John 1:1-14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God..."

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)

Question:

This section of Scripture seems to indicate strongly that Jesus is God, that He created everything, and that His words are truth. If this is true, then should I depend on His Word (Scripture) for my light and truth?

Comment:

Your assumptions about this passage would only be true if you assume that Jesus of Nazareth is “the Word” sent from God. There is another way of seeing the passage that makes more sense, I think, in the light of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of John is the most overtly metaphysical of the four gospels; its focus is not on the events of the life of Jesus of Nazareth so much as on the Christ—the infinite spiritual Power that Jesus came to embody and demonstrate. This is clear from these very first verses, which deliberately echo the beginning of the Book of Genesis and present a fresh understanding of the entire process of Creation. The Word—the light that shines in the darkness—is not uniquely Jesus; it is the Christ. It is the indwelling, immediate Presence and Power of God that is the true identity of every person. We’re told at 1:17 that “the law was given through Moses.” That doesn’t mean that Moses was the law; he was the channel through which awareness of the law flowed into our collective human consciousness. Similarly, “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Jesus became fully the Christ in expression, as a shining example of the potential that lives in each and all of us. If you understand “Word” to be “the Christ,” the truth of our spiritual Oneness with God, the passage becomes a ringing affirmation of our innate Oneness with all that God is. 

Blessings!

Rev. Ed