John 1:1

CONTENTS

John opens his Gospel in this Chapter, with declaring both to the Godhead and Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Testimony of John the Baptist is here given to the Person and Glory of Christ. The calling of Andrew and Peter. An Account of Nathaniel.

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Every word in this verse is big with importance. Lord! I would say on entering the sacred portal, vouchsafe to go before, guide, and direct every step to the right apprehension of those solemn truths, that both Writer and Reader may receive them, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:13 .

And here let the Reader observe, how blessedly John was taught to speak of the Word : One of those Holy Three which bear record in heaven. Had we no other authority to this great truth, but what God the Holy Ghost commissioned John to give the Church, this would be enough in confirmation, when he said, For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these Three are One. 1 John 5:7 . So blessedly John opens his Gospel, in attestation to the Essential Godhead of the Son of God, as God. This was in the beginning, before all time, before all worlds, before all things. He was with God, and was God, and is God! And elsewhere he calls him Eternal Life. 1 John 1:1-2 . I beseech the Reader to mark this down, or rather to beg of God the Holy Ghost to mark it down for him in the fleshy tables of his heart, as the sure and unerring foundation of all the fundamental principles of faith. John 16:14 ; 2 Corinthians 3:3 .

When this first and leading principle is fully established in the soul, we may from this opening of John's Gospel go on to enquire, and from the same divine teaching, whether, when the Apostle thus speaks of the beginning, in which this word was with God, and was God, is not meant, that in the beginning of Jehovah's purposes, and decrees, and will, and council, and pleasure concerning the Church, this Almighty One was set apart, as in the fulness of time, and (as soon after related by John) to become flesh, and dwell among his people ? Is he not also called the Word, not only as in relation to his essence in the Godhead, but as He is himself the revealed word, and indeed the only revelation in himself of Jehovah to his people? The Reader will not forget, that on so sublime a subject I humbly propose the question, but do not decide upon it. But, according to my apprehension, the very word beginning so explains it. For what beginning? Not the beginning of eternity: the very phrase is not admissible. But the beginning of the manifestation or Jehovah's purposes, as relating to the Church. The beginning of this work to the Church of grace and glory, being a similar expression to what is used in the beginning, in reference to what is said in the opening of Genesis, when Jehovah went forth in his threefold character of person, in the works of creation. Genesis 1:1 . And if this be the sense concerning the word, we are taught in this verse to consider the Son of God in it, both as the Essential Word, and as the Revealed Word, standing forth in Jehovah's council, and set up as he is elsewhere revealed, as the Essential Wisdom, the Head of his Church from everlasting. See Proverbs 8:22-31 .