[“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” -John 1:1-4]
The incarnation of God
It is manifest that this declaration of the Word’s existence in the beginning conducts us to a point prior to the very earliest creative act comprehended in Genesis 1:1. That is, we are by the revelation ushered into eternity. Indeed, this absolute precedence of existence is even more definitely declared in the context, where we learn that the Word created every single thing that ever was created or that received being: “All things received being through Him, and without Him not one [thing] received being which has received being ” (John 1:3).
The Creator of all must necessarily precede in existence the whole creation….It is instructive to observe the sequence shown in these verses of the truths relating to the Word. Having first shown the original glories of the Word in the eternal past, the apostle later in his preface records the incarnation of the Word. We read, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us… full of grace and truth… for of His fullness we all have received, and grace upon grace ” (John 1:14-16). We are by these combined but consecutive statements taught most plainly and definitely that the Word Who became flesh was the Word Who was “in the beginning,” long before He became flesh. The Word of John 1:1 is, therefore, the Word of John 1:14. The Word, Who, becoming incarnate, tabernacled among us, Whose glory we contemplated, Who was full of grace and truth, was the Word Who was in the beginning, full of wisdom and eternal majesty….
We learn, therefore, our hearts meanwhile being charged with adoration, that the Word Who became flesh was not in the beginning an abstract quality or attribute, nor a special emanation of the Deity, but a Person existing with God; and moreover, that this Word was God Himself. Thus, the Word was not a personal distinction of God, but a distinct Person with God, as well as and as truly as He was God Himself….
The Word existed before His incarnation. The word of man is in his inward thought or conception before it is uttered by his lips for audible reception by others. The Spirit of God reveals that the Word was in the beginning before He became flesh and dwelt among us. The tabernacle made on earth was after the pattern in the heavens shown to Moses [Exodus 25:9]. The One seen among men was the One till then unseen by all, dwelling in unapproachable light [1 Tim. 6:16]…
The revelation of God
Moreover, the glory of the Word become flesh was a revelation of altogether a new character, which differed entirely from everything known in Old Testament times. It was not the overwhelming, repelling, Shekinah-glory of Jehovah that dwelt between the cherubim, but the glory of an only-begotten from beside a father. The figure describes the predominating character of the Personal revelation in the Word. The glory of the Word when contemplated in “flesh” was the glory (the manifested excellence) of a unique Paternal and Filial love at home in the heaven of heavens but sojourning on earth in Him.
The glory of the Word Who dwelt “among us,” full of grace and truth, had the nature of an Only-begotten’s glory with a father. His glory was so perfect and symmetrical in His Personal representation of the Father that it took the character of an only-begotten with a father; hence the Lord said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” [John 14:9]. There was absolute community of nature between the Father and the Son…
[“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” -Heb. 1:1-3]
There is but one Son of the Father―the Only-begotten. The Son, being designated the Only-begotten Son, any rash thought that the Father has Another Son is precluded. All that subsists essentially in God the Son subsists exclusively in the Only-begotten Son.
No one ever yet or at any time has seen God, Whose Being is enveloped in impenetrable mystery to all creatures. But now the blank wall reaching from earth to heaven has been demolished, like the veil of the temple rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The eternal secrets in God Who is light and love have now been revealed.
William John Hocking, The Son of His Love. Excerpt from chapter 6. http://bibletruthpublishers.com Bracketed Scriptures, sub headings, and italics added.