Genesis and John Have It Together

[HKHaugan]

Genesis and John Have Got It Together

      Of the many things that make the Bible significant is its opening words, “In the beginning…”  Two chapters, Genesis1 and John 1 open with those words, “In the beginning God created…” and  “In the beginning was the Word…”  In both cases there is a declaration that God was already there before anything had form or substance.  The first informs us that God is creatively thinking and active and the second informs us that God is personal and relational.  We gather from them that God represents a reality that goes beyond what can be seen (the physically visible, e.g. earth) and the unseen (physically invisible, e.g., wind and life).  Simply put, God introduces the idea of a third reality, spiritual reality and spiritual life, that precedes visible and invisible existence.

       The word ‘God’ has its beginning in Hebrew as YHWH, four letters that remain mysteriously vowel-vacant because the pronunciation was lost due to it being too holy for sinful human beings to utter.  Adonai, el Shaddai, el yon, became substitutes to use as religious standards, el being the designated word and Adonai (Lord) as the way to speak about Him.  It may be worth noting that El Al, the Israeli airline, uses ‘el’ to mean ‘skyward’ when actually it means ‘God-ward.’

       When the next idea is presented, that God created the heavens and the earth, it is plural heavens and a single earth.  There is a connection between them which indicates purpose, planning and intention.  As we will see later on ‘heavens’ will have three parts, unseen atmosphere, the broad universe and the spiritual eternal dwelling.  The earth will be where God places the images of Himself, mankind.

       Shifting to John’s Gospel it becomes quite evident that John is working from the Genesis position and developing the personal dimension.  He uses the word ‘logos’ (Gk. personal reasoning mind) to show Jesus as the revelation of the perfect Person through Whom everything was created. Logos for him was the best word to describe the mind out of which the words “Let there be…” was the Lord proclaiming through words from The Word, the spiritual mind of God being expressed in Creation.  Logos is the living God speaking the language of creating, doing, producing.  We may have the concepts of light, darkness, mountains, earth, rivers, oceans trees and animals.  For God they are His words.  God speaks in the minutest of cells to the expanses of gigantic galaxies.  All visible and invisible things are His nouns.  How they work, the forces behind their operation are His verbs, the specifics of the where, when and why they operate the way they do, are His grammar and punctuations.  Remember, everything starts spiritually.

       God is always on the move even to the still small voice heard through the relational languages He allowed us to develop.  His Word, Holy Scripture is called Holy because Holy designates His Perfection.  He is the definition of perfection because He is perfect by nature.  It is His perfect and special way to communicate with us personally.  We can’t perceive true perfection because of our imperfection which is what sin is, spiritual imperfection, that has put imperfection in everything else.  This is why the perfect God has revealed what perfection looks like in sending His Son Jesus to come and be perfect among us.  His words, His motivation, His actions, His presence, completely perfect.  The thing John emphasizes is the spiritual perfection of Jesus and that is what makes everything He thinks, says and does perfect.  Holy is the best word the writers of Scripture were led to use to describe the spiritual perfection of God.  It is why He is called Holy, why Jesus is the Holy Son, and the Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the One Holy God.  Genesis and John do have it together.

       When the Holy Bible speaks about people being holy, like when Peter writes believers are a holy nation, it is not because they are perfect, it’s because they belong to God (1Pet.2:9).  They are set aside to be like Him which is what Jesus commands (Mt.5:18).  Everyone who trusts Jesus is being made perfect as they follow Him.  He set the example by being faithfully perfect in everything with which He was confronted, even death. Death is the proof of imperfection. He embraced that final imperfection, shot it down and rose perfectly.  Jesus showed that perfection is living by faith through Him.  He has chosen to live in the hearts of those who believe in Him.  Living by faith in Him is the way we become perfect.  Faithful living is holy living.  Holy living is letting Jesus guide us as we meet each moment with faith in Him.  How we meet that moment will be unique to each of us.  So, it is not asking ‘what would Jesus do?’   Rather, it is asking ‘What did Jesus do?’  He went to the Cross by faith and faced each moment of His life knowing that the Cross was waiting for Him.  His Cross was His faith and that faith is the cross He tells us we must take up every day in our every next encounter with the world around us (Mt.16:24).

       So, we started with Genesis, the beginning, to lift up the Word, being the words of God living in the Word of God, His Son Jesus.  The point here is that every next moment, minute, hour, day, month and year are beginnings. 

       As this is being written it was begun so that it would fill a beginning moment for someone who would begin to read it and then face the beginning of their next encounter with faith in Jesus as the One who has prepared a faithful way to meet that moment. It means that being an image of God we are moving forward not backward, forging a new path with the expectation that Jesus is giving us His Spirit and staying with us through everything we analyze, reason and do, the daily forward-looking process of life.  Where are your next moments taking you?  The process is guaranteed spiritually holy because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb.13:8).”