If you are already familiar with this passage you will notice that we threw in a couple of puns there. We are talking about Yeshua who came in the flesh and who is the Light of the world. This, of course, refers back to Genesis 1:3 and is why John 1:1-18 is included with the Parashah B’reisheet Torah portion when studied by believers in Yeshua. Here Elohim said, “Let light come to be...” This is not the light from the sun, moon and stars—those were created in verses 14 to 18. This light came first, on the first day, whereas the sun, moon and stars were created on the fourth day. This light is what warmed up the land and gave the plants created on day three what they needed to grow in cooperation with the lower waters that separated from the upper waters on the second day. So we have four days of creation summarized right here: day 1—light, day 2—waters, day 3—land and plants, day 4—sun, moon and stars. Now that it’s ready for living creatures, the earth is filled with fish and birds on day 5, then land animals and finally humans on day 6.

John 1:1-3 is beautiful! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim. He was in the beginning with Elohim. All came to be through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Verse 14, speaking of Yeshua, tells us the “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Right here we are told that Yeshua was a spirit being (an elohim) called the Word who was at the beginning with Elohim and then He was born as a human so He could live with us and die for us. We are told that “without Him was not anything made that was made” and that “He was in the beginning with Elohim.” We already knew that Elohim was the Creator. He created the whole world and everything in it. Now we know that Yeshua, who was with Elohim at the beginning, created everything. Yeshua was at least involved in the creation, if not the actual Creator!

And yet, verse 18 tells us that Yeshua is the Son of Elohim. “No one has ever seen Elohim. The only brought-forth Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He did declare Him.” We know that Yeshua was with the Father and that He was the Son of the Father, so He could tell the world about the Father. We have two beings here, both Elohim—but that’s not hard for us to understand because we already know that elohim are spiritual beings, there are several of them in heaven, and we will become elohim when we are resurrected. The Father was first. He brought forth the Son, and together they proceeded to create the world and everything in it. Perhaps YHWH created the materials and Yeshua created things from them. Now we know that Yeshua was definitely older than the earth, but not quite as old as the Father (if we can speak of them as having age). He was Elohim before he became a man: “And the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us.” He died and was resurrected, making a way for us to follow if we believe in Him, so there is no reason to fear death if we live righteously. After His resurrection He returned to heaven—in the same form we will have after our death and resurrection—but with higher authority. And “thus we shall ever be with Him” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

We call the Father YHWH because He told us that is His name, and we call the Son Yeshua because the angel told Mary that was His Name “for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). “Yeshua” means “YHWH is salvation.” Yeshua is the One sent by YHWH to save mankind from the evil they brought upon themselves in all kinds of ways, beginning with the sin of Adam and Eve. Yeshua is the One who is the fulfilment of Genesis 3:15 where YHWH tells the serpent, “And I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel.” And yet YHWH claims that He Himself is the Saviour in Isaiah 43:11-12. “I, I am YHWH, and besides Me there is no saviour. I, I have declared....that I am El.” This is one reason why many people believe that YHWH and Yeshua are one Being, but we think it is more likely that there is something about the relationship between them that we are simply not able to understand. It’s okay for humans not to fully understand their El, just as it is okay for amoebas not to understand a human. But one day, when we are resurrected, “we shall see Him (Yeshua) as He is because we will be like Him” (1 John 3:2). Verses 3 and 4 say, “And everyone having this expectation in Him cleanses himself, as He is clean. Everyone doing sin also does lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” Lawlessness is doing what Elohim says we should not do or not doing what He says we should do.

John 11:24-27 tells us about a conversation Yeshua had with Martha while her brother Lazarus was dead. She told Yeshua, “I know that he shall rise in the Resurrection at the last day” and Yeshua told her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me, though he dies, he shall live. And everyone that is living and believing in Me shall never die at all.” Martha replies that “...You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is coming into the world” John 11:24-27. Yeshua created the world and then came into the world to save it from the serpent and his seed, to take back dominion of the world, to be our high priest, and to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 42:6). He came to show us what right behaviour looks like. He came to explain YHWH to mankind and to exemplify what His requirements are for dwelling in His house forever.