What does John 1:1-3 say about Jesus Christ?

Debates have been going on over the ages about the Godhood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is he a coequal God with YHWH (Yahweh)? Was he begotten but not created, according to the Trinitarian creeds?

The passage I want us to examine is John 1:1-3 which reads as follows:

[1] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was with God in the beginning. [3] Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1-3 NIVUK).

In this article, I want to add my little observation about the passage. I will not go into any argument about Greek grammar since I have not learnt Greek. My approach is to compare scripture with scripture so that we can gain insight into what has been written by the apostle.

Are Yahweh and Yeshua Coequal?

Verse one reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Here, Apostle John used the phrase “in the beginning” to allude to the time of the creation of the universe as recorded in Gen. 1:1. John wrote that “the Word” (Greek: ὁ Λόγος, ho Logos): (1) was in the beginning; (2) was with the God; (3) was God. Does this statement mean that the Word was YHWH (Yahweh)? Some people have thought so. Ot does it say that the Word and YHWH are coequal? That is what the Trinity dogma has taught since the fourth century CE. Let us examine the scriptures to know the truth about the subject.

Who or what is the Word?

The second and third parts of John 1:1 have posed some interpretation problems to many scholars and commentators. They wonder how the Word could be with God and still be God. The conviction of many people, including myself, is that the author had two Gods in mind. The first God whom John termed “the God” is YHWH (Yahweh) the Father, while the second God is the Word. John could not have written about one God in the first verse. If the Word was with “the God,” it means the Word was a different entity from “the God.” Who is the Word that was God?

In the Hebrew Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament, there was one literal spirit being who was often referred to as the word of the LORD. In the KJV, the term “the word of the LORD” was used 244 times in the Hebrew Bible. Sometimes, it means God’s word spoken by a prophet of God (Isa. 1:10; 2:3; 28:13, 14; 39:5; Jer. 2:4; 7:2; 9:20; etc). At other times, it refers to a particular being who acted on behalf of God. He always went to people to deliver messages from the LORD. They included Abraham (Gen.15:1, 4); Samuel (1 Sam. 3:7, 21); Nathan (2Sam. 7:4);  Solomon (1 King 6:11);; Elijah (1 King 17:2, 8; 18:1; 19:9; 21:17, 28); David (1 Chron. 22:7-8); Isaiah (2 King 20:4); Jeremiah (Jer. 1:4, 11, 13; 34:12).

In Gen. 32:24-28 is written how a “man” came to Jacob and wrestled with him all right. Hosea called him “Angel” and “God” ( Hos. 12:3-4). He appeared again to Jacob in Padan Aram and changed his name from Jacob to Israel (Gen. 35:9-15). Here, he was called God five times. He was called God, not because he was the Almighty YHWH (LORD), but because he was the visible representative of the YHWH (LORD), whom no one has seen or can ever see (Col. 1:15; John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16; 1 John 4:12). He was the same being called “the Angel of the LORD” (Gen.16:7-13; 22:11-19; Num. 22:22-35; Judg. 2:4;  6:12, 21; 13:3-21; 1 King 19:7; 2 King 1:1, 15; etc.). He was called the angel of the LORD in the sense that he was a messenger of the Almighty YHWH (Yahweh or LORD). This being was the pre-incarnate Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Some scholars and translators have concluded from John 1:1 that John meant that Yahweh and the Word (Yeshua or Jesus) are coequal. That is why the translators of the NET Bible render the third clause as “and the Word was fully God.” The CEV translators render it as “and was fully God.” The Amplified Bible healed healedrenders it as “the Word was God Himself,” meaning the Word was Yahweh, not another God. But most versions render it as “and the Word was God.” Does this clause mean that Yahweh and Yeshua are coequal Gods, as taught in the Trinitarian creeds? The Bible has revealed that Yahweh and Yeshua (Jesus) are not equals in any way. Consider the following points:

1. The Psalmist called the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, God (Psa. 45:6; cf. Heb. 1:8). In verse 7, the Psalmist said God is his God. So, the Son of God is a God who has YHWH (LORD in English Bibles) as his God. Jesus Christ himself affirmed this several times while he was on the earth (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; John 20:17). Even after he had ascended to heaven, he reiterated the fact that the Father is his God (Rev. 3:12). The apostles said the same thing (2 Cor. 11:31; Eph. 1:3, 17; 1 Pet. 1:3). It stands to reason that Jesus cannot be coequal with the one who is his God.
2. Jesus said the Father is the only God, whom Moses proclaimed in the Shema Yisrael: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4 NIVUK). See John 5:44. He also said that the Father is the only true God (John 17:3). By these statements, Jesus has revealed that there is not more than one person who is truly God, the only uncreated being who created all things and gave life to them. Paul said, “yet for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. (1 Cor. 8:6 NASB2020). The one God is here identified as the Father (Yahweh) alone.
3. Jesus is not the only one, besides Yahweh, who has been called God in the Bible. God made Moses a god (Hebrew: elohim; Greek (LXX): theos) to Pharaoh ( Exod. 7:1). The judges of Israel were also called gods or Gods (Deut. 1:16-17; 2 Chron. 19:6;  Psa. 82:1-6; John 10:34-35). They were called gods (or Gods) because they were given power or authority by God to act in His stead. Their Godhood is not because they were uncreated; it was derived from the power they were given by God to judge, which is the prerogative of God. They were therefore gods (or Gods) by reason of the powerful office they occupied. Hence, the Psalmist call them the mighty and gods (Psa. 82:1). In other words, they were mighty gods. But none of them was called the Almighty. It may interest us to know that our Lord Jesus Christ was also called the mighty God (isa. 9:6). He, too, has never been called the Almighty.
4. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matt. 28:18 NIVUK). The power Jesus was given by God include “life in himself,” that is, the power to give life to others (John 5:26). He was also given the power to be the judge of the world (John 5:22; Acts 17:31). The power or authority he was given by God enabled him to act on God’s behalf. The fact that he was called God was not peculiar to him and should not be viewed as making him coequal with YHWH (Yahweh) or the LORD.

In John 1:2 the apostle wrote, “He [the Word] was with God in the beginning.” Assaid earlier, the beginning mentioned by John was a reference to the time of the creation of the universe.Does this imply that the Word, Jesus Christ, was not created? That is what Trinitarianism want the world to believe. But the Bible has taught us something quite different. The Bible has revealed that Jesus Christ was brought into existence by God before the beginning. God brought him forth out of Himself, an act similar to the birthing of a child. But Trinitarians who have created two Gods and made them coequal with the only God will not accept the truth revealed in the Bible. They will rather deny every biblical truth than reverse their erroneous interpretation of the Bible. The biblical evidence that God created Jesus Christ will be given soon in this article.

In verse 3 John wrote, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

This is the verse Trinitarians use as proof text that our Lord Jesus Christ was not created. They argue that, since all things were created by him, he cannot be a creation. But they have got John wrong. What the Bible has revealed is that God created him before the beginning when God used him as an agent of creation. Here are some of the biblical texts that say Jesus Christ was begotten or created by God:

“The LORD created me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. [23] “From eternity I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. [24] “When there were no ocean depths, I was born, When there were no springs abounding with water. [25] “Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was born; [26] While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, Nor the first dust of the world. [27] “When He established the heavens, I was there; When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, [28] When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed, [29] When He set a boundary for the sea So that the water would not violate His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth; [30] Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was His delight daily, Rejoicing always before Him, [31]  Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of mankind.” (Prov. 8:22-31 NASB2020, boldface emphasis added by me).

The Lord Jesus Christ, here personified as wisdom, made it known that God created him before the beginning when he was beside God as a master workman in the creation of the heavens and the earth. But Trinitarians always try to cleverly reject this evidence by saying the passage is a mere personification of wisdom, one of God’s attributes. They will reject anything which proves that the Almighty God has no equal (Isa. 40;18, 25; 44:8; 45:5; 46:5).

“He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15 NASB2020, words in square brackets and emphasis added by me).

Here we have the irrefutable fact that Jesus was a creation of God. Paul called him “the firstborn of all creation” of God. It is instructive to note that a person cannot be the firstborn of any family, class, or group unless he is one of the persons in that family, class, or group. Whether the word “firstborn” is used in the literal sense of being the first to be born, or in the figurative sense of being the preeminent one, anyone called “firstborn” is invariably a member of the family or group of people of/over which he is the firstborn. The fact that our Lord Jesus Christ was called “the firstborn of all creation” irrefutably means that he is one of the creation of God. Prov. 8:22-31 has shown that God gave birth to him before creating all things through him in the beginning.

The message Paul was giving in Col. 1:15-20 is that Christ is the preeminent one among all of God’s creation. The fact that he is the preeminent one means that he is among God’s creation. “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old.” (Prov. 8:22 NIV).The first thing God ever did was to bring forth His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, out of  Himself. God did this before creating the universe in the beginning.

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:  (Rev. 3:14 NKJV).

Here, the Lord Jesus Christ called himself the beginning (Greek: ἀρχή arché) of God’s creation. The word arché has about five meanings. Trinitarians, in their bigoted zeal to equate Christ with God say that the word “beginning” means he was the originator of God’s creation. But what Christ was saying here was that he was the first-created. He wanted the Laodiceans to know that it was possible for them to be faithful just like himself who was faithful even though he was their fellow creation of God.

“Among all these I sought a resting place; in whose territory should I abide? [8] Then the Creator of all things gave me a command, and my Creator chose the place for my tent. He said, ‘Make your dwelling in Jacob, and in Israel receive your inheritance.’ [9] Before the ages, in the beginning, he created me, and for all the ages I shall not cease to be.’” (Sirach 24:7-9 NRSV-CI).

Here, Wisdom made it known that God, his Creator, was the one who chose Israel as the place where he should take up residence during his incarnation. Jesus Christ is here personified as Wisdom, as is the case in Proverbs.

Apostle Paul must have read these scriptures and known that they alluded to the Lord Jesus Christ. So he had no inhibition in his mind when he wrote that Jesus Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24, 30; Col. 2:2-3).

There are some who may say that Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus) is not one of the 66 canonical books. They need to ask themselves if the Song of Solomon is more inspired than any of deuterocanonical books. They also need to do their research on the men who removed the apocryphal books from the Bible.

Without him nothing was made that has been made

Trinitarians will throw this up and say, “There you are! He created all things! He was not created!”

Yes, Jesus created all things except himself. Trinitarians will have no problem agreeing with this axiom. But we must accept that while there are biblical texts which say Jesus was the first of God’s creation, there is no single Bible verse that supports the Trinitarian theory that Jesus was uncreated. Moreover, if indeed Jesus Christ was uncreated, as taught in the Trinitarian creeds, Jesus Christ would be wrong to have said that the Father (YHWH or Yahweh) is his God and Father.

John 1:3 does not say Jesus was uncreated. The fact that other Bible passages, some of which have been examined earlier, say he was the first of God’s creation nullifies the wrong conclusion people have made about the verse.

Conclusion

When John wrote that the Word was God and that he has been with [the] God in the beginning, he wrote what has been clearly taught in the Hebrew Bible. He used “Word” for the Son of God who was called “the word of the LORD” in the scriptures. By writing “the Word was with [the] God, and the Word was God,” John did not mean that the Word and [the] God are one and the same person. The Hebrew Bible has revealed that “the word of the LORD” and “the LORD” are two different persons. See Jer. 34:12 where it is written, “Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, [13] “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘I made a covenant with your forefathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage…” (Jer. 34:12-13 NASB2020). The LORD sent His righteous servant (Isa. 53:11), known then as ”the word of the LORD” to Jeremiah.

Trinitarians want us to understand John 1:3 as saying that our Lord Jesus Christ was uncreated. But Bible passages such as Prov. 8:22-31, Sirach 24:7-12, Psa. 2:7, Col. 1:15, Rev. 3:14, are among the scriptures that indisputably prove that our Lord Jesus Christ was begotten by YHWH, the Father. There is no single Bible verse that supports the imagination that Jesus Christ was uncreated. But Trinitarians, in their usual manner, falsely interpret passages such as Phil.2:5-8, Col. 2:9, Gal. 4:4-5, and Heb. 2:9 to make them agree with their unbiblical doctrine.

Unknown to many Christians, the greatest danger of the Trinity dogma is the denial that God is the Supreme Being and that He has no equal. They do not openly deny many Bible truths about the Supremacy of God. They make the denial by twisting the scriptures and making them say something else (2 Pet. 3:16).