The Gospel of John

John does not begin his Gospel with a manger. He begins before creation. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). This is not poetry — it is a theological declaration that shatters every diminished view of Jesus. The Word was not created. He was not a lesser being. He was with God in the beginning, distinct from the Father, and yet fully God Himself. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life — and that life was the light of men. Then comes the verse that should stop every reader cold: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14). The eternal, uncreated God took on human flesh and pitched His tent among us. The word for "dwelling" is the same root as the Old Testament tabernacle — the place where God's glory dwelled among Israel. Now God's glory dwells in a human body. John says: "We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." This is the lens through which all of John's Gospel must be read: you are beholding God in human flesh.