Christmas Plan

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

²He was with God in the beginning.

³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.

⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”)

¹⁶Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

⁴But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

⁵to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

¹⁵The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.

¹⁶For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

¹⁷The LORD said to me: “What they say is good.

¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.