“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands—concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1  ESV).

THAT.

A seemingly insignificant word used with great significance, for the small, four-letter pronoun pointed to the One who descended from heaven to be heard, seen, and touched.  

THAT “which was from the beginning.” The Son was with the Father before the creation of the world because He is part of the Triune God. He is the Author of life (Acts 3:15) and the Word who was with God and is God (John 1:1). He is the promised solution to the fall of man (Gen. 3:15), the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45-49), the anecdote to sin (2 Cor. 5:21).

THAT “which we have heard.” Ancient Jews heard about the Promised One from the prophets Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others. Their words were deeply revered and passed down from generation to generation. It was the disciples who not only heard those prophetic words read aloud in the Temple but also heard the words spoken by the Promised One Himself. His gentle yet firm voice exhorted those He interacted with to seek the kingdom of God, to repent and turn from sin, and to love their neighbor.

THAT “which we have seen with our eyes.” For three years, the disciples followed Jesus and observed His actions. They watched Him cast out demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead.  They saw Him lovingly speak to the outcast. They witnessed His trial, saw Him beaten, broken, and hanging on the cross, and observed an empty tomb. With their own eyes, they viewed their resurrected Savior standing before them with scarred hands.

THAT “which we have looked upon and touched with our hands.” The disciples didn’t just see the resurrected Jesus; they touched His hands and side. What they perceived wasn’t an apparition; it was the living, breathing Son of God in the flesh. For forty days, they walked and talked with their risen Savior. Then, they watched that same God-Man ascend to heaven.

John began his epistle this way to refute the heretical ideas of Gnosticism infiltrating the church and to remind his readers that he and his friends had been there. They were eyewitnesses. They heard Jesus speak, they saw Him in the flesh both before and after His crucifixion, and they touched His nail-scarred hands. There was no disputing those facts.

More than two thousand years later, these facts remain true. The risen Christ retained His scars to reveal His love, demonstrated by His work on the cross. In his gospel, John records Jesus showing His scars to Thomas as the distinguishing reality that His resurrection was real. And Thomas proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus is fully God and fully man. He came, walked among his people, died, rose, and ascended. Though we don’t see Him, we believe through the testimony of the eyewitnesses and the fulfillment of the Scriptures. Jesus Christ will return one day to gather His children to Himself where we will live in His presence forever.