In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

One of the clearest statements on the deity of Jesus Christ is found in this simple statement, “and the Word was God.” It is entirely clear and without any confusion that “the Word” refers to Jesus Christ (John 1:14), and the word “God” comes from the Greek word “Theos,” the standard word for deity in the NT. Yet some deny the deity of Christ, or at least deny identifying Christ as the incarnate Elohim of the OT. They appeal to the Greek language behind the English text. A certain translation in a cultic version of the Bible reads, “The Word was a god.” To a beginning Greek student or uninformed Greek reader, this might seem convincing. However, no reputable Greek scholar would agree. Even non-Christian Greek scholars looking at this objectively would agree that “the Word was God” is the proper translation.

In the interest of apologetics, we can admit that the statement “the Word was a god” is true, even if it is not a correct translation. Jesus was, in fact, a god. This begs the question, then, if He was a god (“theos”), but not the God of the OT (who presumably still existed in the NT times), then there must be more than one god. A certain cult today is quick to point out where Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?” (John 10:34). Jesus was attempting (quite successfully) to trip up the Jewish leaders who were trying to condemn Him for blasphemy. A full exegesis of that interaction goes beyond the scope of our purposes here, but suffice it to say, the interchange was going far deeper than meets the eye. The Jewish leaders had been putting themselves on the level of God, and thus over the Word of God, and ultimately over Christ, who, as John makes clear, was God.

John 1:1, in its fullest meaning, would be preposterous if Jesus were not the God of the Bible, if He were some lesser divine being. He was there at the beginning, He was with God, and He was divine. He is therefore in the same category of existence as the Creator God of the universe, Elohim of the OT. If He were just a man or a lesser divine being, this claim would be absurd. Either John would be assaulting the strict monotheism that was endemic to the Jewish faith, or he would be committing a gross blasphemy by claiming Christ, a mere man, was on the same level as God. The only reasonable and consistent interpretation of this beginning of John’s gospel account is that Jesus is fully God, and He was in the beginning with God—for He was, in fact, God Himself.

Lord, I fully embrace that Jesus my Lord is God in the flesh!