I find myself involved in too many things to focus on new posts at the moment. Hopefully, I’ll have something new very soon. In the meantime, here’s something from my old dissertation you may find useful for reflection.
Even a superficial reading of John’s opening verses sets before the reader the absoluteness of his Logos concept as communicated by the Holy Spirit. To summarize, the Logos is part of the Godhead (vv1-2); and as a member of the Godhead He is the instrument of creation and providence (v.3). Since all things were made by Him it is scarcely surprising that John tells us that the Logos is the light and life of men (v. 4). He reveals God not through General Revelation alone, or even by the law and the prophets, through whom He spoke – but supremely by means of His own incarnation (vv. 14-18). Furthermore, it is by the Logos, Jesus of Nazareth, that salvation is offered to sinners and hope shines brightly on our horizon. There can be little doubt that what John is doing at the beginning of his Gospel is putting forth a Christian weltanshauung or worldview. MacLeod has nicely summarized our point.
“Today…a wide variety of worldviews exist, and John’s prologue is an antidote to all of them. The Gospel of John presents a true understanding of who Jesus is, so that readers may have the proper framework with which to interpret life and reality – that they may know God and walk in the light of His truth. – David J. MacLeod, “The Eternality and Deity of the Word: John 1:1-2,” in Bibliotheca Sacra 160 (January – March 2003), 49.
As the Word made flesh (Jn. 1:14, 18; 1 Jn. 1:1), Jesus Christ is the “Great Explanation”, both of man’s world and of man’s future (Jn.1:10-13; 17-18). As Carl Henry explains,
“In a day when modern wisdom considers the cosmos devoid of teleology and derives man from purposeless nature, the reality of the self-revealed Logos towers anew as the only intelligible ground and sustaining source of meaning, value and purpose.” – Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation and Authority, Vol. 3. 171.
This is what we must insist upon as followers of the risen Lord. We are what we are and this world is what it is because of His grace. Therefore, to pass by the Logos doctrine of John’s Gospel when searching for final explanations is to overlook the source and strength of Reality – a faux-pas which leaves men floundering in metaphysical darkness (Jn. 1:9-10).
Rebel man attempts to construct world and life views in this darkness. A darkness that one writer has aptly described as,
“[Not] blindness as such, but instead …a darkness that is willed, that is, …a kind of blindness that does not understand itself to be blind, but on the contrary believes that it sees and that it comprehends reality in its entirety.” – Craig M. Gay, The Way of the (Modern) World, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), 7.
In the same vein Carl F. H. Henry writes,
“Since the worldview [the unregenerate man] champions in principle terminates personal worth, he can pursue significant human existence only through a delusion.” – God, Revelation and Authority, I.144.
For all its ingenuity, the world of men and women is without a center. It is this way because of rebellious hearts (Eccles. 7:29; Rom. 1:25). John, the last of the Apostles, points us again to the eternal Logos-Son who, “was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” The world has to borrow bits and pieces of the biblical worldview in order to live in this Logos-structured environment. Men forget the very center of their existence by neglecting Jesus Christ. It is as Wells says,
“In the Word, then, we are met by the personal and eternal God who has joined himself to our flesh. In Jesus, the permanent and final unveiling of God has taken place, and the center of this truth is coincidental with the life of this man. Jesus is the means through which and in conjunction with whom God has made known his character, his will, and his ways (cf. John 14:6).” – David F. Wells, The Person of Christ, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1984), 69-70.
Man’s wisdom fails as an interpreter of life when he misses the significance of the Incarnation of the Divine Logos (Lk. 2:8-15; Rom. 1:22; 1 Cor. 1:20). Therefore, we may repeat Henry’s opinion that,
“Taken long-range, the only options are either nihilism or the Nazarene. The Logos of supernatural revelation towers as the only effective barricade against meaninglessness of the world and human life.” – Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation and Authority, 3.192.
