***John 1:1 (NLT) In the beginning the Word already existed….

***John 1:1 (NLT) In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.***

When John wrote of the beginning, he was paralleling the words of the creation account. John called Jesus, “the Word.” John did not identify this person immediately, but described his nature and purpose before revealing his name (see ***1:17***). As the Word, the Son of God fully conveys and communicates God.

Theologians and philosophers, both Jews and Greeks, used the term “word” in a variety of ways. The Greek term is logos. It could mean a person’s thoughts or reason, or it might refer to a person’s speech, the expression of thoughts. As a philosophical term, logos conveyed the rational principle that governed the universe even the creative energy that generated the universe. In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament, “the Word” is described as an agent of creation (***Psalms 33:6***), the source of God’s message to his people through the prophets (***Hosea 1:2***), and God’s law, his standard of holiness (***Psalms 119:11***).

John may have had these ideas in mind, but his description shows clearly that he spoke of Jesus as a human being he knew and loved (see especially ***1:14***), who was at the same time the Creator of the universe, the ultimate revelation of God, and also the living picture of God’s holiness. Jesus as the logos reveals God’s mind to us.

By using the expression **“*he was with God,” John was explaining that the Word (the Son) and God (the Father) already enjoyed an intimate, personal relationship in the beginning*.”**The last verse of the prologue (***1:18***) tells us that **the Son was at the Father’s side; and in Jesus’ special prayer for his followers (*chapter 17*), he expressed that the Father loved him before the foundation of the world.**

**Not only was the Son with God, he was himself God.** John’s Gospel, more than most books in the New Testament, asserts Jesus’ divinity. One of the most compelling reasons to believe the doctrine of the Trinity comes from the fact that it was revealed through a people most likely to reject it outright. In a world populated by many gods, it took the tough-minded Hebrews to clarify the revelation of God’s oneness expressed through “three-in-oneness.”