The "Other" Creation Story...continued...

 

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 without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

 

            He.  Pronoun referring back to “the Word”.  That is important because there are moments in the Bible when deciphering the pronouns can be its own game of confusion.  He was in the beginning with God.  Seems a restatement of verse 1 where we know the Word was in the beginning and the Word was with God.  In fact, the Word was God.

            But we are building in verse 2. What is “in the beginning”?  Why is that important?  Because the beginning is not creation itself.  There was a beginning before creation.  Genesis 1:2 says “The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.”  Out of this void and darkness, God created.  In the beginning, ‘he’ was with God.  Jesus was with God.  The Word was with God, before creation, before the first occurrence of “then God said…”

            Why is this important?  Jesus did not come later.  He is not a created being, like ourselves.  God’s plan pivots around Jesus and John has just placed Jesus before Creation itself. 

            Presupposition:

1.      God’s plan for the salvation-centered on Jesus-of God’s creation was put in place before creation.

Jesus was there for that plan, before creation.

Here is another interesting piece to consider.  Jesus is called “the Word” here in John 1.  What is “the Word” that God spoke in Genesis 1, at the creation?  God said “Let there be light.”  God’s word was not simply a conversational form with the void and darkness.  God’s word was a creational command upon that void and darkness.  God said and it was so.  The Word of God spoke and it was so.  Hold on to that thought for verse 3.

 

Diversion. It’s all Greek to me.  Well, at least the New Testament is.  That was the common language of the Roman Empire.  Yes, Greek, not Latin.  Latin would take over later.  What we translate from the Greek as “the Word” is transliterated ‘the Logos’.  Transliteration is an excessively big word that means we take the Greek alphabet and pronunciation and put it into the alphabet we use in English.

Another way to translate ‘the Logos’ is as ‘the Logic’.  Thus, “in the beginning was the Logic, and the Logic was with God, and the Logic was God.”  Now, logic is defined (I know because I just looked it up) as a ‘formal principle of reasoning’.

So… “In the beginning was “the formal principle of reasoning”, and “the formal principle of reasoning” was with God, and “the formal principle of reasoning” was God.” 

Why is that even important?  It looks like a word game, but it speaks to me that there is a structured process, a formal system, a reasoned approach to the creation by the Creator.  This is over and against a lot of assumptions that God doesn’t care, that God is mean, that God is random.  But one of the things that the Bible teaches is that God is, in fact, love.  And God has a ‘formal principle of reasoning’ in how that love is expressed.  In a world that can seem so random, that makes me feel better when ‘stuff gets too real’.