FEATURE
JOHN 1:1–14
Key Themes: Incarnation and Trinity,
Jesus as the agent of creation; Word
and wisdom; Jesus and the material
world; light and darkness.
John 1 is one of the most famous
passages in the Bible and has profound
teaching about Jesus and salvation.
It is also a key passage for Christian
environmental understanding because
of its teaching about Jesus and the
material world.
The passage begins by setting the
eternal and divine context for ‘the
Word’. He was with God, he was God
and he was before all things. The Word
is therefore not part of this created
world but eternal in origin. He is not
part of creation but divine.
This makes a distinctive statement
about God and creation. As with
Genesis, John 1 places biblical faith
in a different place to some other
spiritualities that might see the divine
in the material world. With the coming
of Christ, the distinction between
God and creation gained a dramatic
dimension.
The ‘Word’ is also distinct from creation
but not distinct from God.
He is God, though distinct from
Father and Spirit. Many readers will
be familiar with the concept of Logos
and the mixing of Hebraic and Greek
ideas in John. The word echoes the
Greek concept of ‘wisdom’ and this in
turn recalls teaching in the wisdom
literature, especially Proverbs 8 and the
call to walk in the way of righteousness
and justice (Proverbs 8:20).
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Simultaneously, it evokes God’s
method of creation: he spoke.
The Word is therefore the agent
of creation. All the beauty of our
amazing world was brought into
being by God speaking. However
it happened (and the creationevolution debate is best left to
a different sermon than one on
environmental things), the Word
caused it to happen.
There is one other aspect of dualism
in this passage and that is the
distinction between light and
darkness. Again it refers back to
Genesis and the darkness before
creation. Some theologians believe
this hints at a ‘non-creation’ that
was pushed back at the creation
of the world. The darkness is not
able to overcome the light but has
considerable influence on the Wordinspired world.
The climax of the passage comes in
verse 14, ‘and the Word became flesh
and dwelt amongst us’. Here we see
a dramatic shift in the distinction
between God and his creation. Jesus,
though divine, willingly chose to
become part of his own creation to
bring salvation. This core truth of the
Incarnation is a profound statement
about the Earth. If this world was an
evil place to be escaped, Jesus would
not have become physically part of
it. He would not have been able to
because he could not have done that
and been ‘without sin’. The birth of
Jesus makes the strongest possible
statement about the goodness of our
material world. Jesus was not only
able to become a part of it but he
chose to become material flesh.
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But is there more to say about
creation? Richard Bauckham gives
a helpful summary of the use of
the word ‘world’ (cosmos) in John’s
Gospel.1 The usual translation of the
word means ‘earth’ (as in heaven
and earth). This is the meaning of
1:9. In verse 10 the meaning starts
to shift to mean human population
but still with the recognition of the
wider created order. One of the
key discussions in environmental
theology concerns creation and
salvation. Here we see creation
and incarnation intrinsically
interconnected. In the next passage
we will see more of the implications
for salvation.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO MAKE
SURE THAT YOUR PREACHING
IS NOT ACCIDENTALLY ANTIENVIRONMENTAL FROM
INHERITED TEACHING THAT
ONLY LOOKED AT CHRISTIANITY
IN TERMS OF PEOPLE AND GOD.
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