See Him in Simon Peter's boat. Again He was tired and went to sleep (Matt. 8:23-27) — evidence of His humanity. Shortly afterward a storm threatened to sink the vessel, but He commanded the howling winds and the heaving waves to be still, producing a total, absolute calm — proof of His deity. Where does the one end and the other begin?

See Him, next, in the stricken Bethany home. His friend Lazarus had just died and been laid to rest. His grieving sisters were inconsolable. John tells us that "Jesus wept" (John 11:35) and that He "groaned in the spirit and was troubled" — evidence of His humanity. A few minutes later He commanded dead Lazarus to come back to life — evidence of His deity. Where does the one end and the other begin?

Far from beginning and ending, the two natures were, in fact, so blended they evince that ever and always He was both God and man — the God-man.

John begins there. He does not introduce himself, nor does he follow Paul's style and sign his letter. Rather, he gets right down to business: "That which was from the beginning," he says. Here, beginning refers to the Incarnation, at which the wonderful story of Christ's invasion of our planet begins.

John's gospel begins with similar words — "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). Here, beginning does not imply a start but a state. It does not mean that Christ had a beginning but, on the contrary, is a reference to the Lord's eternal preexistence. This is reinforced as John continues in his gospel with the statement "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John then describes the Lord's role in Creation. Here, in his epistle, when John refers to a "beginning," he wants us to envision One who had an eternal preexistence but who, at a specific moment in time, entered into human life on planet Earth. When any other baby is born, it marks the beginning of a new life. When Jesus was born, it signified something quite different; it marked the coming into this world of a person who had existed from all eternity. The Lord Jesus did not have a beginning. He was!

John continues, exclaiming, "We have heard! We have seen with our eyes! We have looked upon! Our hands have handled!" The humanity of the Lord Jesus was genuine enough, as well John knew. So much for the "high sounding nonsense" of the Gnostics (Col. 2:8). John had heard Jesus speak many times, had seen Him with his own eyes, and had looked upon Him year after year. John uses two words for seeing. Here the word for "seen" is horao, meaning to see with the physical eye.

The claims of the Gnostics notwithstanding, John had been there, and they hadn't; he had seen with his eyes, and they hadn't. The testimony of an eyewitness is far more convincing than the high-flown philosophies of dreamers and speculators. The word used for "looked upon" is theaomai, which means to view with attention, to gaze, to look with admiration. John used this word in his gospel when he said, "We beheld his glory" (John 1:14).