I have found (besides the smaller divisions) three larger divisions of chapter 1 of the Gospel of John helpful in understanding it:—1St, vv. 1-28, What Jesus is in Himself personally; then, 2nd, vv. 29-34, What He is for God; and 3rd, vv. 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, “the Word was;” 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 he admitted as of time, but not as eternal, it is added, “The same was in the beginning with God.” Thus you have, 1St, His eternal existence; 2nd, His personality; 3rd, His deity; and, 4th, 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. 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 v. 3, “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 unfallen; 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 (v. 9) to the Lord as the true light, “which, (read) coming into the world, lighteth every man.” 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) the result of His coming in three parts. 1. The world was so estranged from God, that it knew not its Creator. 2. His own people the Jews, received Him not. 3. But as many as received Him received the right to be the children of God, and this through faith in His name, i.e., 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.
The will of man could not bring it about by his deeds and efforts. God must beget the soul from the roots of its being.
The Word became flesh (v. 14), and tabernacled amongst us, full of grace and truth. Not only did the Light come in to pierce with its investigating rays, to detect the conscience of man, and to reveal the secrets of his heart; but full of grace (first), to bring God close down, to our hearts in the tenderness of an only-begotten of the Father, that man’s confidence might be won, and the lusts of his heart broken, and then turned back to God; not only full of grace, but of truth. The grace which He unfolded and revealed was rejected, and then the truth is fully revealed; what man is, what God is, what sin is, what the world is, what Satan is, what love is in God’s heart, what righteousness is; all is revealed by Him who is the truth and the measure of all things. Judging all that is here below, He reveals all that is on high; speaking what He knew, and testifying what He had seen. In the Cross all these things come out, and the whole question between good and evil is solved.
Perfect evil has been met by perfect good; the good has triumphed, God is glorified, and the sinner saved.
“We (those whose eyes had been opened) beheld his glory”—not as Son of David, Jehovah, Almighty, Creator, or Lawgiver, but “of an only-begotten of the Father” —the only one of His nature, and of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace—grace more abundantly. There were neither degrees in the faith, nor limitation to the grace. Law was given by Moses, and was God’s demand upon man; it neither revealed God nor man, while it told what the one required and what the other ought to be. But grace and truth were by Jesus Christ (i.e., His name), and they came when law was broken. Men had been sinners without law, and transgressors under the law; then grace came, and was despised and refused, and then the truth brought out fully what man is—wholly lost; and what God is—in the fullness of His heart seeking our confidence as sinners. The law was God sending commands to man to be something for God. Grace comes, and truth, and reveals what God is for man.
No one had seen God at any time, but the only-begotten Son, in the bosom of the Father declared, told plainly, all that He is, and He is our Saviour I May we seek His face that we may know Him!