What's the Difference between Jesus, God, and the Word?

Tom: In this segment, we’re going through the gospel of John with an emphasis on the verses that help us better understand the gospel of salvation. The first few verses get right into a critical point regarding the gospel, and that is who Jesus is.

John:1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
See All...: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now, Dave, I’d really like to break this down, because this is declaring that Jesus is God.  We know from Revelation:19:13And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
See All... that’s Jesus’s name. He is the Word of God.

But let’s take this almost phrase by phrase: “In the beginning was the Word….” Now, that beginning—that’s our beginning, not Jesus’s beginning. He had no beginning. “…and the Word was with God.”

Dave: It’s the same beginning that you have in Genesis:1:1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
See All...: “In the beginning was the Word.”

Tom: Right.

Dave: Now, this Word—one of the most famous verses in the gospel of John is John:3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
See All.... Three times sixteen is forty-eight. So [I have a degree in math, so that helps. (Laughs)]…

Tom: …not in biblical numerology.

Dave: [laughing] No. So you go to Isaiah:48:16Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
See All....

Tom: Oh, okay.

Dave: And notice what…

Tom: Association! Math association!

Dave: Right. Notice what it says: “Come ye near unto me, hear ye this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I…” Now this is the Word of God speaking. This is the one who speaks. This can only be God because you go back as far as you can go, He’s there. From the beginning. Whatever you want to call the beginning, go back, “I am there, and I am the one who speaks for God,” so this is the Word of God. Then He says, “And now, the Lord GOD and His Spirit, hath sent me.”

So you’ve got the Trinity…

Tom: Trinity, right there.

Dave: You can’t escape it! The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. So, “the Lord God and His Spirit sent Me, and I’m the One who speaks.” Now, I can’t say, of course, I don’t know, but John very well, or the Holy Spirit could very well have brought this scripture to his mind. So, this is the One who speaks. He is the Word of God. “In the beginning,” He’s with God.

Tom: And the Word was God. Jesus is God. You couldn’t say it any clearer.

Dave: He has to be, because in order to be the Savior, He has to be God, because, as we pointed out, God, all through the Old Testament says that He’s the only Savior. And you couldn’t make it clearer that there’s a connection between John:1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
See All... and Isaiah:46:18
See All....

Tom: Right. Verse 2: “The same was in the beginning with God.” Verse 3: “All things were made by Him…”

Dave: Well, Tom, wait a minute, now. If He’s God, how could He be “with God?” We discussed that already, didn’t we?

Tom: No, we didn’t. We really should get into that. How is it? Are we talking more than one God here?
 

Dave: And how could Jesus say, on the one hand, “My Father is greater than I,” and on the other hand, He says, “I and my Father are one”? Isaiah:9:6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
See All...—I know we’ve quoted that.

Tom: Right.

Dave: The name of this babe that will be born in Bethlehem is the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, but yet, He’s the Son! How can there be a son and a father and they’re one and the same? Well, maybe we have…months ago, I don’t remember, but there are basically—well, there are a lot of concepts of God, but you can divide it down pretty clearly. On the one hand, you have polytheism—many gods. You have diversity but no unity. On the other end of the scale, you have the idea that the Muslims have, that Allah is a single individual. Many Jews have…

Tom: That has no son.

Dave: …right.

Tom: No Holy Spirit.

Dave: That Yahweh, Jehovah, is a single individual. But now we have unity but no diversity. This God, then, is incomplete in himself. He can’t experience love, fellowship, communion, until He creates other beings. Therefore, this God would be dependent on these other beings to be a complete being capable of love and communion and so forth.

Tom: So he wouldn’t be the self-existent one.

Dave: No. And He couldn’t be the God of the Bible, of whom it says, “He is love.” Now, we have… the Bible teaches us Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are one—three distinct persons, yet they are one God. Now, that’s a staggering concept. But it must be, philosophically, scientifically, and biblically, because now we have unity and diversity. We have God, who does not need to create any beings to experience love, fellowship, communion. It says, “The Father loves the Son.” “Who will go for us?”
“Here am I. Send me.” And now we have Isaiah:46:18
See All...: “I’m the one who speaks.” But “God and His Spirit has sent me.” And so forth.

So we have unity and diversity. And you cannot escape it. All through—this is amazing about the Bible!—all through the Old Testament, you have a singularity and a plurality. For example, Genesis:1:1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
See All..., we quoted: “In the beginning, God….” No, it’s “In the beginning, Gods.” Elohim is a plural form. Well, then, why does it say, “God”? Because the verb is singular. And at the burning bush, for example, when God revealed Himself to Moses, Moses said, “What is your name?”

God—it’s “Elohim.” A plural form is speaking but doesn’t say, “We are that we are.” But “I AM that I AM.” And I know that we’ve discussed the Shema in past programs…

Tom: Hear, oh…

Dave: Yes, “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah, our Elohim, is one Jehovah.” But the word “one” is not a singularity, it’s a unity. It’s echad in the Hebrew. It’s the word that you would use when it says, “The man and woman became one echad—flesh.” Or “A number of men were gathered together and became one troop [echad troop].” It’s a unity comprised of a multiplicity.

So, all through the Old Testament, “God” is expressed as more than one being, but as a single being as well. Now, how can you possibly understand that? I can’t. I don’t know what a soul, I don't know what a spirit is. Some people say, “Well, if you can’t understand it, then it couldn’t be right.” I don’t know what gravity is. I don’t know what anything is.

Tom: But, Dave, all that you’ve laid out for us is very rational. It’s not irrational. It’s not…you don’t just throw your hands up and say, “Oh, well, this doesn’t make any sense.” It does make sense!

Dave: And it is consistent…

Tom: Correct.

Dave: …all through the Bible. Now, you could give various analogies. The universe is made up of three things. I remember this dear man wrote this book—how many years ago? I can’t remember. I read it when I was a boy! It was called, The Secret of the Universe.  And its premise was: If God is a triune being, and He created this universe, you ought to see His fingerprints somewhere. And he said, “Well, what do you know? Everywhere you look, you see three! The universe is made up of space, matter, and time. And each one of those is made up of three: space is length, breadth, and height. The length isn’t the breadth, the breadth isn’t the height. They’re all separate and distinct, and yet they’re one! You draw enough lines lengthwise, you take in all of space!

“Time,” he says, “What do you know? That’s made up of three. Past, present, and future. And what do you know? Just like in the Trinity, two of them are invisible: Past and Future, and one of them is visible.”

So, in the present, you have the visible manifestation and so forth. And “matter”—that gets a little more complicated: energy, motion, and phenomenon. You have energy, which is invisible, and motion, which is invisible, but it reveals itself—as the electron whirls about, and so forth, it reveals itself, seemingly, in a visible manifestation.

Now, we could go on and on about that, but the point I’m trying to make is, you say, on the one hand, “This is incredible. I can’t understand it. How can it be that there could be three, separate and distinct, and yet they’re one?” But we can give you examples from the universe that God created.

Man is body, soul, and spirit. Again, soul and spirit are invisible. Body is visible.

So, it’s required philosophically for God to be God. It’s biblically taught and scientifically, logically, as you said, it makes sense. Now, that in itself is rather remarkable about this Book, this ancient Book, that it would have that consistency all through it.

Tom: Dave, and, of course, the reason we’re going through this is, we’re declaring—actually, pointing out, what God’s Word says: that Jesus is God.

Dave: Mm-hmm. And He has to be, to be our Savior.

Tom:  Mm-hmm. Dave, we’re running out of time, but I want to at least get to verse 3: “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

Dave: Therefore He could not be a created being, because everything was made by Him.

Tom: Right. Right. Verse 4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

Dave: We don’t even know what life is, Tom.

Tom: No. We know that He is the life. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Dave: And this is not just physical life but eternal life.

Tom: Mm-hmm. Verse 5: “And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” We’re going to pick up on that next week.