The Word Is God’s Son

The Word Is God’s Son

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

This is the first time that John called the Word the only Son of the Father. You might have wondered who the Word was when John said, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1), “Through him all things were made” (v. 3), and “In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (v. 4). In this passage you can see that the Word, who existed with the Father from eternity and is the light for humanity, is God’s only Son. The Word alone is the Son, and no one else. Now we know what John meant when he used the term Word. From verse 14 on, John will speak plainly about Christ’s kingdom. Up to this point, he spoke with strange and unusual words. They weren’t clear in any language. But now he says, “The Word is the one and only Son.”

God also has many other children. However, he has only one Son through whom he created everything. The other children are not the Word through whom everything was created. Rather, these children were created through this only Son, who is coequal Creator of heaven and earth with the Father. All the others became children through the Son. The Word alone is, as Paul states, the only “Son of God” (Romans 1:4). Through him, God makes and rules all things.

We must hold this passage from the book of John in the highest honor. We should comfort ourselves with it in times of sorrow and temptation. We should hold on to it in faith, because it reminds us that we are children of God.