Darkness is a common metaphor when things aren’t right. Movies will often dim the backdrop when shifting to scenes with a villain. Music will sometimes contains lyrics about what’s done under the darkness of night, like something promiscuous. Joseph Conrad wrote a story called The Heart of Darkness, where a man named Kurtz enslaves people in Congo and murders any who stand in his way.

Or, coming up on Christmas, consider the way Charles Dickens portrays Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. The night that Marley’s ghost visits, Scrooge trims his candle as he walks upstairs to bed. Dickens says, “Half a dozen gas lamps out of the street wouldn’t have lighted the entry too well, so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge’s dip [i.e., his candle].” But that actual darkness then becomes a metaphor for Scrooge’s stingy nature and cold-hearted isolation. “Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.”

The Bible also uses darkness to picture when things aren’t right. John’s Gospel is one of those places. Darkness represents a world estranged from God. In John 3:19-20, people in darkness practice evil deeds. Like Scrooge, they prefer the darkness. In John 12:35, people in darkness don’t know where they’re going—there’s a sense of moral ignorance. They lack guidance in truth. Everything is blackened by sin, by death, and by the devil. Such darkness often makes the world a weary place to live.

We need light, true light. We need the kind of light that pierces our darkness with hope; the kind of light that reveals God’s presence in our estrangement; the kind of light that darkness cannot master. That’s what we find in Jesus. The Bible says that he is the light shining into our weary darkness and nothing can overcome him. But let’s see what that entails from verses 1-18. How exactly does this light of God’s Son shine into our darkness? And what might that mean for us this Advent? Verse 1…

¹ 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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸ He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. ⁹ The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

John begins his story with the Word. Some take this title as a shot against Greek philosophies, which would use the term logos (or “word”) to explain the universe. More likely, John’s backdrop is the Old Testament. In Genesis 1, God’s word creates—so also here in verse 3. God’s word enacts his purpose to redeem—so also here in verse 14. God’s word also reveals who God is—so also here in verse 18.

Repeatedly in the Old Testament, God’s word is his self-revelation. God’s word is his personal expression in creation and redemption. But here that self-revelation reaches its climax in the Word made flesh. That’s why verse 17 says, “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The point isn’t that grace and truth was never known before in the Law, but that grace and truth revealed in the Law now reaches its climax in Jesus. That written word anticipated this embodied Word.

1. The Word’s Eternal Existence

But before the Word becomes flesh, what do we learn of him? We learn first of the Word’s eternal existence. Verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word.” John alludes to those famous words from Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” But unlike the heavens and the earth, which had a beginning, the Word simply was. The Word never had a beginning. He never came into existence. He just was.

A man named Arius once argued—and some still do today—that verse 1 means he preceded creation but not that he was eternal. But consider verses 2 and 3 again: “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Only two categories exist in the universe: the Maker and what was made. The Word belongs to the Maker category. John’s point in verse 1 is careful: before there was anything, the Word simply was.

2. The Word’s Personal Communion with God the Father

Second, we learn of the Word’s personal communion with God the Father. Verse 1, “and the Word was with God.” In John’s writings the title “God” often refers to God the Father. That’s who’s in view here alongside the Word. Verse 14 clarifies this relationship further: the Word is “the only Son from the Father.” Verse 18 also helps: the Son is “at the Father’s side.” So, when we read, “and the Word was with God,” we’re seeing a personal distinction between the Word and God the Father.

And since the Word had no beginning, he must exist in eternal relation to the Father. The true God is a relational being. That makes him very different from, say, the single-person god of Islam. Islam teaches that Allah is a solitary monad, with unity only. He has no need of a son, they say; he cannot be a relational being.

But if God is a monad, he can’t be truly loving. Love is something one person has for another. Allah actually needs man in order to be loving. But the God of Christianity needs nobody to be loving. In John 17:24, Jesus mentions this mutual love between Father and Son before the foundation of the world. The Father loves his Son quite apart from creation, quite apart from man. Which should amaze us that he chooses to love us, rebels as we are, and bring us into his love.

3. The Word’s Divine Nature as God

Third, we learn of the Word’s divine nature as God. End of verse 1, “and the Word was God.” So, according to verse 1, the Word is both distinct in person from the Father and one with the Father in God-ness. Now, Jehovah’s Witnesses have The New World Translation; Unitarians will do the same. If you look at John 1:1 in their translations it says, “the Word was a god.” According to them, he was divine-like, angelic perhaps, but he definitely wasn’t the one and only God.

However, you already know that can’t be a good translation from verse 3. Angelic beings were made. Anything less than God was made. And the Word wasn’t made. He fits in the God category. He’s not just a god. He is the Creator God. Verse 18 helps as well: “No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” There too the Word is distinct in person—he’s at the Father’s side; and as the “only God” he possesses what’s divine.

That’s why Christians have confessed that Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God…of the same essence as the Father”—that’s language taken from the Nicene Creed. In AD 325, some insisted that the Son of God was a created being. But the assertions here pressured the church to maintain that Jesus is God.

4. The Word as Light in Darkness

Fourth, the Word as light. Verse 4, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Just as God has life in himself, the Son has life in himself (John 5:26). In John’s Gospel, life isn’t merely physical vitality; it’s also spiritual vitality, “eternal” life. It speaks more to the quality of life experienced with knowing God (John 17:3).

This life, he says, “was the light of men.” In what sense? In the Old Testament, God often revealed himself in light: the torch with Abraham; the burning bush with Moses; the pillar of fire with Israel; the light of God’s glory-cloud at the tabernacle in Exodus 40. Later, the prophets anticipated how the light of God’s word would guide all nations (Isa 2:5). Light became associated with the self-revelation of God’s presence, guidance, and blessing. Here John shows how the Word is “the true light” (verse 9); he is the ultimate self-revelation of God’s presence, guidance, and blessing.

That’s a big deal, given how John views the world as darkness. The eternal Word is someone outside the darkness. He’s someone unaffected by the darkness. Verse 5 says, he shines into the darkness. But how is it that he shines? Does he send photons from heaven? Does he shine from some secret place? Verse 9 answers: “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” He shines in the darkness by coming into the world.

5. The Word Became Flesh

That leads us to the next observation: the Word became flesh. Verse 14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” When John says, “the Word became flesh,” he doesn’t mean the Word forfeited or limited his nature as God. He means the Word added to himself a human nature. Not deity turned into man. Not man swallowed up by deity. But one person with two natures: truly God and truly man. Colossians 2:8 says, “in [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

But notice that John also says, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That word, “dwelt,” means that God “tabernacled” among us. Think Exodus with me. What did the tabernacle represent in the wilderness? We could say it was the place where heaven meets earth. God wasn’t contained to the tabernacle. But it was the place where God chose to manifest his presence. He told Moses to build it, “that I may dwell in their midst” (Exod 25:8). It was also the place where God revealed his glory. Once they completed the tabernacle in Exodus 40:34, “the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”

It was also the place where God provides to meet with his people. Something like a tabernacle was necessary to show people that God is holy; and if sinful people are going to approach him, it must be on his terms. But God is also loving and merciful. He draws near to man and makes provision for them to meet with him. Exodus 25:22, “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat…I will speak with you.” Exodus 29:42, “It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory…I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God.”

Of course, later the temple would replace the tabernacle and serve the same purpose in Israel. But now John says, “the Word became flesh and dwelt/tabernacled among us.” Meaning, in the person of Jesus, heaven meets earth most truly. We see God spreading his glory-tent among us most truly. Jesus is the place where God manifests his presence most fully. Jesus is the place where God reveals his glory most clearly. Jesus is the place where God provides in the ultimate way to meet with his people. It’s no wonder that, later in John 2:19, Jesus’ body replaces the temple. He is God’s true dwelling place.

That’s an amazing mystery the gospel confronts us with. It’s a claim that makes Christianity unique. Our God is unlike the god of Islam, who can’t be closely involved with creation. He’s unlike the god of Docetism, who can only disguise himself as human. He’s unlike the god of Deism, who doesn’t make himself known to us. He’s unlike the god of all other religions, who requires man to work his way up to God.

Our God comes down. He enters the world he made. He is high; but he also draws near. He shines the light of his presence into our darkness. That’s the good news of the incarnation—not man working his way to God; not man becoming a god; but God coming down to save man. And when God the Son comes down in the person of Jesus, we see God fully. That’s why John finishes verse 18 with, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

We sometimes use the word “exegesis,” which means to bring out what’s truly there, to expound on something with great detail. Jesus exegetes God for us. He tells the whole story of who God is and what God is like. Knowing God isn’t a mystery. He’s not hiding from us. To know Jesus is to know God. Going back to the light metaphor, he is the ultimate self-revelation of God’s presence, guidance, and blessing.

A Few Takeaways for Advent

Beloved, God hasn’t left us in the dark—that’s one reason to rejoice this Advent season. More recently, some skeptics have objected to God’s existence based on the argument of divine hiddenness. The basic question is, “If God exists, why isn’t it more obvious? Wouldn’t a perfectly loving God reveal himself more clearly?” About a year ago, Gavin Ortlund released a helpful response to this objection.

Ortlund first says that we should evaluate how we expect a loving God to reveal himself. “Our expectations about the nature of love and how love should act” might be misplaced. Second, Ortlund says we should “consider how God reveals himself through our conscience.” Innate to human nature is a sense of right and wrong, which points to an eternal Law-giver. But I want you to listen to his third point in relation to what we’ve been talking about—God’s self-revelation in the incarnation. Ortlund asks,

What would happen if God was fully revealed? What if God wrote in the clouds every day at noon, ‘I am God’? Or what if…the incarnation happened to a man who was six yards tall rather than six feet tall? Would that kind of clarity actually be good for us? Well, Blaise Pascal says, No, because our fundamental problem in relation to God is not ignorance but sin. And a full unveiling of God would not touch our deepest need. In fact, it might just harden us further. Think of Pharaoh hardening his heart during the plagues in the book of Exodus, for example. And it’s not hard today to find atheists who will acknowledge that they wouldn’t worship God even if they saw a miracle. Kierkegaard once said that the way God has revealed himself to us is best designed to meet our real need; and to illustrate this he told the parable of a king who fell in love with a poor maiden. And the King realized a problem of, “How will I reveal my love to her?” He could command her to be the queen. But that’s not the ideal way to earn love. Then he thought, “Well, I could shower her with royal gifts. But how would I ever know whether she loved me for myself or just for the gifts?” Finally, he realizes there’s only one way forward. He took off his crown, relinquished his scepter, laid aside his royal robes, and he took upon himself the life of a peasant. He became as ragged as the one he loved, so that she could be his forever. It was the only way. His raggedness became the very signature of his presence. Well, this is what Christians believe that God has done in the person of Jesus Christ. An incarnate God who is born in a manger and dies on a cross may be best designed to meet our deepest problem and that is our pride and our resistance to God.”[i]

End quote. That’s very close to what John explains in his Gospel. God hasn’t left us in the darkness. Through the incarnation, God’s light shines in the darkness. He shines in a way that’s most fitting to our greatest need; and our greatest need was for God to deal with our sin problem by becoming man and dying on the cross. Question is, will you come to his light? The problem isn’t that God is too hidden. But that sin keeps you from seeing the light of his presence revealed in Jesus Christ.

John puts it this way in verse 9-10: “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world didn’t know him. He came to his own, and his own people didn’t receive him.” Why? Later in 3:19 we learn this: “the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” Like Ebenezer Scrooge, they liked darkness.

But for those who come to the Light—if you receive the Light—John says in verse 12 that he will “give you the right to become children of God.” Later in 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Then Jesus again in 12:46, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” Jesus also tells his disciples, “believe in the light, that you may become sons of light” (John 12:35).

So, the Light shines into our darkness not only to reveal God but also to transform us—that’s another reason to rejoice this Advent. The Light shines into the darkness to lead us out of it. In Ephesians 5:6-13, Paul encouraged the church with the same truth: “at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Hear again the past tense of Paul’s words: “Christian, you were darkness.” What happened? The phrase, “in the Lord”—that’s what happened. Nobody becomes light on their own. You only become light in the Lord—God puts you into a relationship with Jesus. Christ transforms us from being darkness to being light in the Lord.

Paul then tells us what that means. As light, we can no longer partner with darkness—things like sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, crude joking. We now have different values shaped by the light of Christ. We can’t participate in these evil behaviors. As light, we also commit ourselves to all that is good and right and true, Paul says. Christ shows incredible interest in the welfare of others—he’s good—so we bear his light in doing good to others. Christ is committed to moral uprightness, so we bear his light by dealing uprightly with others. Christ speaks the truth, so we bear his light by showing concern for truth. Christ exposes darkness to change others into light, so we bear his light by exposing darkness, and God uses that to change others into light.

So, perhaps one thing to ask yourself this Advent is this: how has the Light of Christ transformed you? How is the light of Christ transforming you now? What darkness has the light of Christ exposed? In what ways are you now bearing the light of Christ to others? The Light shines in the darkness to lead us out of it.

Finally, another reason to rejoice: the darkness cannot overcome the Light. Look again at verse 5. Some translations will have, “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it.” But the sense could also be (as the ESV has it) “and the darkness cannot overcome it.” The only other place this verb appears is John 12:35. Jesus says, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.” Same sense seems present in 1:5.

Also, when you trace this theme of darkness in John’s Gospel, the darkness gradually encroaches on Jesus (who is the Light of the world)—till you get to Judas going out to betray Jesus. At that point, the text says, “and it was night.” Then you get the passion narrative and darkness swallowing up the light of the world in death. For John, the cross is the darkest moment in history.

But that’s not the end of the Gospel. Three days later, the Light shines again is resurrection power. In other words, the darkness cannot overcome the Light of Jesus. He entered the darkness on purpose to save us from it; and his resurrection life is our guarantee that the darkness cannot overcome us. 1 John 2:8 says, “the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” The new world is coming, beloved.

You know, the only other occurrence of the verb “he dwelt/tabernacled among us”—the only other place it appears in the New Testament is Revelation. Revelation 7:15, we get a picture of the end: “[The saints] are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence [or tabernacle over them].” Again in Revelation 21:3, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell/tabernacle with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

You know what else will characterize that day? Light. The purest light from the presence of God in Jesus Christ. All nations will walk by the light of his presence, guidance, and blessing. Revelation 22:4 says, “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” That’s our hope—the Light’s first advent guarantees his second advent.

Last night, we hosted a Christmas concert. Graham Jones played through an album called Good News, Great Joy. The lyrics of his opening song went like this:

Sometimes, I know, it sounds too much like fairy tales to be true
While our broken world by its physics spins aloft
Some days, I know, it feels like faith has flown away from you
And then years go by without you ever feeling a spark
But don’t you know?
The story’s still alive in you
We have this hope:
There is no shadow where His light cannot shine through
And He is with you when you’re in this darkness, too.

[i] Gavin Ortlund, “Divine Hiddenness: A Christian Response,” YouTube (September 30, 2024), accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO4-cSNIUAg&t=313s. In this video, he summarizes a longer response to Alex O’Connor, given on November 5, 2023.