Jesus is the one and only
John 1:1-28
Jesus Christ is the one and only. He ‘remains, to say the least of it, unique. If God is like Jesus, God is worth believing in,’ wrote the journalist Anthony Burgess.
The whole of John’s Gospel from start to finish is an answer to the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ John’s answer is that God is like Jesus and he is worth believing in. Jesus is totally unique. He is the ‘One and Only’ (v.14,18). He is the ‘one-of-a-kind God-expression’ (v.18, MSG). The purpose of John’s Gospel is to lead you into an experience of communion with God through friendship with Jesus.
You are a friend of Jesus. But who is Jesus?
1. Unique Word of God John’s Gospel opens with a brilliant description of Jesus as ‘the Word’. To us this seems like a strange concept, but to John’s original readers it would have been much more familiar. The idea of the ‘word of God’ would have been important to Jewish readers. They would have remembered the words of God in creation (Genesis 1), and all that the prophets had to say about the ‘word of the Lord’ (for instance Isaiah 40:6–8 and Jeremiah 23:29).
For Greek readers the idea of ‘the Word’ would have been associated with the search for the meaning of life. Philosophers often used ‘the Word’ as a shorthand way of referring to the unknowable meaning and purpose behind the universe.
John’s opening words would have been electrifying to both groups. He was in effect saying, ‘I am going to tell you about what you’ve been searching for all this time.’
It is absolutely clear that ‘the Word’ that John is writing about is Jesus: ‘The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood’ (John 1:14a, MSG). Jesus was not only with God at the very beginning: ‘The Word was God’ (v.1, MSG). Jesus was and is God.
2. Unique Creator of all ‘Everything was created through him; nothing – not one thing! – came into being without him’ (v.3, MSG).
It is through Jesus that the entire universe came into being: ‘It is by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him’ (Colossians 1:16).
3. Unique light of the world ‘In him was life, and that life was the light of all the people. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it’ (John 1:4).
Light is a synonym of goodness and truth. Darkness is a synonym of evil and falsehood. Light and darkness are opposite, but not equal. A little candle can light a whole room full of darkness and will not be dimmed by it. Light is stronger than darkness; darkness cannot prevail against light.
4. Unique transformer of lives ‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God’ (v.12–13).
Belief in Jesus brings about the biggest and most significant transformation possible. As you receive Jesus into your own life, so God receives you into his own family.
5. Unique revelation of God ‘No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known’ (v.18).
Everything in the Old Testament was leading up to God’s supreme revelation in Jesus. ‘We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, this endless knowing and understanding – all this came through Jesus the Messiah’ (v.16–17, MSG). This is why everything we read about in the Old Testament needs to be understood in light of Jesus.
Jesus is contrasted with John the Baptist. The emphasis is on what John the Baptist is not. He is not ‘the light’ (v.8). He is not eternal (v.15). He is not the Christ (v.20). He is not Elijah (v.21). He is not the Prophet (v.21).
Although Jesus says of John, ‘There has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist’ (Matthew 11:11), John the Baptist says of Jesus, ‘He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie’ (John 1:27). John the Baptist’s task, like us all, is to point away from ourselves and to the one and only Jesus, the unique Word of God, creator of all, light of the world, transformer of lives and revealer of God.
