My wife and I went to church together on Sunday. One of the great joys of our married life is to worship the Lord together. I was with her, and she was with me—two people, together as one.
As Christians, we believe in the triune God because that is how He reveals Himself in His Word. The fact that we have a hard time reasoning it out is beside the point. It is a matter of revelation, and revelation always takes precedence over reason.
Well, when the Apostle John introduces Jesus in his gospel, he begins by telling us that Jesus is God. But at the same time, he says that Jesus was with God. In John 1:1-2 he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God”. Remember, in John’s Gospel “the Word” is Jesus Christ, for in verse 14 John says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
In verse 1, however, he clearly states that the Word was God. In other words, John says that Jesus Christ is the God of heaven, but at the same time he says twice, “And the Word was with God” (verses 1 and 2).
The word “with” is a Greek preposition that has different meaning depending on whether it is used with the genitive case, or the dative case, or the accusative case. Well, here it is used with the accusative case to express relationship. Therefore, it means “with” in the sense of “in the company with.”
So John is saying that Jesus is God. But he is also saying that Jesus is “in the company with” God. Now that is going to be very important to everything else John tells us about Jesus. Jesus will talk to God, but at the same time He will say, “I and my father are one” (John 10:30). Jesus is God, and He is with God. John says both are true.
Now you know the real meaning of the word.
Think on this today: Jesus cannot be your Savior unless He is God. Now, that’s the bottom line.