2  Responding to the Incarnate Word  (John 1:6–13)

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (1:6–13)

The sinless life (John 8:46; 2 Cor. 5:21), unprecedented words (Matt. 7:29; John 7:46), and astonishing claims (John 4:25–26; 8:58) of Jesus Christ arrested people’s attention and forced them to react, which they did in several ways.

Some were superficially drawn to Jesus. Later in his gospel John records that “some were saying [of Jesus], ‘He is a good man’” (7:12). Going a step beyond that, others acknowledged Him as a great religious leader; a prophet (Matt. 21:11, 46; Luke 7:16), possibly even “John the Baptist … Elijah … Jeremiah, or one of the prophets” (Matt. 16:14). Because of the meal Jesus created for them, the Galilean crowd decided to make Him king by force (John 6:14–15), hoping He would throw off the yoke of the hated Romans and continue to miraculously provide food. But such shallow, material sentiment was fleeting. The same kind of fickle Judean crowd that rejoiced at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest!” (Matt. 21:9) would a few short days later scream, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” (John 19:15).

Some were strongly attracted to Jesus, but unwilling to commit themselves to Him. John 12:42 records that “many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.” The classic example of one who shrank back from a full commitment to Christ is the rich young ruler:

Still others were openly hostile to Jesus. According to John 7:12 some were claiming, “He leads the people astray.” At His trial before Pilate, the Jewish authorities “began to accuse Him, saying, ‘We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King’” (Luke 23:2). Even after His death the slanderous accusations about Him continued: “Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, ‘Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, “After three days I am to rise again”’” (Matt. 27:62–63).

To others, Jesus was a madman: either demon possessed, or deranged. John 10:20 records that “many of them were saying, ‘He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?’” The Jewish leaders asked sarcastically, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon? … Now we know that You have a demon” (John 8:48, 52; cf. 7:20; Matt. 9:34; 10:25). Even His own family at one point “went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, ‘He has lost His senses’” (Mark 3:21).

The Pharisees and scribes, unable to deny His supernatural power, and unwilling to attribute it to God, were left with the blasphemous alternative that His power came from Satan himself (Matt. 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15). They apparently spread this damning lie throughout Israel, as the event recorded in Matthew and Mark occurred in Galilee and the one described in Luke months later in Judea.

The common theme linking all of those inadequate responses is unbelief—the sin that ultimately damns all those who reject Jesus Christ. John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Jesus repeatedly rebuked those who refused to believe in Him:

But in contrast to the unbelief of the lost, those whom the Father gave to Jesus (John 6:37) respond by fully believing in His claims and teaching. They will receive all the blessings of salvation, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and adoption as children of God:

The gospels record the belief of Peter (Matt. 16:16), Nathanael (John 1:48–50), the disciples (Matt. 14:33), a Samaritan woman (John 4:28–29) and others from her village (John 4:42), a blind man whom Jesus healed (John 9:35–38), the women who visited the empty tomb (Matt. 28:9), and the former skeptic, Thomas (John 20:28). Acts 1:14 reports that our Lord’s brothers had come to believe after the resurrection (cf. John 7:5).

Having established the deity of Jesus Christ in the opening five verses of the prologue, John now turns to the only two possible responses to that reality: unbelief or belief. Before describing those responses, however, John described the one who came to testify of Jesus so that people might believe in Him.

JOHN THE BAPTIST: BELIEVABLE TESTIMONY

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. (1:6–8)

The abrupt change of subject from the exalted Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal, self-existent creator God (vv. 1–5), to a mere man sent from God, is striking. There came is actually “there appeared,” indicating the shift from the heavenly Word to His earthly herald. After describing the Word who was God, John turned to the one who announced that the Word was God. That herald’s name was John the Baptist. (John the apostle does not name himself in his gospel, so every time the name John appears, it refers to the Baptist [except for four references to Peter’s father; 1:42; 21:15, 16, 17].)

The phrase sent from God confirms John’s role as herald in several ways. First, the Baptist had a divine commission as the one who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies regarding Messiah’s forerunner. Isaiah predicted him (Isa. 40:3; cf. Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:2–3). The Old Testament closes with Malachi’s prophecy of the Elijah-like prophet to come before the Day of the Lord (Mal. 3:1; 4:5–6), which the angel of the Lord told Zacharias referred to John (Luke 1:17). Second, the Baptist was uniquely sent from God because his conception and birth were miraculous, since his parents were old and had never had children (Luke 1:7, 36). Third, the angel of the Lord came from heaven to tell Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would have a son who would be the herald of the Messiah (Luke 1:8–17). Fourth, the Holy Spirit filled Zacharias to prophesy concerning John (Luke 1:67–79). Fifth, the Baptist was sent from the Lord at the divinely appointed time to begin his public ministry (Luke 1:80).

John was the first true prophet (Matt. 14:5; 21:26) to appear in Israel in 400 years, and his bold, confrontive preaching created a sensation. Mark 1:5 describes his enormous impact by reporting how “all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins” (cf. Matt. 3:5–6). He was to prepare the hearts of the people for the Messiah; therefore, he fearlessly confronted sin and called for repentance: “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matt. 3:1). John even rebuked Herod, “on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife’” (Mark 6:17–18). Even that godless king acknowledged that John “was a righteous and holy man, … and when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him” (Mark 6:20). Luke records, however, that Herod had John imprisoned for confronting his sin. Matthew 14:1–12 gives the account of Herod’s beheading of John.

Because John’s mission was also to herald the Messiah’s arrival, “He was preaching, and saying, ‘After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’” (Mark 1:7–8). Like Herod, the Jewish religious leaders were perplexed about John, and sent a delegation to interrogate him. He reiterated that his mission was to herald Messiah’s arrival. The apostle John records his testimony in 1:19–36 (cf. Matt. 3:1–12; Luke 7:18–23).

The Baptist’s ministry stirred up such excitement that although he said of himself in relation to Christ, “One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals” (Luke 3:16), a cult of devoted followers grew up around him (cf. John 3:25). Sadly, some were devoted to John instead of the Messiah whose arrival he proclaimed. Years later the apostle Paul encountered some of them in Ephesus:

Groups of John the Baptist loyalists persisted into the second century, and hence were still around when John wrote his gospel. Therefore he stressed John the Baptist’s inferiority to Christ.

John the Baptist was the greatest man who had ever lived up to his time, as Jesus affirmed: “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!” (Matt. 11:11). He was the greatest man because God chose him to perform the most important task to that point in human history—being the forerunner of the Messiah. He was the first to announce publicly that Jesus was the Savior (John 1:29). Yet despite that, he himself acknowledged: “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me’” (John 1:15). Some of his zealous disciples, concerned for his reputation,

William Hendriksen points out the contrast between John the Baptist and Jesus:

John’s mission was not to exalt himself, but to be a witness about Messiah, to testify about the Light. He is the first of eight witnesses that appear in John’s gospel; the others are the Father (5:37), Jesus’ words (8:18) and works (5:36; 10:25), the Old Testament Scriptures (5:39), some of those who met Him (4:29), the disciples (15:27; 19:35; 21:24), and the Holy Spirit (15:26). The legal terms witness (marturia) and testify (martureo) are words related to fact, not opinion, as in a courtroom setting. The terms are used predominantly in the New Testament by the apostle John (77 out of their 113 occurrences are in John’s gospel, epistles, or Revelation).

John is properly called the Baptist because he was sent by God to baptize repentant sinners in preparation for the Messiah’s coming (1:31). Yet the purpose of all he did was to bear witness to Jesus (1:15, 23, 29, 32, 34, 36; 5:33, 36), so that all might believe through him. People believe in Christ (1:12; 3:18; 6:29) through the testimony of witnesses like John. They are the agents of belief, but Christ is the object of belief. Salvation, then, as at all times was a matter of faith in God and in what He said (cf. Rom. 4:1–16).

To counter any false exaltation of John the Baptist, the apostle John wrote that he was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. At first glance, that statement seems to contradict Jesus’ statement that John the Baptist “was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light” (5:35). Two different Greek words are used, however. The term Light used in this passage to refer to Christ is phos, which refers to the essence of light. In 5:35, however, Jesus described John as a luchnos, which refers to a portable lamp. Jesus is the Light; John merely reflected it (see the discussion of v. 4 in chapter 1 of this volume).

UNBELIEVERS: TESTIMONY REJECTED

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. (1:9–11)

That John the Baptist had to point out the true Light graphically illustrates the world’s blindness, for only blind people cannot see the light. Unbelievers are spiritually blind because, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”(2 Cor. 4:4; cf. Isa. 61:1–2; Luke 4:17–18).

The unbelieving world’s blindness is inexcusable, because Jesus

was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. Alethinos (true) is another distinctly Johannine term; all but five of its twenty-eight uses in the New Testament are in John’s writings. It refers to what is real and genuine; according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, alethinos describes “that which has not only the name and semblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name.” God’s people had seen reflections of the light of His glory, but in Jesus the full “radiance of His glory” (Heb. 1:3) was revealed.

Through His coming into the world Jesus enlightens every man (cf. Isa. 49:6). There are several possible explanations of that truth; each is taught in the New Testament. It could mean that the Word incarnate is none other than the fullest revelation of God who has already revealed Himself in every human soul, a truth Paul expressed to the Romans:

The phrase could also mean that Jesus is God’s self-disclosure in the most glorious way for every man who has seen Him or heard about Him or read His story. Some would narrow the idea to restrict every man to only those who receive Him. The first interpretation seems best in the context, since it refers to those in the world who do not receive Him, as well as those who do. Even those who never become children of God are accountable for the knowledge of God and His light revealed in Christ. Though all men are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1–3) and blind, they are accountable for the knowledge of God revealed in creation and conscience (Rom. 2:14–15).

The tragic reality is that sinners reject the “Light of the world” (John 8:12):

People refuse to come to the light of Jesus Christ because they love their sin and do not want it exposed; they are willfully blind. Thus, though Jesus was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. The Creator of the world (1:3) became its Savior (cf. 4:42), but the world rejected Him and thus did not know Him in a saving way.

Kosmos (world) is another term used frequently by John; more than half of its occurrences in the New Testament are in his writings. It describes the physical world (v. 9; 12:25; 16:21, 28; 21:25); humanity in general (3:16; 6:33, 51; 12:19); and, most frequently, the evil system dominated by Satan (3:19; 7:7; 14:17, 30; 15:18–19). It is this third sense of kosmos that John had in mind when he wrote that the world did not know Christ. Despite its rejection of Him, the unbelieving world will nonetheless one day be forced to acknowledge Jesus as Lord (Phil. 2:9–11) and judge (John 5:22, 27).

As shocking and tragic as the world’s rejection of Christ is, John turned to the even greater tragedy of Israel’s rejection. That Jesus came to His own place can mean the world He created (cf. the second sense of kosmos above). It could also mean His particular place, the land of promise given to the Jews through Abraham, including the coming earthly kingdom predicted by the prophets. He came to God’s land, to the city of David, the land of the temple. The Jews had waited all through the centuries for the Messiah and Savior to come. Most tragic of all was the sad reality that when He did, those who were His own people did not receive Him. This second use of own refers primarily to the nation of Israel, of whom God said, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2 NKJV). Throughout the Old Testament God referred to the Jewish people as “My people” (e.g., Ex. 3:7, 10; 6:7; Lev. 26:12; 1 Sam. 2:29; 2 Sam. 3:18; 1 Kings 6:13; 2 Kings 20:5; 1 Chron. 11:2; 2 Chron. 1:11; Ps. 50:7; Isa. 1:3; Jer. 2:11; Ezek. 11:20; Hos. 4:6; Joel 3:2; Amos 7:15; Obad. 1:13; Micah 6:3; Zeph. 2:8; Zech. 8:7–8), despite their frequent rebellion against Him.

Like their ancestors, the Israelites of Jesus’ day stiffened their necks (Deut. 10:16; 2 Kings 17:14; Neh. 9:29; Jer. 7:26; 17:23) and rejected Him despite the clear testimony of the Old Testament Scriptures (John 5:39). Instead of repenting of their sin and accepting Him as their Messiah, they screamed, “Crucify Him! … His blood shall be on us and on our children!” (Matt. 27:23, 25). Israel’s rejection and collaboration in the murder of her Messiah was a common theme in apostolic preaching. In the first Christian sermon ever preached, Peter said to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost,

The theme of rejection will be repeated throughout John’s gospel.

BELIEVERS: TESTIMONY BELIEVED

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (1:12–13)

The conjunction de (but) is a small fulcrum that marks a dramatic shift. The world’s hatred of God and rejection of Christ in no way overrules or frustrates God’s plan, for He makes even the wrath of men praise Him (Ps. 76:10). There will be some who receive Him. Those whom God willed for salvation before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9) will in faith embrace Christ. As He declared in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

Lambanō (received) could be translated “take hold of,” “obtain,” or “grasp.” To receive Christ involves more than mere intellectual acknowledgment of His claims. The last clause of verse 12 refers to those who received as those who believe in His name. The concept of believing in Christ, another important theme for John, will be developed in several passages in his gospel (6:29; 8:30; 9:35–36; 12:36, 44; 14:1; 16:9; 17:20; cf. 1 John 3:23; 5:13). His name refers to the totality of Christ’s being, all that He is and does. Thus, it is not possible to separate His deity from His humanity, His being Savior from His being Lord, or His person from His redemptive work. Saving faith accepts Jesus Christ in all that Scripture reveals concerning Him.

Though people cannot be saved until they receive and believe in Jesus Christ, salvation is nonetheless a sovereign work of God on the dead and blind sinner. John simply states that no one would come to believe in Jesus unless He gave them the right to become children of God. They are saved entirely by “grace … through faith; and that not of [themselves], it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8–9), because “God has chosen [them] from the beginning for salvation” (2 Thess. 2:13). Thus they were born again (John 3:3, 7; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23) not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Those three negative statements stress the fact that salvation is not obtainable through any racial or ethnic heritage (blood), personal desire (flesh), or man-made system (man). (See also Matt. 8:11–12; Luke 3:8; Gal. 3:28–29.)

The great truth of election and sovereign grace is here introduced appropriately at the very foundation of John’s mention of salvation. Our Lord Himself will speak of this truth in 6:36–47; 15:16; 17:6–12.

Because all bear the guilt of unbelief and rejection, the phrase but of God means that salvation, that is, receiving and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, is impossible for any sinner. God must grant the power supernaturally and with it the divine life and light to the lifeless, darkened sinner.