Jesus was eternally existent with the Father.
The first mark of divinity that John draws us to is the fact that Jesus was eternally existent with the Father. John takes us back to eternity by identifying Jesus as "The Word" who was in the beginning.
John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
He Is Shown and Revealed as the Creator of the Universe.
John 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
Hebrews 1:8-10 But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions." And: "You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands;
He Is Proclaimed As Life.
John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
No one but God the Father, unbegotten and uncreated, inherently possesses life-in-himself. He is in His very being `the living God'. Human beings, in common with all other living things, do not possess life-in-themselves; their life is derived from God, the source and stay of all life. To the Son alone, begotten but not created, has the Father imparted His own prerogative to have life-in-Himself. – F.F. Bruce.
This was not something that began with the incarnation; but is an eternal act, part and parcel of the unique Father – Son relationship which existed already in the beginning.
In the eternal order of the Father, as Father, imparts to the Son, as Son, that life-in-himself, the Son reveals that life to men and women.
Jesus has come to impart His life giving spirit into each of our lives through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Because He is the resurrection of Life He imparts the eternal spirit of life into our beings.
Jesus Is Proclaimed as the Light of the World.
Another term that is used to describe Jesus' deity is that of light. Light and darkness are often moral terms. Light represents moral purity, holiness, righteousness, and goodness. In contrast, darkness as a moral term represents evil, all those warped and twisted ways in which sin had perverted the good in man, and brought pain to individuals and society.
The moral light is one of the most powerful and pervasive evidences of God's existence. eg. of Peter after catching the fish.
Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"
The deep-seated conviction that there is a moral order to things is present in every human society. But society is in darkness; even though some sense of moral order and rightness exists. People in every society choose to do what they themselves believe is wrong.
This moral awareness in a world running madly after darkness is another testimony to us that light comes from the pre-existent Word. Light, like creation and life itself, shouts out the presence of God behind the world we see. – Lawrence O. Richards.
Tthe theme of Jesus, the Living Word, dominates the Gospel of John. Jesus, full of grace and truth, revealed to us the relationship which God the Father had always yearned to have with humankind. As His sons and daughters, a way of life is revealed to us by the splendor of grace rather than by human devises.
We must see Jesus as He is, God's ultimate Word of revelation. We must hear His Word, come to understand and believe in Him. When we trust ourselves to Jesus, forever, and daily, we will learn what it means to "have eternal life in Him."
