He Has Made Him Known
“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
These are the concluding remarks to the prologue of John’s Gospel. John has put together an incredible amount of supporting evidence to prove that Jesus is God. He has also at the same time declared that Jesus is man. And so he reveals to us the doctrine of the deity and humanity of our Lord. We do not mean that Jesus is two persons—God and man. Neither do we mean that Jesus is a hybrid or a blending. Rather we mean that Jesus is both God and man at the same time. By God and man we refer to the natures of Christ. Jesus possesses two natures (deity and humanity), but he is one person. John does not leave us with the option that Jesus is some kind of emanation or mode of God, meaning that God appears in the modes of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the heresy of modalism: sometimes Jesus is the Father, sometimes he is the Son, and sometimes he is the Holy Spirit. Modalism thus destroys the doctrine that God is three persons. God is not a mode appearing in different forms at different times.
Therefore, we find that to start with, John reveals Jesus as God and man, yet he is distinct from God the Father. For instance, in verse 1, John states “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). It is clear in verse 1, that the Word is distinct from God (with God), and yet the Word is God. This verse may very well be the most important verse christologically in Scripture. It defends and promotes the deity of Jesus. It must be coupled with John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This verse boldly asserts that the Word who is God became flesh.
It is important to note the order of John’s proclamation. He begins in verse 1 with the Word as God and, then in verse 14, he adds that the Word became flesh. At some point in the eternal past Jesus was not a man, but at some point in time, he became flesh. Galatians 4:4 and 5 reminds us that “… when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” This is the doctrine of the incarnation. The Word is the Son who is born of a woman, who subjected himself to the obligations of God’s law in order to redeem sinners condemned by that law, so that those sinners might become the children of God.
John 1:1 is crucial in declaring the truth about Jesus. Jesus is the Word and the Word is God. The word order in John 1:1 is also important. Our English versions translate the Greek text as “and the Word was God.” The Greek text, however, says “and God was the Word.” The reason the original is translated as “and the Word was God” is because “the Word” is the subject and has the definite article (the Word). Some sects and cults, therefore, as a result of this, translate the lack of article as meaning “a god.”
But why does the Greek text put God before the Word? One reason we find “God” listed first in the sentence is because “God” is in an emphatic position. The stress is on the essence of God connected to the Word. In other words, what God was, the Word was. The lack of article before God keeps us from confusing the person of the Word (Jesus) with the person of God (the Father). To put it another way: all the essential qualities and attributes that define God the Father also define the Word. The lack of article means that Jesus, as the Word, is not the Father.
Luther stated that the lack of article before God stands against Sabellianism and the word order stands against Arianism. Sabellianism is the heresy of modalism—God appears in three different forms or modes. It is anti–Trinitarian. Arianism means that Jesus is less than God and, therefore, not God. According to Arias, Jesus is created by God. Both heresies reduce Jesus Christ in his nature and person. Greek scholar Daniel Wallace has shown what different Greek constructions would mean with respect to these heresies.
First, “and the Word was the God” means the Word was the Father. This is Sabellianism. Second, “and the Word was a god” means that Word is not God. This is Arianism. The orthodox doctrine, as we have it in our translations, is “and the Word was God.” The Word has all the attributes that God the Father has, but is not the Father. Therefore, the Word is a second person who is also God, and this Word became flesh. This Word in the flesh is Jesus, and thus, Jesus is God.
It is not necessary for a noun to have the definite article in order to be definite. For instance in John 1:1, the Greek text also says “and the Word was with the God.” Yet no one refers to God in this verse as “the God,”but rather simply as “God.” And this brings us to verse 18. Verse 18 states that no one has ever seen God and here God does not have the definite article, yet we understand this, of course, as a reference to God and not a god. Verse 18 also speaks of the Father and there is no doubt that, in this verse, the Father is the God who is unseen. How do we know this? We know it because someone has revealed the unseen Father. At this point we should interject with John 1:2 which says “He was in the beginning with God.” By “he” we understand this to be “the Word” from verse 1. But what is striking here is that “God” in verse 2 has the definite article. We don’t translate verse 2 as “he was in the beginning with the God.” So God is translated as God with or without the definite article. Verse 18 has two references to “God” both without the article, yet it is clear that both references do not refer to the same person. The one is clearly the Father—no one has ever seen God—and the other is the Word—the only God or the one only God.
So what we find in verse 18 is that God is unseen but has been revealed. But who has revealed the unseen God? Verse 18 concludes with “he has made him known.” And who is the “he”? None other than “the only God” whom we have already connected to being the Word. In particular verse 17 connects the Word with a name: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ is the Word from verse 14 who is called the Son, full of grace and truth, and who, in verse 17, is called Jesus Christ, through whom grace and truth came. This Word and Son and Jesus Christ (all being the same person) is the “he” of verse 18. We find him then as God the Son at God the Father’s side. Two persons, yet one God!
In verse 14, the Word is also called “the only son.” The word “only” is the same word in verse 18 for “the only God.” There can be no doubt that John has been very careful to reveal Jesus to us as God. He is not the Father. He is the Son. He was the eternal Word who became flesh. This is the doctrine of the incarnation. John says this Word dwelt among us. When Jesus walked here on earth he walked as man. He was truly and fully man, yet always had been and continues to be truly and fully God. We know he is God also because John says he possesses glory. Verse 14 states: “we have seen his glory.” It is possible to miss the glory of the incarnate Son of God and see him only as man. Every Christmas is an opportunity to declare that Jesus Christ is the Lord of Glory veiled in flesh. He is truly God with us—our Immanuel. We must worship this glorious Son of God whom the Father has made known to us. This gives true meaning to Christmas.