John opens his Gospel, “In the beginning….,” and expositors over the centuries rightly locate John’s prologue as a parallel of Genesis—the Book of Beginnings.
Remarks are made on things like: a) the themes of life, light, darkness, glory and truth in the introduction, b) the sequence of days mentioned later in chapter one—John 1:29; 1:35; 1:39; 1:43, and c) then there’s the opening scene of the wedding at Cana—early on the institution of marriage figures into Christ’s ministry. Can we spell G-e-n-e-s-i-s?Additionally, very importantly, the Gospel presents the seven signs of John—our Lord’s miracles—with the seventh one of raising Lazarus; teachers note that we can see an eighth sign with Jesus’ own resurrection, which rounds out the glory manifested in our Lord’s life.
It merits consideration that the Gospel of Beginnings, the Gospel of John, presents:
1. The new creation with the coming of Jesus Christ. He is the I AM who is Lord of heaven and earth. The creation cannot remain unchanged with its Creator stepping into theater of His world. Trace His steps with healing, walking on water, multiplying food, turning water into wine and more.
2. With the miracle of raising Lazarus, John 11:1-45, roughly half-way through the Book, the signature of Christ’s renewal of the creation with His Almighty voice of authority gets featured, “Lazarus, [death] come forth!” [The Word speaks—“Come this far, and no more” (compare Job 38:10-20)]. Why half-way through the Book and this miracle? Jesus works into the creation newness right now, while He is on the earth. It’s the on-set of the reality that, “behold, all things are new” in Christ Jesus. Men, the earth—all is made new. In the coming of Christ Jesus, the Garden of the Earth begins to be restored. The story of the world unfolds in the gospel stories of the Lord Jesus; John makes sure we get his message—Genesis-ville is plain and clear and now the new creation banners his revelation, “In the beginning…”
G. Mark Sumpter
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