I have found (besides the smaller divisions) three larger divisions of the first chapter of the Gospel of John helpful in understanding it—first, verses 1-28, What Jesus is in Himself personally, then, second, verses 29-34, What He is for God, and third, verses 35-51, What He is for man.
This chapter gives all the personal titles of our Lord Jesus Christ, from His eternal existence and deity, to His millennial character as Son of Man—God and Man. His relative titles of High Priest, Head of His body the Church, and Messiah, are not introduced. In all, you find fourteen titles: the Word, God, the Life, the Light, the Word made flesh, the only-begotten with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the One on whom the Holy Ghost abides, the Son of God as Man on earth, the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost, the Son of God (as born, Psa. 2), the King of Israel, the Son of Man (Psa. 8).
In the first two verses you find His eternal existence, as the Word, or expression of all that God is: "In the beginning," as far back as our finite minds can conceive, "was the Word," and therefore, before the beginning and eternal. But He was also a distinct person then, the Word was "with God." And more, not only was He with God, but He was "God." Then, lest His personality should be admitted as of time, but not as eternal, it is added, "The same was in the beginning with God." Thus you have, first, His eternal existence; second, His personality; third, His deity, and, fourth, His eternal personality.
Now, not only was He this, but also He created all things, or, as it is more truly said here, "all things came into being by Him." He made them (Heb. 1:22Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:2)); He created them (Col. 1:1616For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (Colossians 1:16)); they came into being by Him (John 1:33All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3)).
In verse 4, "In Him was life," and only there. And this life was the light of men—not of angels. Angels are the witnesses of God's sustaining a creature un-fallen; sinners are the witnesses of the redemption of a creature which has fallen. Not a ray of God's nature was to be found in man. He was darkness and walked in darkness, and into such a moral sphere the light shines, but there was no reciprocity for the light, nor receptivity of it. The darkness comprehended it not. Men saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him.
When man could not see, because he was blind, God acts in grace and sends a man (John Baptist) to tell him that the light is shining! The Sun is shining, and lest you should not be touched in heart, and warmed by His rays, God sends a message to say that He shines (vv. 6-8). When He thus acts in grace, Himself fully revealed, He must go beyond the limits of Judaism, and John bears witness of the Light, that all men through Him may believe.
He returns to the Lord as the true light, "which, coming into the world, lightens every man." v. 9 (JND). It is not the true effect of the light upon men, but He as an object is a light for all, which only those whose eyes are opened can see.
We now have (vv. 10-13) in three parts the result of His coming. One, the world was so estranged from God, that it knew not its Creator. Two, His own people, the Jews, received Him not. Three, But as many as received Him received the right to be the children of God, and this through faith in His name, that is, the revelation of the person of Him who was thus revealed. But if they received Him, it was by being born of God, in sovereign grace. He communicated to them a nature in which they could know God, and enjoy fellowship with the Father and the Son. Natural descent by blood, as children of Abraham, profited nothing. The will of the flesh was only sin, for the carnal mind is enmity to God; it is not subject to Him, neither indeed can be.
F.G. Patterson