One Word can Make All the Difference

I am currently reading through Sinclair Ferguson's (FG) book 'In Christ Alone' for part of my devotionals. Today he was dealing with the issue surrounding the translation of John 1:1. It was interesting to see him unravel the interpretation of that text and highlight for me one word, 'the'.

SF stated that in the original Greek, John was careful to structure his sentence in such a way as to ensure that the reader would not misunderstand the implications of his description of the pre-incarnate Christ.

To summarize the chapter, SF shows how the Jehovah's Witnesses have mis-translated the original to read that Jesus was a god. One can only imagine the grammatical, contextual and theological implications of this rendering. Taken to the outer limits this would suggest that if Jesus was only a god and not 'God incarnate' then his birth, life, death and resurrection would lose it's power to save and sustain. In my opinion, if this were true then Jesus is no more than what other faiths claim him to be - a prophet, good teacher, courageous revolutionist - but not God.

SF ends the chapter with, "the Gospel of John, indeed the whole Christian faith, stands or falls with John's opening sentence. Christ as deity, God as Trinity, man's salvation - all depend on John's first words."

Maybe this is one reason why I love John's Gospel so much.