The opening statement of the Gospel of John declares, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Recently, I did a survey in the neighborhood around our chapel house in the introduction of our Sunday morning study in John’s Gospel, asking three questions. 1. Who or what do you think is the word in John 1:1? 2. If the Word is Jesus, has He eternally existed before the creation of the world? 3. Is Jesus of the same essence or the same being as the Father? The answers among LDS friends greatly varied.

Here are some quick observations about the three phrases in John 1:1.

The first phrase . . .

1. “Was” establishes a continuous state, an eternal self-existence. We have no creation stories of our Logos (the incarnate second Person of the Trinity) in comparison to the gods of Greek mythology.

The second phrase . . .

1. There is loving, reciprocal community. Look at the interaction between the two “Persons” or “states of consciousness.” The translation of “with” is used often in the Scripture to show the connection of personal relationship.

2. But the phrase does not declare that there is an essential change, a division of being (ontological) between Logos and Theos. The Son and Father are one God.

The third phrase . . .

1. You don’t need a definite article in front of God (the theos is anarthrous – no article) to establish that the Word is 100% God. This is common in a predicate nominative construction (John 1:49). In fact, the insertion of the definite article would not be accurate. The Word by Himself does not make up the entire Godhead (Tasker).

2. And if people wish to proclaim that the Word was only participating in the divine nature of the Father, why didn’t the Holy Spirit use the Greek word, theios (2 Peter 1:4) instead of theos? Clearly, you and I might be able by grace to become spiritually one with the Word. But that is the extent. Unlike the Word, we do not become theos, on eternal par with the Triune God. Never will be.

3. Note the Greek order of the words in this last phrase of John 1:1. Kai theos en ho logos. And God was the Word.

I love a Jesus, who is the eternal, always in existence Logos, an “absolute, supratemporal reality in existence.” This is the One who came in the flesh to die for you and me. Amazing, isn’t it?

Thinking of heart issues