Author: Jeff Englund

Read John 1: 18

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

Think about the problem facing John as he writes these words. He is telling us about a man he knows personally, whom he came to believe is much more than a man. He knows what he believes is true, because he saw the man brutally crucified and then run through with a spear. Later, he saw the same man alive again.

Q: If you were in John’s place how would you describe the relationship between Jesus and God?

Read John 1: 16-17

“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

John has laid the groundwork for his gospel in broad strokes, explaining the battle between good and evil (light and dark) and the mission that brought Jesus to be with us on earth. At this point in his gospel he starts to give us more specifics.

Q: What do you think John mean when he writes, “…we have all received grace in place of grace already given…?”

Read John 1:15

(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 

Adding to his own testimony about Jesus, John records the testimony of John the Baptist as he tells us who Jesus is.

Q: Explain what John the Baptist means by saying, “He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.”

Read John 1:1-14

Reading over John’s first words again, he concludes with, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son…”

Q: How does John attesting to what he has seen personally affect your understanding of his words?

Read John 1: 14

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John’s grasp of who Jesus is goes well beyond the historical facts of Jesus’ life on earth. Clearly, when he wrote his Gospel account, he was completely convinced that Jesus is God, Creator, and Savior.

Q: What does it mean to you that the Creator becomes the created? What does that say about the Creator’s opinion of and love for his creation?

Read John 1: 12-13

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

These two verses encapsulate the essential elements of the gospel narrative: If a person receives Jesus and believes in his name, he has the right to become a child of God, born not of man’s will but of God’s.

Q: How do these two verses compare to your favorite summary of the Gospel message?

Read John 1:12

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—”

To say that some people “received” Jesus is to say that everyone else either was unaware of Jesus or that they rejected him. Since verse 9 shows us that Jesus offers light to everyone, then it seems fair to conclude that people either receive Jesus or they reject him. There is no third option.

Q: Where do you see yourself in relationship to Jesus? Have you chosen to receive him? What does that mean to you?

Read John 1:11

To understand this passage it helps to remember who Jesus and John were. Both were Jews, children of Abraham. It was to Abraham that God promised descendants and the land of Canaan.

Q: When John writes that Jesus had come “to that which was his own,” what kind of reception should the Israelites have given Jesus and why?

Read John 1:10

When God finally does come to earth as the promised Messiah, many of the people if not most are so caught up in their own lives that they do not recognize Jesus for who he is. It seems to some as if Jesus, Creator of the universe, is incognito. But was he, or was the problem with those who refused to accept who he was?

Q: Is Jesus the light of your life, or do you find yourself focused on other things?

Read John 1:9

In John 1:4 we learned that the life that was in Jesus was the light of all mankind. Now we read that Jesus offers life (light) to everyone.

Q: Do you think that Jesus is capable of offering life to everyone? Explain why or why not.