By Pastor Dave Farmer

Prologue of 1 John 1:1-4 Part 2

He is Real! He is not a ghost! John provides four confirmations of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Four Proofs Of The Incarnation - Part 2

1 John 1:1b-e

What was [always existing] from the beginning [incarnation]; what we have heard and His voice is still ringing in our ears; what we have seen with our own eyes and that mental picture of Him is still crystal clear; what we have observed [fully examining Him] and our hands have touched. This [epistle] is about the Logos of [Eternal] Life. Expanded Translation ¹

Gnosticism denied the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They said His body was not real. He was a phantom, a ghost, an optical illusion. The first refutation is the hearing test.

1. WE HAVE HEARD THE LOGOS OF ETERNAL LIFE 1:1B

The perfect tense in this verse is called a dramatic perfect. It is important to know this for it intensifies the verbal action. The regular use of the perfect tense looks at the action in the past coming to the point of completion, and the results continue. The dramatic perfect emphasizes the moment of writing. What he heard in the past was so real, that as he is writing this letter forty years later, his past experiences with the Lord Jesus Christ are as fresh and clear to him as in the day he heard Him speak. This is the use of the dramatic perfect, "what we have heard [perfect tense], and His voice is still ringing in our ears [dramatic perfect]. John says, "when I close my eyes and think back to the time we were together, I hear Him speak, and it is as fresh and vivid and stirring as when I first heard it." A completed process with present result. ²

For instance, John had a front-row seat when the greatest sermon that was ever preached was delivered; he heard the Sermon on the Mount. He heard the Lord Jesus on many occasions. He was there in the upper room, in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, and at the foot of the cross. Most people's memory diminishes after a period of time. This is natural, but John, through the recall ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, could recall Jesus' words perfectly and completely when needed [John 14:26; 15:26,27; 16:7,12,13]. This was a unique ministry given to the Apostles who would need the Spirit's help for upon them fell the privilege and responsibility of writing the New Testament Canon of Scripture.

John 14:26

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance [recall] all that I said to you.

John 15:26–27

26] When the Helper comes [fist advent of the Spirit], whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,

27] in fact you also will testify [through the recall ministry], because you have been with Me from the beginning.

In the upper room, when the future recall ministry of the Holy Spirit was made known by the Lord Jesus Christ, the message about the Church Age is unfinished. The Lord did not have time to give them the whole message. So Jesus told them that, “He, the Holy Spirit, will teach you all things." These verses contain the prophecy of the inspiration of the New Testament Scripture.

The hearing test is now complete. We now move to the second refutation of Gnosticism, which denied the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. WE HAVE SEEN THE LOGOS OF ETERNAL LIFE 1:1C

HORAO, which means TO SEE, goes beyond the mere act of seeing and includes the concepts of understanding and comprehending what is seen. In using this word, John implies that what he saw was no hallucination, no dream, no vision. It was real! The dramatic perfect again is a completed process with present result. The dramatic perfect emphasizes the existing result in a very vivid and realistic way.

A Completed Process

I saw him daily and very seldom left his side. I saw him awake, walking around, eating, embracing others, and asleep. My daily time with Him over the three and half years is a sufficient test as to the fact that He was a real person and not a figment of my imagination. How could we be so deceived, we walked a thousand miles together.

With Present Result

I have a mental picture of Him that is so real to me; it is as if He is right here by my side. I see Him in my mind's eye vividly and clearly. The mental image of Him has not faded one bit.

The seeing test is now complete, so we begin the third refutation of Gnosticism, which denied the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. WE HAVE EXAMINED THE LOGOS OF ETERNAL LIFE 1.1D

THEOMAI, the word examined, also means TO SEE, but in the middle voice denotes "to conclude from observation." It means combining thought with observation and coming to a conclusion. Dr. Wuest gives us this translation, "we gazed upon Him with mingled wonder."³ The sense of wonder and awe is involved in the verbal idea. In fact, the various words in this family of words means "wonder, amazement." For instance, the noun THAUMA [2295] mean "wonder or excitement," and a verb THAUMAZO [2296] connotes "to wonder, to marvel, to be struck with admiration." Dr. Zodhiates defines it:

To behold, view attentively, contemplate, indicating the sense of a wondering consideration involving a careful and deliberate vision which interprets its object.⁴

This is the constative aorist, which means whenever they were in the Lord's presence, they were in awe and admiration of Him. His life was a living drama. Every day a new excitement unfolded. There was never a dull moment. They were completely swept off their feet with regard to Him. He was observed at every stage of His life.

John uses this verb in John 1:14, "The LOGOS became flesh (true humanity) and tabernacled among us and we beheld [theomai] His glory." We saw Him, and our sight of Him was mixed with admiration and amazement. This loving regard John had for the Lord was constant and had not subsided in His absence.

The examination is now complete, so we begin the fourth refutation of Gnosticism, which denied the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. WE HAVE TOUCHED THE LOGOS OF ETERNAL LIFE. 1.1E

The constative aorist of the verb TO TOUCH summarizes the action by gathering up all the times the disciples touch the Lord in a single statement. The most famous moment was when John laid his head on the Lord's chest, that act of touching became a badge of honor to John. Even years after his death, he will be remembered as the one who rested his head on Jesus' bosom.

The Church Father Irenaeus [145-200 A.D.] testifies:

Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.

In the Upper Room, the evening, Jesus was betrayed:

John 13:23

There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.

John 13:25

He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?"

Mary Magdalene anointing Jesus head with oil:

John 12:3

Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

This includes the post-resurrection appearances of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Luke 24:39

“See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

John 20:27

Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

Again after the resurrection near His tomb:

John 20:17

Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’ ”

John is writing about what he saw, heard, examined, and touched. Personal eyewitness testimony is hard to discount. He was there. He knew Jesus. He uses the first person plural WE throughout, which includes all of the Apostles. It would be hard to defend a charge that John was hallucinating if the eyewitness was only one person. Even under the Law of Moses, truth is established by two witnesses [Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; Matthew 18:16]. Scientific experiments require repeated observation and tests to assure the trustworthiness of the facts. John presents the joint testimony of all the Apostles.

ENDNOTES

¹ See exegesis, which supports the translation of 1 John 1:1.

² Dr. Kenneth Wuest, The New Testament: An Expanded Translation, is excellent here.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Zodhiates, S. (2000). The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament(electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.