Have you ever wondered whether the Apostle John wrote the Prologue of his Gospel after he wrote the main body of the Gospel?

After all, the best preaching coaches tell us to prepare the body of the sermon before we top and tail it.

I wonder, too, whether John had a few goes at drafting the Gospel, starting with more material than he needed, editing, shaping, chiselling, playing with the structure and knocking it into the shape we now enjoy it in.

Or did the Holy Spirit take hold of him and have him write ‘In the beginning’ from the beginning? Does anyone who believes in the ‘God-breathed’ scriptures still believe in their mechanical inspiration? I’m going with the labour intensive method rather than the mindless mechanical model.

And for the same reason I’m going for the Prologue, not as the first words that were committed to parchment and certainly not as an afterthought, but as a carefully crafted introduction sometime during the process of the whole thing taking shape. Whatever you think, the pitch perfect Prologue of John (either 1:1-18 or 1:1-51), is driven by a great purpose.

It is a purpose-driven prologue and for that expression I hasten to acknowledge by way of appreciation or apology the pithy phrase penned by Pastor Rick Warren.

We know that John tells us his purpose in writing the Gospel is so that the reader will believe that Jesus is the Christ (or that the Christ is Jesus), the Son of God, and that by believing we will have life in his name (John 20:31).

It’s hard to imagine that these weren’t the first words John wrote, at least in draft form. The prologue, and in fact the whole Gospel, is driven by this purpose. So the Prologue is purpose-driven rather than the Prologue being the driver.

And if a key point in the purpose statement is to convince people that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and if the ‘Son of God’ is part of Nathanael’s testimony about Jesus, then it may add even more weight to my argument that the Prologue be extended to encompass all of Chapter One.

But let me summarise this purpose-driven Gospel by way of providing two possible structures for the Gospel.

Two possible structures for John’s Gospel

The traditional structure goes something like this:

Prologue: 1:1-18
Book of Signs: 1:19- 12:49
Book of Passion: 13:1 – 20:29
Purpose: 20:30-31
Epilogue: 21:1-25

But I would like to offer an alternative structure:

Prologue: Chapter 1
Jesus loving His own: Chapters 2-12
Pivotal summary Chapter 13:1
Jesus loving His own to the end: Chapters13:2-20:29
Purpose statement: Chapter 20:30-31
Epilogue 21 (or the Prologue to the apostles’ mission)

This alternative structure faces some serious challenges, perhaps most importantly the following one.

Grace or Love

Why does this alternative structure pivot on the theme of love, and why is love such a central feature of the body of the Gospel, and yet love isn’t mentioned in the purpose statement, or the short or long prologue?

I could answer this question with another question.

Why does grace, so prominent in the Prologue (see 1:14, 16 and 17) not get a mention in the rest of the Gospel?

I have always maintained, following the insights of centuries of scholarship, that the Prologue introduces all the great themes of the Gospel (Word, Life, Light, {and Darkness}, Testimony, Belief, {and unbelief} Spiritual Birth, Glory, Grace, Truth, Sonship). I’m sure that some of us have feasted on the exercise of tracing those themes through the Gospel.

I am also indebted to those who have made the connection between ‘grace and truth’ (1:14, 17) with God revealing His glory to Moses in Exodus 34 as the God of ‘steadfast love and faithfulness’ (Exodus 34:6).

Grace in John 1:14 and 1:17 literally means ‘steadfast love’. Jesus (the Word made flesh) is full of steadfast love. We often translate grace to mean his undeserved love or mercy.

We do well to reflect on the marvellous symphony of words in Ephesians 1:1-10 and 2:1-10, famous for their message of grace. But it is here that grace, love and mercy harmonise in a magnificent melody of Gospel music.

Love, so prominent a theme in the Gospel of John and used as a structural marker for the Gospel, at least in my opinion, (13:1), is deeply embedded in the Prologue after all. And grace, through its sister word, is infused throughout the whole Gospel.

Sonship and Love

But let me finish by returning to something we could easily overlook – the theme of ‘Sonship’.

If the Prologue in particular and indeed the whole Gospel, is purpose driven, and if an explicitly stated key purpose of the author is to birth in his readers the truth that Jesus is the Son of God (as well as King), then why isn’t ‘Sonship’ considered to be more prominent as a theme of the Gospel?

We have already seen that it is one of the key themes of the traditional prologue (1:14,18) – a theme that is developed as thoroughly as any other in the Gospel:

• John 3:16-17
• John 5:19-47
• John 6:35-40
• John 8:12-38
• John 10:17-39
(Read the Father/Son language so prevalent in John 13-17 and judge for yourself)

And isn’t it interesting that the purpose of this Gospel is to bring people to faith in Jesus as the King and Jesus as the Son of God (20:31)?

Is it not especially interesting when we see that the climax of the long prologue is Nathanael testifying that Jesus is both the ‘Son of God’ and the ‘King of Israel’?

And is it not most interesting that Jesus speaks about the love He has for His disciples as being that same love that the Father has for the Son (John 15:9-10)?

You may not agree with me but I hope in the process we are all enriched by the words of grace and truth of God’s Son and our King.