How lovely God is Pt 7: The Word made flesh
1 John 1:1-5 1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete. 5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
The Word was in the beginning
One of the core beliefs in Christianity is that Jesus Christ was never created, but that He has always existed. This passages and John’s parallel passage from his gospel are two prime examples.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3)
Both passages pull back the curtain of time to reveal that Jesus Christ—whom John calls “the Word”—did not come into existence in Bethlehem; rather, He has always existed. Before the universe began, before time itself was measured, the Word was. Remember, John was writing to a mixed audience of both Jewish and Greek people and to reach both groups at once he uses Logos (word). For the Greek thinker, Logos represented the rational principle that ordered the cosmos. For the Hebrew mind, “the Word” was the living, creative speech of God—by which He made all things: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made” (Psalm 33:6). John unites both ideas and declares that this Logos—this divine self-expression—has become a person. Jesus Christ is the full and final revelation of who God is and what He desires for humanity.
In Jesus, God did not send merely another prophet or messenger. He sent Himself. The invisible became visible, the eternal stepped into time, and the infinite clothed Himself with mortality. The incarnation is the moment when heaven’s Word became earth’s flesh: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14). John wants us to know that the faith he proclaims rests not on speculation, myth, or legend—but on the eternal reality of the God who was from the beginning. As Paul put it, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The Word is not merely the start of our story; He is the source of all existence, the author and sustainer of life itself. In saying “from the beginning,” John is not merely talking about the start of Jesus’ ministry or the nativity scene; he’s stretching our minds back to the eternal fellowship of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit, existing in perfect unity and love before the world was formed (John 17:5). This divine relationship becomes the foundation for everything John will say about fellowship and love throughout his letter.
We have heard, seen, and touched
The eternal has entered the tangible. The divine Word can now be heard, seen, and touched. This is a truth both profound and deeply personal: the infinite God has made Himself accessible to human senses. For John, this was no theory. He had walked beside Jesus, listened to His voice, leaned against Him at supper (John 13:25), and seen Him crucified and risen. His testimony carries the weight of eyewitness experience. Christianity, then, is not founded on abstract ideas but on historical reality—a real man, who is also fully God, walking in real history.
John was combatting two heresies: One, called Docetism, was prevalent during his lifetime, and the other, called Arianism, popped up in the 4th Century. Docetism claimed that Jesus only appeared to be human but wasn’t truly flesh and blood. John refutes this outright. He says, in effect, “We touched Him. We ate with Him. We saw Him die. We saw Him alive again.” The incarnation is not symbolic—it is physical, verifiable reality. Arianism denied the divinity of Jesus asserting that He was a created being rather than an eternal being begotten by God the Father.
The fact that the apostles could touch the Word of life means that God’s salvation is not distant or abstract. It comes close enough to touch. The Creator did not stay in the safety of heaven, issuing commands from afar. He came among us, shared our pain, hunger, and exhaustion, and showed us the depth of divine compassion in human form. The Word of life became vulnerable, mortal, and killable—so that life itself could overcome death. John’s language also recalls the sensory experiences of faith that continue even now. While we cannot see or touch Christ in the flesh, we “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8) through the Spirit’s indwelling presence, the Word’s power, and the fellowship of believers. Faith is not blind—it is based on testimony, confirmed by experience, and continually renewed by God’s living presence.
What John saw, heard, and touched was not merely a man—it was “the life [that] appeared; we have seen it and testify to it” (1 John 1:2). Jesus Himself is the eternal life that was with the Father and has now been revealed. When He healed, He demonstrated the Father’s compassion; when He forgave, He revealed divine mercy; when He died, He revealed God’s justice and love intertwined; when He rose, He shattered the power of death.
Thus, the incarnation stands as the bridge between eternity and time, between divinity and humanity. The Word made flesh means that God is not remote from our suffering or confusion. He has entered into it. The gospel begins not with us reaching up to God, but with God coming down to us.
We proclaim that you may have eternal life
Notice that John does not hoard the experience of Christ for himself or the apostles. What they have seen and heard, they now proclaim. True faith is never meant to be private or possessive; it overflows into testimony. The Word of life, once revealed, compels proclamation. John’s invitation—“so that you also may have fellowship with us”—is extraordinary. The fellowship he speaks of is not a mere social connection; it is participation in the very life of God. The Greek word means sharing, partnership, communion. Through Christ, believers are drawn into the same relationship of love that has always existed between the Father and the Son (John 17:21–23).
This is the essence of eternal life—not merely endless existence, but a quality of life defined by communion with God Himself. Jesus defined it this way: “Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is knowing God intimately, sharing His nature (2 Peter 1:4), and being united with Him in love.
This proclamation carries both privilege and purpose. The privilege is fellowship with God; the purpose is to extend that fellowship to others. Evangelism, in this sense, is not about recruiting or convincing—it’s about sharing life. The apostles had encountered life in Christ, and they wanted everyone else to experience that same transforming joy. John reminds us that faith cannot remain self-contained. Those who have truly encountered the Word made flesh are moved to proclaim Him. The church today continues that apostolic mission: to bear witness that eternal life is found in Jesus Christ alone (Acts 4:12).
Our joy and wonder is without limit
John’s joy is not rooted in circumstances or success, but in shared spiritual reality. His happiness is not self-centered; it is relational and missional. When others come to know Christ, his own joy is made complete. This echoes Jesus’ words to His disciples: “I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). True joy is found in abiding in Christ and seeing His life multiplied in others.
There is something profoundly human and divine about this joy. It is human because it springs from love—John loves those he writes to and longs for them to share in the same fellowship he enjoys. But it is divine because this joy originates in the very heart of God. The triune God has always existed in a relationship of perfect joy and delight. Through the incarnation, that divine joy spills over into human hearts. To know Christ, to walk in His light, and to share His love is to participate in that unending joy. This joy is not dependent on ease or comfort—it persists even amid suffering. John’s audience faced persecution and doctrinal confusion, yet he speaks of a joy that transcends both fear and circumstance. This joy is the fruit of fellowship with the eternal Word who conquered death.
John continues this theme in another of his letters: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4). The wonder of the incarnation—the eternal Word entering our world—fills the believer’s life with awe. And that awe leads naturally to adoration. When we grasp even a fraction of what it means that God became flesh, our joy becomes limitless.
In verse 5, John summarizes the message he has received: “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” Light reveals, exposes, and purifies. To walk in the light is to live in continual fellowship with the God who is holy, radiant, and true. The incarnation, then, is not only revelation—it is illumination. The Word brings light into human darkness, showing us who God is and who we are meant to be. The wonder of it all is that the same eternal Word who flung galaxies into existence also stooped low enough to wash His disciples’ feet. The same hands that shaped stars were pierced for our redemption. And the same voice that said, “Let there be light,” now says to us, “Follow Me.”
To behold the Incarnate Word is to enter into the deepest mystery and the highest joy. It is to realize that the Creator has come near, the invisible has become visible, and the eternal has become our companion in time. No wonder John speaks of joy made complete—this is joy without limit, grounded in fellowship with the living God.
What about me?
The other day I was having coffee with a pastor friend of mine, whose ministry is to the homeless and marginalized parts of our community. In a conversation that he was having with one of those folks, a man made the statement that Jesus had been created by God and so was not Himself God, just the first of God’s creating activity.
Believer, Satan is alive and well and hates that he has been defeated by Jesus. For 2000 years he has lied, deceived, and mislead God’s children in an attempt to forestall his certain doom. Those heresies, Docetism and Arianism, are still around today—Satan still uses them to deceive God’s kids.
Don’t allow Satan to trip you up. The opening verses of 1 John are not just a preface; they are a manifesto of incarnation. They declare that the eternal God has entered human history, that His Word has become flesh, and that this reality transforms everything. The Incarnate Word is not simply a doctrine to be understood but a Person to be known. John’s testimony invites us to step into that living fellowship, where faith becomes sight and love becomes the language of life. When we, like John, encounter Jesus—the Word made flesh—our response is worship, our proclamation is witness, and our joy becomes full. Truly, “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”