Is Jesus God in John 1:1,14

John 1:1,14
This is the common point being used by Christ-is-God proponents. But obviously the verse doesn’t explicitly say that Christ is God. The more justification they made the more complicated the argument becomes so much so that it casts more reasonable doubts.

The verse is “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (v14) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”


They say that the WORD being mentioned is Christ. Accordingly, Christ is the LOGOS or Word of God as translated in English. Hence, for this equivocation the verse is loosely interpreted as

“In the beginning was the Christ, and the Christ was with God, and the Christ was God. (v14) And the Christ was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”


With this clever substitution, they extract meaning from it as follows:

1) Christ was there in the beginning. He had pre-existence.
2) Christ was and is God.
3) Christ was made flesh. Christ incarnates.

These extracted meanings even warrant further verification. These must be checked if supported by other verses of the bible.

The question whether Christ has pre-existence will be discussed sometime in this blog. Iglesia ni Cristo rejects the idea of pre-existence.

The verse (John 1:1,14) should be discerned as plain as possible without creating further assertions.

LOGOS is best understood by associated words such reason, logic, thought, principle, standard, statement. LOGOS is an abstract. It cannot be assigned to a person or entity.

In verse 14, it says “the LOGOS was made flesh and dwelt among us”. There is no argument that the flesh being referred to is none other than Jesus Christ.

So how should we understand the idea of an ABSTRACT was “made flesh”? The only best way to understand it is to compare it with other writings of John. We must compare spiritual things to spiritual. (1 Cor 2:13)

Compare John 1:1,14 and 1 John 1:1-3

Thus,
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 shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. ( John 1:1-3)

The keywords found on this verse are beginning, Word of life, manifest, and fellowship.
If we extend our comparison of John Chapter 1 to the entire first chapter of 1 John, we would notice a resemblance. Other keywords are witness, and light.
So then, what is this something that is in the beginning? In the beginning was the PROMISE of eternal life as written in 1 John 2:24-25, thus,

Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.


So it makes a complete sense. The WORD being directly referred to in John 1:1, 14 is the PROMISE of the eternal life. The verse should be rendered as,

“In the beginning was the PROMISE, and the PROMISE was with God, and the PROMISE was God. (v14) And the PROMISE was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

This PROMISE of God was before the world began (Titus 1:2) through the prophets in the holy scriptures (Romans 1:2). The phrase “PROMISE was made flesh” is synonymous to “PROMISE being fulfilled in Christ” (Acts 13:32-33) or “PROMISE being MANIFESTED (1 John 1:2).

But why does it say :”WORD was God”?

The word “God” in the phrase “and the Word was God” is taken as an adjective and NOT a noun as opposed to the phrase “and the Word was a God”. The missing article “a” spells the difference.

The said expression should mean “the WORD was divine”. In the Mofatt translation of the verse, it says,

“THE Logos existed in the very beginning, the Logos was with God, the Logos was divine.”