John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (Jn.1:1-3).

In the beginning, that is, when time and creation began, the Word, Jesus, was there. We saw in the first article that this teaches us that Jesus is eternal. Being eternal is an attribute of Divinity. In the second statement John said (literal), “and the Word was with the God.”

Please take note of the definite article, “the God”.  We can paraphrase : “and the Word was eternally with the God.”  John’s statement distinguishes the Word from the God (Father). In vs.18 “God” is identified with “the Father”. John is saying to us that the Word and the God are two distinct eternal Persons. In other words, there is more to the God who is one than just God the Father. There is also the eternal Word, who is the Son of God. Later on, John would introduce us to the third distinct eternal Person, the Holy Spirit.

God is a Triune God, one Being with one divine nature and essence and subsisting in three distinct co-equal, co-eternal Persons. The Father is distinctly the Father. The Son is distinctly the Son. The Holy Spirit is distinctly the Holy Spirit. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The Trinity or Triunity of the God who revealed Himself to us in the Bible is one of the great mysteries about our incomprehensible God. In the Divine economy 1 + 1 + 1 = 1. Man was created in the image of God and in the mystery of marriage, 1 (male) + 1 (female) = 1.   

What does John mean when he said, “the Word was “with” the God”. The word “with” is the Greek pros and it conveys the idea that the Word is face to face with God, that is, that the Word is in active face to face fellowship and communion with the God. Or put another way, there was eternal intercommunion between the Word and the God. Such fellowship reaffirms the existence of two distinct (separate) eternal Beings. The further point is that the Word was not an emanation from the God, as the heretical Gnostics were teaching in John’s day, and as some teach even today.

Leon Morris wrote, “Not only did the Word exist “in the beginning”, but He existed in the closest possible connection with the Father. This expression does differentiate between the two.” Morris added, “The Word and God are not identical. But they are one.” Gordon Keddie wrote, “He was with the Father, but a distinct personality from the Father.”

Do you believe the doctrine of the Trinity or Triunity of God revealed to us in the Bible? This revelation about God comes to us from God. The revelation of this great and mysterious doctrine was not made up by the Old Testament prophets or the New Testament apostles. If this doctrine is offensive or difficult for you to believe because it defies the logic of your finite mind, take a moment and carefully consider how John’s Jewish readers would have responded.

John’s goal was to convince his Jewish readers to believe in Christ as their Messiah and the Son of God. Why then would John set out, in the opening verse of his gospel message, to deeply offend his Jewish readers? John’s goal was not to offend. John’s goal was to tell the truth, to share with his readers the true gospel that Jesus taught the apostles.  

Divinely revealed truth may offend. But it is this divinely revealed truth of the gospel that saves the sinner. John preached the truth, unlike many today who are sugarcoating the gospel in order to make it attractive to the hearer. But in the process, they are making it into an unbiblical gospel that Paul strongly condemned in Gal.1. John’s trust was in the Holy Spirit to do the saving, unlike many today, who are using a variety of man-devised methods to convince people to come and be “born again”.

Understand this very clearly : if you cannot believe in the Triunity of God as revealed to us in the Bible, then you cannot be saved from your sins. You cannot be saved because you will not be able to believe that the Christ, the Son of God, is Jesus. It is Christ Jesus who came into this world to save sinners.  And Christ Jesus is the ONLY Savior of sinners.