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The Essence of the Gospel

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) (1 John 1:1–2).

In his celebrated gospel, the Apostle John presented Jesus Christ evangelistically (20:31). Now, in 1 John, he explains pastorally what it means to be in Christ and how to find assurance of faith and fulness of joy (1:4).

The opening verses take us from eternity past to eternity future, summarizing the gospel's teaching about the Lord Jesus. He is the good news of the gospel; he is the essence of the message proclaimed by the apostles. John says four important things about him.

The Eternal Son of God

Jesus is 'that which was from the beginning'. John is not thinking here about the birth of Jesus or the beginning of his earthly ministry. He uses this expression to signify that Jesus existed before anything else. His words echo Genesis 1:1. When everything else began to have existence, Jesus the Word of life was already present. He did not have to come into being. He already was. He is the unmade, uncreated one. He is and was and ever will be the complete and perfect Word of life.

Jesus himself spoke of his eternal being. 'Before Abraham was, I am', he told his disciples (John 8:58). He also spoke of his eternal pre-existence when he prayed, 'O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was' (John 17:5).

John's words also echo the first words of his gospel: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John 1:1; cf. Prov. 8:22–23). The Word of whom he speaks is Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the everlasting Lord, the eternal I AM who is and was and is to come, the One who has given life to everything else.

What comfort, what strength, what security we receive from knowing that our Saviour is the eternal Son of God! Everything else perishes and grows old like worn-out clothing, but Christ remains; his years have no end (Heb. 1:10-12).

The Incarnate Saviour

The eternal experienced the temporal. He became 'that which ... we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life' (1:1). He became a real man. He who was ever with the Father became flesh and lived among us (John 1:14).

John speaks in the first person plural 'we', referring to himself and his fellow apostles, whose eyewitness accounts are authoritative for the church. John says, 'we' heard Jesus speak, 'we' saw what he did, 'we' observed how he lived, and 'we' touched him with our hands. John and the other disciples had lived and traveled with Jesus for three years. They had beheld his glory!

John first heard about Jesus from John the Baptist (John 1:29). He heard gracious words from Jesus' lips, calling John to follow him. He heard Jesus speak of the work he had come to earth to do. He heard Jesus cry in the midst of suffering, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34). He watched as Jesus uttered in agony from the cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' (Matt. 27:46).

John also saw Jesus with his own eyes. He saw the Word made flesh in Jesus' ministry, in his transfiguration, in Gethsemane, and on the cross. John saw the blood trickle from Jesus' head, hands, back, and feet; he saw Immanuel in agony. And he saw Christ's glory manifested in his miracles.

But John saw Jesus with eyes of understanding, as 'the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth' (John 1:14). He looked upon Jesus as the divine Teacher, the Physician of souls, the Defender of the weak, the Light of the world, the Servant of servants at the last supper, the great Sufferer and Intercessor, the uplifted Saviour, the Conqueror of death, and the ascended King.

John also touched the Saviour. He placed his arm on Christ's arm and leaned his head upon Jesus' bosom. Jesus, who was in the bosom of his Father, manifested himself to John and the apostles, so that they could have a place in the bosom of the eternal Christ.

John knew from personal experience that Jesus was no phantom, no ghost, no mere spirit. He was a real man of flesh and blood. If you pricked Jesus with a needle, he would bleed. If you injured him, he would wince like any other man.

The God-Man

John thus affirms both the humanity and divinity of Jesus as necessary for him to be a true Saviour and Mediator. To bear the heavy burden of God's infinite wrath against him, Jesus must himself be God. Yet to be man's substitute before God, Jesus must truly be man. Salvation is in no other (Acts 4:12); 'there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim. 2:5). Do we believe these truths about Jesus with all our mind and soul? When Jesus is presented to us, what do we do with him? What do we hear from him? What do we see in him? How do we handle the Word of Life?

John's passion was proclaiming Jesus Christ as God-man Saviour. His great joy was to share with others all that he had heard with his ears, seen with his eyes, and handled with his hands - the eternal Word of Life. Christ was the Alpha and Omega of John's ministry.

The Communicator of Life

Finally, John tells us that Jesus, who is from the beginning and of whom we have seen and heard, is 'the Word of life'. 'The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us' (1:2).

We use words to express our thoughts. Christ's words express the thoughts of the Father, because God speaks by the mouth of his Son. John calls Jesus Christ the Word: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (1:1). As eternal God, Jesus Christ communicated physical and material life to the world. He was there when God said, 'Let there be light: and there was light' (Gen. 1:3). He was there when God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness' (Gen. 1:26). He was there when God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. As eternal God, he created and sustains all things in this world. In becoming man, he communicated to this world the kind of life that man should live before God, in perfect conformity with God's law.

But John also tells us that Jesus is the Word of true, heavenly life that transcends the material world. He is the Eternal Life that was with the Father, and he has come into this world to communicate eternal life to those who cannot have fellowship with a holy God because of sin.

John heard Jesus say, 'As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will' (John 5:21). He heard Jesus, the Good Shepherd, say, 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life' (John 10:27–28). Truly, Jesus Christ came to bring life.

Conclusion

John presents the essence of the gospel in these two opening verses (1:1-2). Reaffirming the foundational truths of the Christian faith about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he answers the false teaching that was becoming prevalent in the first century.

This Saviour also answers the needs of our hearts today. Everyone of us by nature is in a state of death and enmity against God. Because of our sin we cannot be accepted by God. We cannot come to God by our own efforts or through our own merits. We are as much the enemies of God as those who long ago denied the humanity of Jesus. If we have not embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ by faith, we are clinging to some kind of heresy in our lives, too. We have not come to believe the truth that God has made known about his Son.

God comes to the aid of sinners through Christ, the Word of life, who has come into this world to reconcile them with himself through the blood of his cross. Life - eternal life - is manifested to us from the Father by the Son.