John

by John Calvin, Alister McGrath (Editor), J. I. Packer (Editor), J. I. Packer (Introduction)

Overview

For hundreds of years Christendom has been blessed with Bible commentaries written by great men of God highly respected for their godly walk and their insight into spiritual truth. The Crossway Classic Commentaries present the very best work on individual Bible books, carefully adapted for maximum understanding and usefulness for today's believers.

The Gospel of John, called "the spiritual gospel" in early church history, is among the most profound books of the New Testament. A powerful portrayal of the earthly life and ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it explores precious tenets of the faith—Christ's nature, His reasons for coming to earth, His determination to fulfill the Father's will by giving His own life for us, the splendor of His miracles, the supremacy of His love.

A helpful volume that will enrich the faith of new and mature Christians alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433516993
Publisher:	Crossway
Publication date:	04/15/1994
Series:	Crossway Classic Commentaries , #5
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	924 KB

About the Author

John Calvin (1509–1564) was one of the most influential theologians of the Reformation. Known best for his Institutes of the Christian Religion, he also wrote landmark expositions on most of the books in the Bible. 

John Calvin (1509–1564) was one of the most influential theologians of the Reformation. Known best for his Institutes of the Christian Religion, he also wrote landmark expositions on most of the books in the Bible. 

  Alister McGrath (PhD, University of Oxford) is the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, president of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, and senior research fellow at Harris Manchester College in Oxford. He is also a noted author and coeditor of Crossway's Classic Commentaries series. 

J. I. Packer (1926–2020) served as the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College. He authored numerous books, including the classic bestseller Knowing God. Packer also served as general editor for the English Standard Version Bible and as theological editor for the ESV Study Bible.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Verses 1–5

1. In the beginning was the Word. In this introduction the evangelist asserts the eternal divinity of Christ, telling us that he is the eternal God who "appeared in a body" (1 Timothy 3:16). The intention is to show that mankind's restoration had to be accomplished by the Son of God, since by his power all things were created, and he alone breathes life and energy into all creatures so that they remain as they are, and since in mankind he has uniquely shown both his power and his grace. Even after the fall of Adam he has not stopped being generous and kind to Adam's descendants.

This teaching is very necessary. Since we should only seek life and salvation in God, how can we put our trust in Christ if we are not sure of what is taught here? The evangelist therefore assures us that when we believe in Christ we are not moving away from the one eternal God, and also that life is now restored to the dead through the kindness of Christ, who was the source and cause of life when mankind was still sinless.

The evangelist calls the Son of God the Word simply because, first, he is the eternal wisdom and will of God; and secondly, because he is the exact image of God's purpose. Just as men's speech is called the expression of their thoughts, so it is not inappropriate to say that God expresses himself to us by his speech or Word.

The other meanings of the Word are not so appropriate. The Greek certainly means "definition" or "reason" or "calculation"; but I do not wish to enter into philosophical discussion beyond the limits of my faith. And we see that the Spirit of God is so far from approving such subtleties that in talking with us his very silence proclaims how sober we should be in our intellectual approach to such high mysteries.

Now, since God in creating the world revealed himself by the Word, he had previously had Christ hidden in himself. Thus the Word has a double relationship, to God and to men. Servetus, that most arrogant and worthless Spaniard, imagines that the eternal Word came into being only when Christ was active in the creation of the world. As if he had not been active before his power was made known by his visible work!

The evangelist teaches something quite different here, for he does not ascribe a temporal beginning to the Word but says that he was from the beginning and thus transcends all times. I am fully aware how this dog barks against us and what quibbles were once raised by the Arians — that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1), but they are not eternal, for "beginning" refers to order and does not indicate eternity. The evangelist, however, forestalls this calumny when he says and the Word was with God. If the Word had a beginning in time, they must find some time sequence in God.

There is no doubt that by this clause John intended to distinguish Christ from all other created things. Many questions could arise: Where actually was this Word? How did he exercise his power? What was his nature? How could he be known? Therefore the evangelist declares that we must not limit our views to the world and created things, for Christ was always united with God before the world existed. Now, when men make the beginning refer to the creation of heaven and earth, do they not reduce Christ to the ordinary order of the world, from which this passage specifically excludes him? By doing this they dreadfully insult not only the Son of God but also his eternal Father, whom they deprive of his Wisdom. If we are not free to think of God without his Wisdom, we are not free to look for the origin of the Word anywhere else but in the eternal Wisdom of God.

Servetus objects that the Word cannot have existed before Moses refers to God as speaking. As if, because he was not yet openly seen, Christ did not exist in God! As if he had no inner existence before he began to show himself outwardly! But the evangelist destroys every excuse for such outrageous rubbish when he affirms, unconditionally, that the Word was with God. Here he expressly calls us away from all events in time. Those who infer a continuing existence from the imperfect tense of the verb are in a weak position. They say that "was being" expresses continuity better than if John had said "he was." But such important matters demand more solid arguments. What I have suggested should suffice — that the evangelist sends us to God's eternal sanctuary and teaches us that the Word was, as it were, hidden there before he revealed himself outwardly in the world. Augustine is therefore right when he reminds us that the beginning mentioned here has no beginning. For although in a natural sequence the Father is before his Wisdom, yet those who imagine any point of time when he preceded his Wisdom deprive Christ of his glory. And this is the eternal Son who, extending back for an infinite time before the foundation of the world, lay hidden in God (if I may put it like that) and who, after being dimly outlined to the patriarchs under the law for a long succession of years, was at length shown more fully in a human body.

I am surprised that the Latin versions translate the Greek word for the Word (logos) with the Latin word verbum, which translates a different Greek word. But even if we allow that translation as a possibility, it cannot be denied that the word "speech" would have been far more appropriate. This shows up the barbarous tyranny of those theologians who harassed Erasmus so fiercely because he changed a single word for the better.

And the Word was with God. We have already said that the Son of God is thus placed above the world and all creatures and before all ages. But at the same time this expression attributes to him a personality distinct from the Father. For it would have been absurd if the evangelist had said that the Word was always with God or in God's presence unless he had a certain subsistence of his own in God. This verse, therefore, refutes the error of Sabellius, since it shows the Son is distinct from the Father. I have already said that such profound mysteries demand sober thinking. But the early church writers can be excused when, because they could not in any other way defend true and pure doctrine against the ambiguous quibbles of the heretics, they were forced to coin certain words which still said nothing but what is taught in the Scriptures in another way. They said that there are three hypostases or Persons in the one, simple essence of God. The Greek word hypostasis has this sense in Hebrews 1:3 and corresponds to the Latin for "substance," as it is used by Hilary. They called distinct properties in God which present themselves for our contemplation Persons. As Gregory of Nazianzus says: "I cannot think of the One (God) without having the Three (Persons) shining around me."

And the Word was God. In case any doubt should remain about Christ's divine essence, the evangelist clearly declares that he is God. Now, since God is one, it follows that Christ is of the same essence as the Father, and yet in some way different. But we have already spoken about the second clause. Arius was extremely wicked about the unity of the essence. To avoid being compelled to confess the eternal divinity of Christ, he prattled on about God being some kind of creature. But when we hear that the Word was God, what right have we any longer to question his eternal essence?

2. He was with God in the beginning. In order to impress more deeply into our minds what had already been said, the evangelist condenses the two preceding clauses into a short summary: the Word always was, and the Word was with God — so that you may understand that this beginning was before all time.

3. Through him all things were made. Having declared that the Word is God and having asserted his divine essence, John goes on to prove his divinity from his works. And it is in this practical knowledge that we ought especially to be trained. Just attributing the name of God to Christ will leave us cold unless our faith feels this to be the case. But the evangelist correctly declares about the Son of God what strictly applies to the person of God. Sometimes, indeed, Paul simply says that "to him [God] are all things" (Romans 11:36). But when the Son is compared with the Father he is usually distinguished in the ordinary way of speaking used here: the Father made all things by the Son, and all things are made by God through the Son. Now as I have said, the evangelist's purpose is to show that immediately after the creation of the world the Word of God was seen to be at work. Having previously been incomprehensible in his essence, he was then openly known by the effect of his power. Even some philosophers say God is the architect of the world in a way that makes him the intelligence behind the building of this work. In this they are right, for they agree with Scripture; but as they immediately degenerate into trivial meditations, there is no reason why we should desire their witness eagerly; instead we should be satisfied with this heavenly oracle, knowing that it says much more than our minds can absorb.

Without him nothing was made that has been made. Although this verse has been interpreted in a variety of ways, I have no hesitation in taking it as a single thought: nothing was made that has been made. Nearly all the Greek manuscripts (or at least those with the best authority) agree here. Moreover, the sense undoubtedly demands it. Those who separate the phrase that has been made from the preceding clause, linking it to the following sentence, make it mean, "that which has been made was life in him" — i.e., "lived" or "was sustained in life." But they cannot show that this expression is ever applied to creatures. Augustine, being an extreme Platonist, is addicted to the teaching of the ideas that before God built the world he had the form of the whole work as a concept in his mind, and since the creation of the world was ordered in Christ, the life of those things which did not yet exist was in him. But this is far from the evangelist's thinking, as we will now see.

I return now to the former clause. This is no superfluous phrase, as it seems to be at first sight. For since Satan exerts all his strength to detract from Christ, the evangelist wished to declare specifically that there are no exceptions at all, since without him nothing was made that has been made.

4. In him was life. So far he has taught us that all things were made by the Word of God. He now attributes to him in the same way the preservation of what had been created, as if he were saying that in the creation of the world the Word's power did not simply suddenly appear only to pass quickly away, but that it is seen in the permanence of the stable and settled order of nature. Hebrews 1:3 says he is "sustaining all things by his powerful word." Moreover, this life may either include inanimate creations in general, which do live in their own way though they lack feeling, or life may just refer to living creatures. It is of little consequence which you choose, for the simple meaning is that the Word of God was not only the source of life for all creatures, so that those which had not yet existed began to be, but that his life-giving power makes them remain in their state. For if his continuing inspiration did not give life to the world, everything that lives would immediately decay or be reduced to nothing. In summary, what Paul ascribes to God, that "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28), John declares is accomplished through the gracious agency of the Word. So it is God who gives us life; but he does so through the eternal Word.

That life was the light of men. I deliberately disregard some other interpretations which disagree with the evangelist's meaning. In my opinion he refers here to that part of life in which men surpass the other animate creatures. It is as if he were saying that the life given to men was not life in general but life united with the light of reason. Moreover, he separates men from the ranks of other creatures, as we are more aware of God's power by feeling it in us than by viewing it from a distance. Thus in Acts 17:27 Paul tells us to "seek [God] ... [as] he is not far from each one of us." And so, when the evangelist has presented a general consideration of the grace of Christ, to persuade men to give it closer attention he shows what was given especially to them; that is, that they were not created in the likeness of the beasts, but, endowed with reason, they had reached a higher rank. Furthermore, since God effectually illuminates their minds with his light, it follows that they were created so that they might know that he is the author of such a special blessing. And since this light beamed on us from its source, the Word, it should be like a mirror in which we may see clearly the divine power of the Word.

5. The light shines in the darkness. It might be objected that because men are called blind in many passages of Scripture, the blindness for which they are condemned is already too well-known. For in all their reasoning powers they collapse miserably. How is it that there are so many labyrinths of errors in the world except that men are always led by their own understanding only into vanity and error? Yet if no light is visible in men, the evangelist's witness to the divinity of Christ is destroyed. For, as I have said, in the life of men (verse 4) there is something far more excellent than movement and breathing. The evangelist anticipates this question by first of all warning us that the light which was originally given to men must not be assessed by their present state, since in this marred and degenerate nature light has been turned to darkness. And yet he denies that the light of reason is completely put out; for in the darkness of the human mind there still shine some sparks of that brightness.

Readers will now understand that there are two ideas in this sentence. He says that men now greatly differ from that perfectly holy nature with which they were originally endowed, because their mind, which should have been completely radiant, has been plunged into darkness and is unhappy in this blindness. And so this corrupt nature shrouds the glory of Christ, as it were, in darkness. But on the other hand, the evangelist maintains that in the middle of the darkness certain remnants still exist which show to a certain extent Christ's divine power. Therefore the evangelist shows that man's mind is quite blinded, so that it may reasonably be seen as overwhelmed with darkness. He could have used a weaker word and said that the light was dark or murky; but he wanted to state more clearly how wretched our condition is since the fall of the first man. His statement that the light shines in the darkness is not at all meant to praise corrupt nature but rather to deprive ignorance of any excuse.

But the darkness has not understood it. Although the Son of God has always called people to himself through this poor light still left in us, the evangelist says that it did not succeed, because "Though seeing, they do not see" (Matthew 13:13). After man was alienated from God, his mind was so overwhelmed by ignorance that whatever light remains in it is choked and made ineffectual. Experience proves this daily. Even people who are not born again by God's Spirit still possess some reason, so that we are clearly taught that man was made not only to breathe but to have understanding. Yet, led by their reason they do not reach or even approach God; and so all their understanding is nothing but vanity. So it follows that there is no hope for men's salvation unless God steps in with a new help. For though the Son of God sheds his light on them, they are so dull that they do not understand the source of that light. They are carried away by foolish and perverse fancies into madness.

There are two main parts to the light which still remains in corrupt nature. First, some seed of religion is sown in everyone; and second, the distinction between good and evil is etched on their consciences. But what are the fruits that eventually come from this, except that religion degenerates to a thousand superstitions, and conscience corrupts all judgment, confusing vice with virtue? In summary, natural reason will never direct men to Christ. The fact that they are endued with wisdom to live their lives by or are born for the humanities and sciences disappears without having any effect.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "John"
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Copyright © 1994 Watermark.
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