John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word…
Words are powerful aren’t they? Words bring ideas to life. Words launch revolutions. Words set prisoners free. Words destroy and words build up. Words reveal the heart of the one speaking them. They reveal the inner thoughts. I don’t know what you’re thinking until you speak it out loud.
What words do you listen to as your source of motivation or guidance? Where do you turn for words of encouragement? Where does your daily dose of power come from? What words have changed the course of your life?
The word of God is the most powerful word in the universe. Why? Because God’s words reveal God himself. We can know the heart and mind of God because we have heard the words of God. All throughout human history God has spoken. At creation God spoke everything into being by his word. Clearly this reveals the immense power of God. Who else can speak things into existence from nothing? But it also reveals the character of God to us. His words reveal who he is.
Three simple words at creation like “let there be” reveal not only the power of God, but also the love, compassion, and benevolence of God. God has lovingly shared his creative power with us.
God’s righteous perfection and transcendence, his holiness, are revealed through his word of law. Words like “Thou shalt,” and “Thou shalt not” separate God from us. Only he is holy. Only he can demand our worship and obedience.
The Bible is God’s spoken (and then written) word revealing this loving and holy God to us so as to transform us into his likeness. God’s word of law and his word of grace combine to expose us and conform us to his love. This is the purpose of every jot and tittle of scripture – our sanctification. The word of the Father reveals the attributes of his character so as to create those same attributes in us, his children.
But the radical, and even audacious, declaration here in the beginning of John’s gospel is that Jesus IS the Word of God. He is not only the speaker of God’s truth; he IS God’s truth. He not only communicates God’s wisdom to us; he IS God’s wisdom. He doesn’t just speak God’s word; he IS God’s Word.
There are three great truths for us here:
First, do you want to know God? Then know him through the Word, Jesus Christ. Everything about God is revealed in Christ. Every thought, imagination, idea, and desire of God is made known in Christ the living Word. He makes the invisible God visible. The unknowable God knowable. All of his holiness and all of his grace. His law and his gospel. All are revealed in the person of Jesus.
Second, do you want to know Christ? Then read God’s word. Every word ever spoken by God reveals Christ. From Genesis to Revelation. Every prophecy and every poem. Every song and every story. Every word of law and every word of grace. Jesus is the personification of all God’s thoughts. The manifestation of all his ideas. The fulfillment of all his promises. His living law. His greatest gospel.
But third, and most important, the Word of God as the person of Jesus makes the transforming power of God’s word RECEIVABLE rather than ACHIEVABLE.
If God’s word were merely a spoken or written word, if all we had was the written scriptures, then we would be left on our own to hear it, interpret it, and then apply it to our lives on our own. This would be no different from any other faith, it would be mere religion, leaving us desperate and dying.
But in Christ we not only have the written word, we have the life giving power of the Living Word. And if God’s Word is alive, if it is the person of Christ, and we are united to Christ in spirit, then all the life changing power of God’s word, all meaning, all love, is ours. It is IN us as breath itself. It is the life giving power of the Spirit of God poured into us. Not a word from outside of us that tells us what we CAN BE. But the Word alive inside of us that tells us what we ARE. The received internal and eternal living Word of power that simply declares to us, “to live is Christ.”
You
What words are you listening to? How are they impacting you?
You in Christ
In Christ the living word (power) of God is in you. How can this assurance change you?
Christ in you
How can you let the power of the Word of God flow out of you today?
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Playlist: The Eternal Jesus
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To Live is Christ 