Reading Scripture: John 1:1
Verse to Memorize: John 1:1
Reference: 1 John 1:5; Genesis 1:1
Goal: To help believers understand the origin of God who existed as the Word in the beginning and to help them possess the faith of fathers and become God’s true children who please God
Today many people in the world go after futile things and wander aimlessly since they do not know where all things in the world and the space came from, who supervises the vast universe, and who the true Deity is.
They do not know where they came from, where they are going, and why they are living on the earth. That is, without understanding life’s true goal and the true value of life, they just live in the world as they want. Just like a tree without roots, they have no knowledge of the origin of human beings and lead meaningless lives day after day.
Through this message, if anyone is able to realize the origin of God the Creator and understand how human beings came to exist, however, he/she will be able to believe in the living God and follow the duty of men.
1. God the Origin existed as the Word in the beginning
John 1:1 tells us about God the Origin who was in the beginning, that is, it tells us about the origin of God. What does ‘in the beginning’ mean? It refers to the time ‘before eternity’ when only God the Origin alone existed throughout the entire space of the universe.
Here, this whole space includes not only the vast universe of the first heaven where we live, but also the bigger and more spacious spiritual realm that spreads without bounds or limits transcending our imagination. In this infinite space, God the Origin existed by Himself before eternity. All things on the earth have limits and they have the ‘beginning’ and the ‘end’, so most people do not understand what the phrase ‘in the beginning’ really means.
Then, why does John 1:1 say “In the beginning was the Word” instead of saying “In the beginning was God”? This is because in the beginning God did not exist in the form He has now. As 1 John 1:5 says, “God is Light” He existed in the form of beautiful light and sound with no need of any specific image. He covered the whole space as the Light that contains sound. The Light surrounded the vast universe and in the Light was sound. The sound is the Word.
God existed as the Word in the beginning, but as His appointed time came He put on a form to allow for people to be cognizant of His existence.
People in the world have limits so they seek real visible and tangible images in everything. That is why they have been looking for visible gods and making idols. But how can the idols that people make be the true Deity who created heavens and the earth and all things in them and supervises life, death, fortune, and misfortune and even human history?
2. God the Origin planned human cultivation
In the beginning God the Origin existed in the form of the Word. As the time came, He made a plan, that is, human cultivation. This plan is to create human beings on the earth, let them multiply, lead them to become God’s children who resemble Him, take them into the beautiful Heaven, and share love and happiness with them forever.
With such a plan for human cultivation in His heart, God performed everything step by step in preparation for it. The first step was to divide the spaces. There was just the space in the beginning, but God divided this space into several spaces for human cultivation. After the division, an important incident occurred.
God the Origin, who had existed in the form of the original light and the original voice, came to exist as the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is like God the Father begot God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. That is why the Bible tells us that Jesus is the Son of God or that He is the only begotten Son of God. Hebrews 5:5 also says, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.'”
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit came from God the Origin and They are One in heart and power. Philippians 2:6-7 reads, “[Christ Jesus], although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
3. The image of God the Trinity
God the Origin, who existed in the Light with sound, put on the form of God the Trinity for human cultivation. What kind of form did He wear? We can understand it by reading the Scripture on God’s creation of man.
Genesis 1:26 reads, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'” Here, ‘We’ refers to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and man was created in the image of God the Trinity.
In other words, we can understand what kind of image the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have by reading the above Scripture?Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness”. Of course, to make man in God’s image according to His likeness means that man was made according to God’s likeness and image not only in appearance but also in the heart. The man was made as a spiritual being filled with the truth and the man’s heart was created with resemblance to God’s heart.
However, people lost the image that they had when they were created due to the first man Adam’s disobedience and they got stained with sin and evil more and more. If people know they were made according to God’s likeness they have to recover the lost image of God.
4. God created men to gain true children
God the Trinity created things one by one in the divided spaces. When He existed in the form of Light and sound, He did not need any place to live. But after putting on a form He came to need many things such as dwelling places and the archangels and angels that would serve Him. So He made spiritual beings first in the spiritual realm. After the betrayal of Lucifer, He created the earth and all things in the space we are living in.
All things on the earth were created after God the Trinity and heavenly hosts and angels had lived for a countless period of time. God created all surroundings for men to live in and then He made man last in accordance with His image. Then, what is the reason God made men though He had countless cherubim and angels that served Him? This is because God wanted to gain true children.
Here, ‘true children’ are the ones who resemble God and share true love with Him. Except for a very special few, all the heavenly hosts and angels obey the Word of God unconditionally and serve Him like robots. On the contrary, people can obey and love God from the bottom of their hearts in their free will.
Even though robots do everything as one wants, nobody likes the robots more than their own children. The children with whom they can share their hearts must be more lovely and better than any robot. People can obey God and love Him with their heart in their freewill.
Of course, it is not possible for people to be able to understand the heart of God and share love with Him from their birth. Only when they undergo many things in life’s journey, they come to feel the love of God who is true and realize what the duty of men, can they love God from the bottom of their hearts and obey. Their love does not come from others’ coercion. Their obedience to the Word of God does not come from fear of Him. They love God and thank Him in their freewill and their love is unchanging.
In order to gain these true children who He can share His love with, God planned to cultivate human beings and created Adam as the first man. By understanding this, I hope you can more clearly understand the origin of the Triune God who is cultivating human beings and recover His image, and become joy to the Father God.
