His Word. |