John 1:1-14 and 17:1-5, the Premortal and Mortal Christ

For my New Testament post this week, I decided to look up John 1:1-14 and 17:1-5.  I thought it was interesting that they both refer to Christ as being ‘Light.’  I thought about why He would be referred to that way, and it made me think about what light is.  It gets rid of darkness, and if you’re inside a room or building, it helps you see where everything is.  It helps you understand where things are, which is kind of what Christ does.  He helps us understand different things we are going through and He gives us guidance, as do headlights on a car.

In these verses, I learned that Christ was called ‘the Word of God’ because of Heavenly Father’s promise to send Him as our Savior.  Christ, in the premortal existence, lived with God in the beginning, had the same glory that God had (and still does have), and created everything under God’s direction.  He was called ‘the Light’ because, like I said earlier, He gives understanding and direction.  He was selected in the premortal existence to be sent to Earth to glorify God.

In His mortal life, the Savior was raised among the Jews, who didn’t recognize Him as who He really was: the Messiah.  Throughout His entire life, Christ was honest, graceful, and very deliberate in all He did.  God gave Christ power over everything.  He was also given the power to grant eternal life to those worthy of it.  With this power, He successfully glorified the Lord here on the earth.

Through this assignment, I learned a little bit about some of the different names/titles for the Savior from the Bible Dictionary and the New Testament institute manual.  ‘Christ’ and ‘Messiah’ are the Greek and Hebrew versions of each other and have identical meaning: ‘the anointed.’  ‘Jehovah’ refers to the premortal Jesus Christ, is the proper name of the God of Israel, and denotes “the Unchangeable One” and “the Eternal I AM.”  In its original form, it literally meant “Help of Jehovah,” “Savior-Deliverer,” or “Jehovah is Salvation.”  I find it especially interesting that the name ‘Jehovah’ was not spoken in ancient Jewish practice for fear of incurring divine wrath.

The name ‘Immanuel’ or ‘Emmanuel’  means “God is with us” and was given as a sign of God’s deliverance. In reference to Christ, it’s expressive of His divine origin and Godship.

Christ is also referred to as ‘The Word,’ which I’ve always thought was interesting.  He is called this because God delegated the responsibility and power of creation to Jesus Christ.  Christ then became the one through whom God’s word was put into effect.  I’ve never thought of it that way before, but it makes sense to me.