Introduction
John is a beautiful, Spirit-filled, unique book written in the obedience of an apostle who passionately adored his Lord. In the book of John, Christ is magnified as the Son of God. His deity and messiahship are heavily-promoted so much so that many modern Christians come to saving faith from an understanding of passages in John. Of the book of John, Martin Luther writes, “Never in my life, have I read a book written in simpler words than this, and yet the words are inexpressible.1” In John, these words hit home for men of every age, conveying the ultimate truth of the wonderful thing God did for our sin-sick world when He gave His beloved Son to save it.
When the dying John Knox wished to comfort his grieving wife, he said to her, “Go read where I first cast my anchor.” Without further instruction, she turned to the seventeenth chapter of John and read on the great love that Christ has for His followers. The anchor Knox refers to still holds for any who would accept it in John, the most profound of the Gospels.
John is distinct from the Synoptic Gospels. In this book, many of the events and sayings of Christ that are found in the synoptic gospels are left out. Of the distinctiveness of John, Blume writes, “John does not include the birth, baptism, temptation, casting out of demons, parables, transfiguration, instituting the Lord’s Supper, His agony in Gethsemane, or His ascension.2” Instead, John stresses Christ’s ministry in Jerusalem and pays particular attention to Jesus’s divinity and messiahship.
John is largely Christological. The focus of John is on the person of Christ and the revelation of God that came through the advent of Christ. In this sense most of John’s theology is what scholars call “high Christology.” He mostly focuses on the fact that Christ is God.
The One who was God and was with God in eternity past now became flesh, and John beheld His glory. John writes to reveal that Lord and His glory in a particularly theological and spiritual framework. The deity of Christ is revealed in various ways throughout the gospel of John.
Purpose of John’s Writing
“Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30, 31)
An insight into John’s purpose for writing his gospel is significant for a study on John’s Christology because in it one sees many Christological insights. John’s purpose for his writing of the book is to explain to the growing church that Jesus is in fact divine—that is, God Himself—and that belief in Him leads to eternal life. This purpose is seen in the logos statement in the prologue of the text, the strong attention paid to the signs and John’s own words in 20:30, 31. Here John writes the reason for his writing. The subject of this passage is the signs of Christ. As John narrates a rich text on who Christ is, a large part of John’s perspective is the focus on Christ’s signs. The signs are the proof that Christ is divine—that is, He is the Son of God. In John 2:11, we see the beginning of Christ’s signs, the miracle at Cana. After writing the narrative of the miracle, John says that when Christ preformed the miracle He, “manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.” It is clear by this, the first of many recorded signs that John’s purpose of writing his account to the reader is to show Christ as divine, for only a divine being can manifest His glory in the form of a miracle. Furthermore, the belief of the disciples in this passage is also a reason for John’s writings, as stated in John 20:31.
I. The Prologue (John 1:1-18)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God”
(John 1:1, 2)
The prologue of John is arguably the most profound and beautiful description of Christ found in the New Testament. The book of John begins in an entirely unique way. The first three words begin in the fashion of Genesis and after that, the term logos used here is found in no other place as a description of Christ. The term logos means “word” or more specifically it means “speaking a message or words.” It is a word that would be very familiar to John’s first centuary readers. When John refers to Christ as the logos he is referring to Christ as the human manifestation of God Himself and the message of God Himself. It is interesting that John opens up this way. Of this passage, Edwin Blum writes: “It is almost as if John is saying, ‘I want you to consider Jesus in His teaching and deeds. But you will not understand the good news of Jesus in its fullest sense unless you view Him from this point of view. Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, and His words and deeds are those of the God-Man.3’”
Today, the word logos is not as understood as it was in the first century. The word logos is where we get the suffix “ology” from. The suffix “ology” means, the explanation or study of. It is easy to see the parallels of how logos is used in John’s prologue and how it is used today.
As stated before, John’s readers would be very familiar with the word logos. This term would have been used in Hellenistic and Hebrew throughout of the first century.
Logos in Hellenistic Understanding
In first century Hellenistic philosophical understanding, logos is a universal, unchanging principal that basically is the voice of the supernatural. They would say that through philosophical knowledge one can hear and be guided by logos. On this term, J. Adams writes, "[Hellinism] seems to conceive it as the rational principle, power, or being which speaks to men both from without and from within--the universal word which for those who have ears to hear is audible both in nature and in their own hearts, the voice, in short, of the divine.4" Many other Hellenists were familiar with logos as it was taught by many philosophers, including Plato and the Hellenistic Jew Philo.
Logos in Hebrew Understanding
In the Old Testament, as well as Qumran literature, there is a Hebrew word that parallels logos it is the Hebrew word “dabar.” The divinely spoken “word” (dabar) of God in the Hebrew Bible communicates the creative powerful nature of God. “Dabar” is sometimes translated as deed. The word “dabar” is found in Genesis 1:3. (“Then God said (dabar) ‘Let there be light.’”) “Dabar “is also found in Psalm 33:6 and 107:20. It is the dynamic word of God. In Isaiah 55:11, the word “dabar” has personification as it says: “So will My word (dabar) be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
The word “dabar” had strong understanding amongst the Jews, which were a large part of John’s audience. “Dabar” was how God created the world. It is very fitting for John to carry this concept through in his prologue as He states Christ is the Creator; “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).
Logos in John
When John uses the word logos, translated as “word,” he does so making explicit equation with Jesus to the Father. In John 1:1 he says, “In the beginning was the Word.” This phrase obviously communicates preexistence. In John’s next phrase, he says, “and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” obviously suggesting that someone besides God the Father was present at the creation of the universe. To John’s Hebrew readers, the work of creation was ascribed to only the Father regardless of the pronoun “us” used in Genesis 1:26 in the creation account of man. Many Jewish rabbis describe this plural pronoun as the Father consulting, or speaking with angels. John’s account of the preexistence of the Word before creation further pushes John’s prologue as a parallel to Genesis.
John goes on to describe the Word as a personal being that carries within Himself the “light (righteousness) of men.” In John 1:14, John explicitly states the Word as Christ when he says “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This passage and the following verse, equates the Word to Christ in the following ways: First, this is an introduction to John’s account of Christ. This prologue is John’s introduction to Christ. The term, “became flesh and dwelt among us” is a description of the beginning of Jesus’s life on earth. Notice the book of John does not have a birth account of Christ. This passage is it. John is putting Christ’s account in a theological framework. Therefore, John puts it this way as a more accurate statement of where Christ came from as opposed to the birth account found in the synoptics. Secondly, the phrase “we saw His glory,” also is John’s testimony of the glory that he beheld of Christ. John does not testify in the book about any other divine being but Christ. Thirdly, we see Christ’s divinity in the phrase “begotten of the Father.” Here John says Christ came from the Father and is the only One who directly came from the Father. Since we know that all men and women find their origin in God, we are not “begotten of the Father” Christ is, leading to the conclusion that Christ is divine. Fourthly, in the following verse, John the Baptist is introduced as one who “testified about Him.” The One whom John testified about was the Christ. Reading John’s prologue clearly and without eisegesis, one could confidently conclude that the Word is Christ who is God.
II. The Son of God
“She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.’”
(John 11:27)
In John’s purpose statement in John 20:31, John clearly tells the reader that one of his intentions for writing is for the reader to “believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” This is further evidence that John writing this account is not only to record what Jesus said and did, but to promote Christ’s true divinical nature. The mere title, Son of God, alone is not all that promotes Christ’s divinity. The title Son of God is found multiple times in the gospel, (1:34, 1:39, 11:27). A more concrete case for Christ’s divinical Son-ship is made in the passages relating to Christ’s relationship with God. John records, more than a hundred times, Christ calling God His Father. Four times in the gospel, John describes Christ as only begotten. The term “only begotten” (monogenes) can be translated “alone of its kind,” further evidence for Christ’s divine nature. On the phrase “only begotten,” Vine lends the following: “With reference to Christ, the phrase ‘the only begotten from the Father,” (John 1:14), indicates that as the Son of God He was the sole representative of the Being and character of the One who sent Him. In the original the definite article is omitted both before ‘only begotten’ and before ‘Father’, and it’s absence in each case serves to lay stress upon the characteristics referred to in the terms used4.”
There are many specific passages on the Father-Son relationship that point to Christ’s deity. In John 17:24, John records Jesus’s high priestly prayer, where Jesus shares about His eternity past with the Father, “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” In John 17, a total of six times, we see Christ refer to the Father as His Father, more than any other chapter, thus showing the intimacy between the Son and the Father.
Furthermore, in John 5:19 we see the perfect obedience of the Son towards the Father, “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’” These passages show the reader that Christ is much more than a Son of God, as all believers are sons and daughters of God (Romans 8:14), He is the Son of God, the monogenus Son of God, declaring His divinity and His equality with God.
III. Signs
“This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”
(John 2:11)
Throughout the Bible, signs are symbols that refer to something else. Baptism is a sign of new life in Christ and resurrection. Circumcision is a sign of the Abrahamic covenant. The signs of Jesus are symbolic of His power. This comes out more in the Greek. Semeia is the Greek word used by John for signs and it emphasizes the symbolic character of the acts (2:11). Christ uses signs to inspire faith, validate His message as well as to minister to people. John records Christ’s signs in order to declare His glory (2:11). There are many recorded signs or miracles in the gospel of John. However, there are noticeably fewer miracle accounts in John than any other gospel. Nonetheless, John leans heavily on these accounts to promote Christ’s glory. This purpose is explicitly written in two places. In John 20:30-31, within the context of signs, John writes “but these [signs] were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” Also, it is clearly seen in John 2:11, where after Christ performs His first miracle of His recorded ministry. Because it is the first recorded miracle, John offers some extra narrative and explains to the reader the purpose for the miracle. He writes, “This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”
The symbolism for the miracles performed by Christ are evident. In John 2:1-11, we have the account of Christ turning water into wine. This miracle had two results. First, it symbolized His glory, which caused belief in His followers, and second, showed Christ’s power over creation. Jesus’s miracles on the Sea of Galilee, where He walked on water and calmed the storm, point to His power over nature. The miracle of the healing of the nobleman’s son, as well as the healing of the lame man in chapter five, demonstrates Christ’s power to heal even to the point of saving a life. These signs are very symbolic of the spiritual healing and life giving ministry of Jesus Christ to all believers. The same symbolism carries over to the account of Christ raising Lazarus from the grave. This miracle included the infinite life giving power of Christ, the mastery over sin, sickness, decay, nature and death itself. Just before Jesus raises Lazarus, He gives a discourse to His disciples in which He states that he is the “resurrection and the life” (11:25). This is clear evidence that along with His care for Lazarus, Jesus preformed this miracle to promote His divinity and divine ministry.
As in the case of the Lazarus passage, there are other miracles that are connected with a discourse where Jesus explains to the people His divinity, as in The feeding of the 5000 in John 6 where Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life” (6:35). These signs are performed so that the people, as well as the future reader of the words of John, could believe that Christ is who He says that He is, the Son of God. Also, it should be noted, that some prophets performed miracles (Moses, Elijah, etc.), so it may be logical to assume that Christ had only the equivalent powers. However, when one suggests that Christ made explicit statements about Himself that He is divine, such as, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35) and “Before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58), one can assume that He is in fact equal to God. God would not allow a prophet to exalt himself to the status of God the way Jesus did. The reader of John can rest assured that the performer of the miracles recorded in John is in fact divine Himself. John writes with the desire for the reader to come away with the same conclusion (20:30, 31).
IV. The “I Am” Sayings
“God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
(Exodus 3:14)
A study on the sayings of Jesus is relevant to the Christology of John. Of particularly strong meaning are the “I am” statements of Christ. These are powerful and meaningful statements, that when spoken around people familiar to the Torah would have a serious impact. The “I am” statements of Christ had serious impact multiple times.
In Exodus 3:14, God gives to Moses the name God chose for Himself where He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.’” When Jesus gives the “I am” statements, He is pointing back to this highly sacred name for the Father. When Jesus uses these statements, His audacity is great as He is claiming Himself to be God.
There are seven “I Am” statements in John. His first two, “I Am the bread of life” (6:35) and “I Am the light of the world” (8:12), refer back to John’s prologue where John says, “In Him [Jesus] was life, and the life was the Light of men” (1:4). As John’s prologue professes Christ’s incarnation (“the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us”), so does the “I Am” sayings of Christ that point to the prologue.
Of particular audacity and explicitivity is the statement in John 8:58, where Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” This statement is profoundly explicit. On this verse, Merrill writes:
The rejoinder of Jesus, "Before Abraham was born, I am (ego eimi)" could only mean a claim to deity. "Was born" could be better translated "came into being" or "became," since the aorist tense of ginomai ("to become") is used. The same verb is used in John 1:14 to denote the Incarnation: "The Word became flesh." It implies the event of entering into a new state or condition of existence. "I am" implies continuous existence, including existence when Abraham appeared. Jesus was, therefore, asserting that at the time of Abraham's birth, he existed… The same use of "I am" appears also in the theistic proclamations of the second half of Isaiah: "I, the Lord—with the first of them and with the last—I am he" (Isa 41:4; cf. Isa 43:11-13; Isa 44:6; Isa 45:6, Isa 45:18, Isa 45:21; Isa 48:17). The title became part of the liturgy of the Feast of Tabernacles, the time when this controversy recorded in John occurred.5
It is clear that Christ intended to claim deity here. Three clear reasons for this conclusion are: First, Christ is invoking the holy name of God (YAHWEH) that His audience would be familiar with. Second, by His choice of the verbs was and am, Christ essentially is saying, “In the past, before Abraham was born, I currently existed as I do now.” This is, of course, decaling His eternality. Finally, we see by the Jews’ reaction, they clearly understood His claims at divinity. They wasted no time in declaring His words blaspheme and immediately attempting to execute Him.
V. Miscellaneous
Christ’s Humanity
There is more Christology recorded in John than merely high Christology. However, since this is where John chose to focus, this is where this study focuses as well. In John, the gospel writer records about Christ’s humanity and human limitations. Christ had human flesh (1:14, 2:21), He grew weary (4:6), thirsty (19:28) and was dependant on His father for strength (6:15). With all His limitations, He was still sinless (8:44) and still fully God and fully man (1:14).
Called God
In John, we see the title God being used of Christ twice. Once in the prologue John calls the Word God (1:1), and second in Thomas’ declaration to the risen Christ (20:28). Here he says, “My Lord and my God.” This strong statement carries divinical consequences. Unless Christ is God, He nor the Father would allow such an exclamation without being refuted as a sin. No such refuting takes place.
Christ Accepts Worship
In John 9:38, Jesus is speaking with a blind man that He had healed. Towards the end of the conversation, right after Christ tells the man that He is indeed the Christ, the healed man worshipped Jesus. Here Jesus does not refute or admonish the man but He continues His discourse and speaks to the Pharisees. This tells us that Christ must be God or He is sinning. From the aforementioned evidence, we know the latter is not the case. In chapters, seven and eight, Christ teaches a great deal about the law (7:19, 23, 49, 51, 8:17). He preaches about it and validates it. One of the strongest commandments in the law is, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” the first of the ten commandments. It is first because of its primary importance. Jesus, because He was God, did not see a problem with His followers worshiping Him.
Conclusion
The deity of Christ has undoubtedly been under attack since Christ walked the earth. To the Jews, Christ is a false messiah. The Muslims view Christ as a messenger of God that was a strong teacher and prophet but was not divine. They reject Him as the Son of God. Hinduism validates Christ’s deity to the extent that all objects of worship are valid as long as they help the worshipper attain their goal. This is obviously not a true validation of Christ’s deity. Among the most interesting views of Christ are the Scientologists. They believe that Christ is merely a memory implant inserted into all people to give them something to believe in. There is no shortage of disbelief in Christ. On this subject Paul Enns writes:
“An attack on the deity of Jesus Christ is an attack on the bedrock of Christianity. At the heart of orthodox belief is the recognition that Christ died a substitutionary death to provide salvation for a lost humanity. If Jesus were only a man He could not have died to save the world, but because of His deity, His death had infinite value whereby He could die for the entire world.”6
John makes it abundantly clear, repeatedly, in his gospel that Jesus is the divine Son of God and is Himself God. This is seen in the prologue, the titles of Christ, the sayings of Christ, and the signs of Christ. The only conclusion that a reader of John can come to is that John believes thoroughly that Christ is God incarnate and that believing in Him can lead to eternal life. When one does place their faith in Christ, as John encourages the reader to, they find how truly faithful, divine, and real the Christ truly is.
Bibliography
Hunter, A. M. The Gospel According to John. London: Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Blum, Edwin. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Colorado Springs: Cook, 1983.
Howard W. F. Christianity. According to St. John. London: Duckworth, 1978
Vine, W. E. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996.
Tenney, Merrill C. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981
Enns, Paul. The Moody Handbook of Theology. Chicago: Moody Press, 1989.
Thiessen, Henry, Lectures in Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949.
Tenney, Merrill, Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994
Parker, James. "The Incarnational Christology of John." Criswell Theological Review, no. 3.1 (1988): 31-48.
Footnotes
1 Hunter, A. M.. The Gospel According to John. London: Cambridge University Press, 1965. (p. 14)
2 Blum, Edwin. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Colorado Springs: Cook, 1983. (p. 268)
3 Blum, Edwin. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Colorado Springs: Cook, 1983. (p. 273)
4 Vine, W. E.. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996. (p. 447)
5Tenney, Merrill C. The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 9. 99. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1981. (8:48-59)
6 Enns, Paul. The Moody Handbook of Theology. Chicago: Moody Press, 1989. (p. 225)
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