Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John [Annotated, Updated]: A Commentary

by J.C. Ryle

Ignorance of Scripture is the root of every error in religion and the source of every heresy.

No one of the four Gospel writers has given us such full statements about the divinity of Christ, about justification by faith, about the offices of Christ, about the work of the Holy Spirit, and about the privileges of believers as we read in the pages of John. On none of these great subjects, undoubtedly, have Matthew, Mark, and Luke been silent. But in John’s Gospel, they stand out prominently on the surface, unmistakable in meaning.

We learn, firstly, that our Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. John tells us that “in the beginning was the Word.” He did not begin to exist when the heavens and the earth were made. Much less did He begin to exist when the Gospel was brought into the world. He had glory with the Father “before the world was” (John 17:5). He was existing when matter was first created and before time began. He was “before all things” (Colossians 1:17). He was from all eternity. We learn, secondly, that our Lord Jesus Christ is a Person distinct from God the Father, and yet one with Him.

We learn, thirdly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is very God. John tells us that “the Word was God.” He is not merely a created angel, or a being inferior to God the Father, and invested by Him with power to redeem sinners. He is nothing less than perfect God – equal to the Father as touching His Godhead – God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds.

Whatever spiritual life and light Adam and Eve possessed before the fall was from Christ. Whatever deliverance from sin and spiritual death any child of Adam has ever enjoyed since the fall, whatever light of conscience or understanding any one has obtained – all has flowed from Christ.