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1 John 1:1–2
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it.”
Yesterday we considered the purpose that John gives for writing his first epistle: that his readers would know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Before he begins to develop the tests by which such assurance may be cultivated, John opens his letter with a remarkable prologue. He grounds the entire epistle in the historical reality of the incarnation and in the Apostolic testimony to that reality.
Verse 1 piles up phrases that might seem redundant but in fact carry theological weight. John writes of “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.” The opening phrase, “that which was from the beginning,” echoes the opening of John’s gospel and points to the eternal preexistence of the Son. The Word who took on flesh as Jesus of Nazareth was not a creature elevated by special anointing, as the false teachers troubling John’s congregation alleged. He was the eternal Word, with the Father from all eternity.
Yet this same eternal Word was heard, seen, and even touched by John and the other Apostles. The verbs in the prologue are a deliberate refutation of the proto-Gnostic teaching that the divine Christ only seemed to take on a human body. John insists that the Christ whom the Apostles proclaim is the same Christ whose voice they heard in Galilee, whose face they saw at the Last Supper, and whose wounded hands they touched after the resurrection. The incarnation is sober historical fact.
This matters for our assurance. The Christian gospel is not built on private mystical visions or esoteric knowledge. It is built on the public testimony of eyewitnesses who knew the risen Christ in His bodily reality. Their proclamation is open to all who will receive it. John Calvin observes that John writes here of “that life [that has been] exhibited to us in Christ,” and which is offered to us through that very testimony.
Verse 2 underscores the point. The life was made manifest and seen by the Apostles, and they testify to what they have seen. The eternal life that John offers his readers is not an abstract principle or private experience. It is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who entered our world and was known by those whose testimony Scripture preserves for us.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The historical reliability of the incarnation is the very foundation of our hope. When doubts assail us, let us return to the Apostolic testimony in Scripture, remembering that the Christ who walked the roads of Galilee now reigns at the Father’s right hand and intercedes for us still.
For further study
- Luke 24:36–43
- John 20:24–29
- Acts 1:1–3
- 2 Peter 1:16–18
The bible in a year
- Proverbs 2–4
- 1 Corinthians 14