John 1.1-14 – A Paraphrase

A long time ago, even before the universe was made, there was the Word. The Word was right next to God, and everything that was true of God was also true of the Word. He was with God at the very genesis of the universe, from its very inception. And it was through him that the universe came into being, without him there would be literally nothing, rather than something like the universe. In him was an abundant life, and this life provided a light to every living person. The light shone into the darkest of darknesses, and the darkness did not stand a chance of extinguishing it.

God commissioned and sent a special man named Jack. He came onto the stage of Israel’s history so that he could provide a bold testimony about this divine light, so that anyone who heard his testimony might entrust themselves to the light. Just to be clear, Jack himself was not the light, it was rather his job to testify about the light. Jack spoke up because the awesome and authentic light, who illuminates the heart and minds of everyone, was about to come into our world.  In fact, when the light was in the world, no one in the world really knew who he was, despite the fact that the world was made through him. He even introduced himself to his own people, Israel, and for the most part they pretty much just snubbed him to put it mildly. And yet, and yet, to those who did realize who he actually was, to those who believed from where he came and even in his name, to those persons he gave them one of the great privileges in the history of the cosmos, he made them princes and princes of the living God. Royal children, not born from the normal pool of DNA, not planned by a gynaecologist, not conceived from the libido of a husband, but born from the heart of God.

And the Word became enfleshed as a human being, exactly like one of us. He pitched his tent in our own neck of the woods. And we have seen his radiant magnificence, the glory of the Father’s unique one-of-a-kind Son, full of undeserved favour and truth without spin.