In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

The opening words in John’s gospel are strikingly similar to those in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God.” The heavens and the earth were not created from preexisting matter—“what is seen was not made out of things which are visible” (Heb. 11:3). The Second Person of the Triune God preexisted all matter: “he is before all things” (Col. 1:17).

As the Son of Man, Jesus had a human genealogy (see Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38); as the Son of God, he eternally coexists with the Father (“was with God”), and is Deity himself (“the Word was God”).

Jesus is called the “Word” by John. Words are speech expressions, communicating one’s thoughts. John says of the Word, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Before the Incarnation, God expressed himself through the Second Person of the Trinity—the Word—by creating all things. In Genesis 1, we have the record of God repeatedly speaking: “Let there be light”; “Let there be an expanse”; “Let the waters ”; “Let the earth”; “Let us make man,” etc. All creation came into existence through the speaking Word, the Word of God.

God’s ultimate and perfect manifestation of self-expression culminated in the Incarnation of the Word: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). In the Incarnation of Christ, God was not merely speaking words—he was speaking in and through a human body: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb. 1:1-2).

The first time we see the Word made flesh, he is lying in a manger; the last time we see him called the Word, he is riding on a white horse, “clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is “The Word of God” (Rev. 19:13).

To God be the glory for speaking to us . . . through his Son!