John 1:1 and the Jehovah’s Witnesses – Episode 16, Jesus Is the Messiah

If we would understand how John intended us to understand John 1:1c, “and the Word was God” (could he possibly, as Jehovah’s Witnesses assert, mean Jesus was “a god”?), we need to see John’s representation of Jesus in places outside of John 1:1, that is, in the remainder of his Gospel.

The Messiah to Whom the Spirit Is Given Without Measure

John the Baptist is challenged by his own disciples with the fact that now Jesus and his disciples are baptizing more people than John the Baptist. John the Baptist gives this reply:

John answered, “No one can receive anything unless it is given to him from heaven. You can bear witness that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I am one sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, greatly rejoices at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine is full. He must increase and I must decrease.”
“The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth is from the earth and speaks from the earth. The one who is from heaven is above all. What he says and hears he bears witness to, and yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony has put his seal on this, that God is true. For the one God sent speaks the words of God, for God gives him the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” (John 3:27-36)

John clearly denies being the Messiah, the promised Anointed One, but indicates that Jesus is that Anointed One. Jesus is the bridegroom, Israel his bride, while John the Baptist is the less important friend of the bridegroom, charged with bringing the bride to the groom. It is the bridegroom who must become the most important person to the bride.

But John the Baptist further characterizes Jesus as the one who is “above all.” Does he exclude God from being under Jesus? Not specifically, he doesn’t. But he does speak of Jesus being sent by God and speaking God’s words, to whom God has given the Holy Spirit without measure. These are the acts of a superior, we would suppose. Jesus obeys the Father and is supplied by the Father with the Holy Spirit. Yet, at the same time, the Father has given all things into Jesus’ hand.

There are two things at work here. One, even though Jesus is the same stuff as the Father, the same DNA, to use an analogy, and is as eternal as the Father, nevertheless, he was generated by the Father, begotten, and so the generator has superiority/authority over the generated. But since this generation resulted in someone exactly like the Father, the “exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3), then he must be considered equal in every sense. Superior authority does not make for superior nature.

So the Apostle John communicates through the sharing of John the Baptist’s testimony, his own understanding of Jesus as the center of all God’s plan for redeeming humankind. Believe in Jesus and you will have eternal life. Don’t believe, and you will have the Father’s wrath.