John 1:3-5

V3 – “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.”

Continuing on this biblical commentary, I wrote yesterday about John equating Jesus as God. In verse 3, John gives us further insight into the triune nature of God. Verse 3 says that all things came into creation THROUGH Jesus. Nothing came into existence apart from Jesus’ act of creation. I think when we imagine the creation of the universe, we usually picture the Father creating everything. And this is because Jesus’ name isn’t mentioned in Genesis 1. The Spirit is mentioned, but not God the Son. Here, though, and in Colossians 1:16, we understand that the Father did create the world, but it was THROUGH Jesus. Colossians 1:16 says this, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” Again we read that everything was created through Jesus.

What is also significant is how in Genesis 1 we see different times when God “speaks” things into existence. His “Word” brings things into existence. I am making a correlation between God’s spoken “words” with “The Word”. That is, when the Father proclaims that something will be made, Jesus puts into action what the Father wills. And, Jesus puts it into action because his will is identical to the Father’s will since Jesus is God. This is, I think, how the Father and Son worked together in the act of creation.

This verse alone should cause us to be amazed at the power and authority Jesus has. He is not some blonde-haired guy lying down in a field somewhere with animals and flowers. No, Jesus is God Almighty! He is the maker of heaven and earth! Jesus commands, and what he says comes to pass!

V4 – “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.”

Just as Jesus had the power to create the universe, stars billions of miles away, the organs in our bodies, and even atoms and protons and quarks, Jesus also has life in himself. But what is meant by life? Is this just referring to his ability to create more humans? I don’t think so. I think that this refers to life we find in God. In Genesis 2:17 God tells Adam that he must obey him or he will die. Adam did eventually die physically, but even more significant was his separation from God starting that day. This was a spiritual death. Our connection to God is what true life is. He is more important for us than food, water, shelter, and oxygen. Without him, we’re just walking corpses. Without a connection to God, we are meaningless, hopeless and corrupt. Ephesians 2:2 says that we were “sons of disobedience”. Ephesians 2:3 says we were “children of wrath”, meaning we deserved God’s anger toward us. If God isn’t with us, we are nothing. Jesus says in John 15:5 that apart from him we can do nothing. God is the source of all good, so without him we turn into what He is not – corruption and decay.

So Jesus is life and this life is the light of mankind. As we go through John, we’ll see different metaphors that Jesus uses to describe himself. He is the bread of life (6:35), the good shepherd (10:11), the resurrection and the life (11:25-26), the way, truth and life (14:6), and the true vine (15:5). All of these show us how badly we need him!

V5 – “And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.”

This verse has so much application in it. Jesus, the light of mankind, shines into our darkness. If darkness is the absence of light, then darkness in this context must mean when God is absent. Yes, God is omnipresent (everywhere), but we can choose to push away his light from us. And the further God distances himself, the greater that darkness becomes. By rejecting God, we embrace all sorts of evil and sin because we love darkness instead of light.

And now notice something about the darkness. The darkness did not “grasp” the light. The word for “grasp” can be translated as “overcome” or “perceive”. In this context, any of those translations would be acceptable. If the darkness did not “overcome” the light, then this demonstrates Jesus’ power and authority. This is certainly true because if we are familiar with Jesus, then we know that humans killed him out of anger and jealousy. However, he rose from the dead just 3 days later. In this way, the light “overcame” the darkness. The world hates God, and yet God overcame our attempts at evil! If we say the darkness didn’t “perceive” or “comprehend” the light, then we can know that the world in its sin didn’t understand Jesus. This was also true. The Jews, as a whole, didn’t know what type of Messiah Jesus was going to be. The Pharisees were confounded by Jesus. They didn’t understand his answers to their questions, and they definitely didn’t understand his way of doing things. Their idea of God was a manufactured one. So when the true light came into the world, they didn’t understand his ways. And what did they do because they didn’t understand him? They killed him.

In conclusion, the first 5 verses of John give an outstanding idea of who Jesus is. He is God himself. He is the creator. He was there in the beginning. He is life. He is light. And all that he is has overcome the darkness of the world. He was not a mere man like many claim. He was and is much more than that. Jesus, God in the flesh, came on a rescue mission, and for those of us who believe, he shined into our darkness to give us the life that is in God…life that is real life 🙂