In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Back to the Beginning
John opens his Gospel with the same three words as Genesis — 'In the beginning' — and then reaches behind creation itself. Before anything was made, 'the Word (Logos) was.' And John makes two claims in one breath that the church would spend four centuries guarding: the Word 'was WITH God' (distinct from the Father) and the Word 'WAS God' (fully divine). Not a lesser being, not a creature — God, eternally face to face with God.
The Agent of Creation, the Light of Life
'All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.' The Word is not part of creation but its maker; the same Word who would later speak to storms first spoke the stars. 'In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' John sets the whole Gospel under that sentence — a light the dark has tried and failed to put out, all the way to a borrowed tomb.
The Word Became Flesh
Then comes the hinge of history, and the most staggering sentence in the prologue: 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.' The Greek for 'dwelt' is 'tabernacled' — the eternal God pitched his tent among us, as the glory once filled the tabernacle of Moses. 'And we have seen his glory' — not a glory that consumed, but one that could be looked upon, touched, eaten with. The infinite did not stop being infinite; he became small enough to be held.
Grace and Truth
The Word made flesh is 'full of grace and truth' — and John adds, 'grace upon grace… the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.' The prologue closes where it began, with deity: 'No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.' The invisible God now has a face. To know what God is like, John says, look at Jesus — the Word who was God, and became flesh, to make the Father known.
Go deeper: Logos — the Word study, with its timeline rail (Lexicon) · Is Jesus God? — 'the Word was God' (Disputed Questions) · Sarx — 'the Word became flesh' (Lexicon)