John’s theology of the Logos is often treated as a framing device or part of a source for the so-called “prologue.” That John has no real interest in this identity is supposedly evident in the fact that Jesus is not identified as the Logos elsewhere in the Gospel, where he is the Christ, the uniquely begotten Son of God. This paper argues that there is no choice to be made between John’s Logos theology and his messianism. John explicates the messianic identity of Jesus as the Logos by setting out the relationship between the visible appearance of the Word as the presence of God at Sinai and the enfleshment of that same Word in the incarnation. In doing so, John clarifies the way in which faith in Jesus as the Messiah is not merely a tolerable but rather a Scripturally necessary culmination of the visible appearance of the divine Word to Israel at Sinai. The Word that spoke life-giving words to Israel at Sinai was Israel’s Messiah. Cyril’s Nicene-flavored dictum—“One is the Son, one Lord, Jesus Christ, both before the incarnation and after the incarnation”—turns out not to be the product of centuries-long reflection on John. It is simply a distillation of John’s prior claims. The Word that spoke creation into existence and then came to Israel at Sinai speaking life-giving words—that same Word was and is the Son who has life in himself, was and is Israel’s Messiah, the Teacher of Life. The glory beheld at Sinai was the visible presence of God in his Word and the living repudiation of all attempts to confine God’s presence in images made with human hands. [N.B. This paper distills and develops the argument of one chapter of Baylor University Press monograph that will appear in the Fall of 2025.]