Everyone
knows that words are the primary communication between human beings. We know
the power of words to hurt and to heal. We know the regret of saying words we
wish we could take back, and not saying words we wish we had spoken. We know
the grief of no longer hearing a loved one’s voice speaking to us, and the
delight of hearing the surprise greeting of a long lost friend.
If
I was to ask people to give the one word that summarizes what life means to
them, there would likely be many answers. People might give the name of someone
that has meant more to them than anyone else. Perhaps they would use a word to
describe the feeling they enjoy more than any other. Perhaps they would have a
negative word to encapsulate all the hurt and hopelessness life has been to
them. Or, maybe there is one positive word that identifies the essence of life
more than any other word could do.
While
a blog-post would be fairly nebulous if it only contained one word, there is
one Word that not only gives meaning to life, but truly gives life. In just a
few words, God’s word tells us about the one Word that gives life to all who
receive this gift of God.
“1 In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2
He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and
without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the
life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness
has not overcome it.”[1]
This
is talking about Jesus. He is “the Word”.
He was with God as the Son distinct from the Father. He was God, the Son who is
fully God as the Father is fully God. He was God with God in the beginning,
sharing with the Father in the creation of all things.
When
Jesus came into the world, “born of
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law,”[2] he
came as the light of life. We were all “dead
in trespasses and sins.”[3] Jesus
came with life in him, the same life that he breathed into Adam on the sixth
day of creation.[4]
The life that was in Jesus was the light of “the
people dwelling in darkness… those dwelling in the region and shadow of death.”
When Jesus came to them with the gospel, he fulfilled God’s promise that, “on them a light has dawned.”[5]
The
thing that stood out to me was the consideration of what it means that Jesus is
“the Word”. We understand that words
are used to communicate. We all have thoughts that are invisible to everyone
else. The only way that anyone can know what is going on inside us is if we put
those thoughts into words.
Jesus’
place within the Triunity of God is consistently revealed to us as the
expression of the Father. He is the Son of God, “the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”[6] He
is “the image of the invisible God.”[7] He
is “the radiance of the glory of God and
the exact imprint of his nature.”[8]
And, he is “the Word of God.”[9]
In
the Bible, God used over 700,000 words to make something clear to us, that
there is only one Word of God who brings us to God. While many people have been
given the name “Jesus”, no one else, of human or angelic nature, is the one and
only Word of God.
One
of the things I love about this revelation of God is that we cannot have a more
personal word from God than his Son, the Word of God. Of the people who read
this blog-post, there will be varying degrees of connection based on whether
you know me or not. One post might feel very personal because it speaks
directly to something you are going through, while another won’t feel personal
at all because I’m just some stranger out there talking about stuff that doesn’t
connect with you in the least.
When
we come to God, his Son, the Word of God, is as personal as personal can be.
This is why it is so important for us to accept this fact, that, “in these last days he has spoken to us by
his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created
the world.”[10]
Jesus
is the only Word of God for these last days. The Bible alone is the “living word of God”[11]
that reveals God to us through his Son. If we know Jesus, we know the Father,
because Jesus is his Word who makes him known.
This
gives so much sense and wonder to what Jesus said shortly before his crucifixion:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you
would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen
him.”[12]
Jesus
is the way to the Father because he is the Word who comes from the Father. Jesus
is the truth that draws us to the Father, because he is the Word of the holy
God. Jesus is the life, because he is the Word of the Living God.
Everything
about Jesus announces that he is the image of the invisible God. He continues
to tell us today that, “Whoever has seen
me has seen the Father,”[13]
because he is the Word of the Father, the Word who was with God in the
beginning, was already God in the beginning, who calls out to us in the Father’s
words during this last hour, in order to bring us to the eternal life which is,
“that they know you the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”[14]
God
has spoken to us through his Son. The words of Scripture tell us about the Son
who tells us about the Father. The eternal life Jesus died to give us is all
about knowing the Triune. The Father is the invisible God who wants us to know
him; and the Son is the Word of God making him known.
John
began his gospel, carried along by the Holy Spirit, telling us that Jesus is
the Word of God. He ends his gospel with this beautiful conclusion, “Now there are also many other things that
Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world
itself could not contain the books that would be written.”[15]
How
delightful that the world could not contain the books full of words that would
tell us about Jesus, and yet God has made the whole of his infinite and eternal
glory made known to us in one Word. His Son. No wonder God would call out from
heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with
whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”[16]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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