Jesus is the WORD of GOD
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3 NIV)
Unlike the Gospel as presented by Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Apostle John—in a prelude to the visions he would later recorded for us in the book of Revelation, opens his narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ with a glimpse behind the veil of eternity, and a heavenly vision of Jesus before He was Jesus—as He existed before the creation of the material universe—or even before the angelic realm was created.
And in a paradoxical premise that confounds our finite minds, John declares that, prior to His incarnation in the flesh, He both WAS God, and was WITH God.
What did John mean? How could God be with God? And why is He called “the Word?”
Most assume that the Son of God was originally God the Son, so it’s curious that John refers to the pre-incarnate Son as the Word (logos in the Greek text), which, when used with the definite article as here, always appears in the context in which John here uses it. Logos, the equivalent of our English “word,” is rendered as such in virtually all versions of the Bible, and is defined in Strong’s as:
From G3004; something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (that is, Christ):—account, cause, communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame, X have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say (-ing), shew, X speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.
As you can see, logos can denote both a thought or idea as it exists in the mind, and such a thought or idea as expressed. So why did John use “the Logos” to describe the pre-incarnate Jesus? What’s the connection?
To help you understand the concept of logos, and what John sought to convey to his readers, consider this: the words you are reading at this very moment originally existed as thoughts in my mind. They were invisible, unknown, and unknowable to you.
But, because I wanted to communicate those thoughts, I expressed them as words. You now know exactly what those thoughts are, because they have been expressed in a tangible form. That's the basic concept of "logos"-- a thought made known by communicating it.
In a similar way, God is invisible, ethereal Spirit, and would—like thoughts, be completely unknown to us if He had not chosen to reveal Himself through His Word. What we know about God and His plan of Salvation, we learned either from the Bible, from someone teaching from it, or by personal revelation. Either way, all knowledge of God comes from the revelation of Himself through His Word.
Consider that Abraham once believed in the false gods that were worshipped in Ur, and knew nothing about the true God until He chose to reveal Himself to him. And thank God that He did—that communication forever changed the course of both human history, and our ultimate destiny. Thank God for His mercy.
At any rate, this is a basic analogy of the Word of God—the divine Expression—the means by which He always expresses and reveals Himself. It has always been so:
It was the Word by which the angels beheld God’s glory on the throne of Heaven, long before the worlds were made; it was the Word whom men saw as the Lord in OT times (which is why, in John 8:56, Jesus told the Jews that Abraham had rejoiced to see His day ); and it was the same Word whom people saw and heard as the man, Jesus Christ.
Every time God has ever been seen or heard, it was by means of the Word of God—the visible image of the invisible God. (Col 1:15) It was the Word from Whom Adam hid in a garden called Eden, it was the Word who sweated out blood in the garden of Gethsemane, and it is the Word that John sees returning as King of kings and Lord of Lords. (Rev 19:11-16)
This then, is the Word John sees as both being God and being with Him. And that manifestation of the glory of God, John declares, became flesh, and dwelled among men, (John 1:14) and now represents the invisible God in a permanent form as His Son, Jesus, which is what John meant when he said:
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:18)
Yet, how do reconcile this statement with the claims by men in the OT—like Abraham, Jacob and Moses—to have seen God?
Both statements are true. No one has ever seen the invisible Spirit of God; yet He has indeed manifested Himself to some, when He chose to do so, by means of a visible form: the Word.
If you will indulge another crude analogy, consider this: you have never seen your own face.
Nope, you’re wrong—a reflection doesn’t count. Your reflection represents an exact likeness of you, certainly; but it is only an image. If your nose itches, scratching the one in the mirror just doesn’t help, does it? The mirror is but an exact representation of what we are unable to see.
In a similar way, while no one has ever seen God, some have seen that which completely and fully represents Him--a divine “mirror image.”
That, my friends, is Who Jesus is: the Word--the exact likeness of God, now and forever manifest in glorified flesh. The Scriptures leave no doubt about the fundamental truth that God had foreordained His Word to become His Sacrificial Lamb, long before the creation of the earth:
“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” (Psalms 138:2)
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:” (Heb 10:5)
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev 13:8)
Anyone who denies that Jesus is the manifestation of God in the flesh, demonstrates an ignorance of the Bible, for an abundance of Scripture testifies to that very truth:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (Col 1:15)
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1 Tim 3:16)
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:19)
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Heb 1:3)
John tells us in John 1:1-3 that it was the Word Who created all things, and that nothing that was made was made without Him. (Note that since God Himself had no beginning, the one referred to in John 1:1 must refer to the “beginning” as far as we are concerned: the Creation of the material
universe).
The first chapter of the book of Genesis refers to this same "beginning," and illustrates in an amazing way, what John meant: (You may have a different perspective of the Word after this)
Note that each of the creative acts is preceded by the words, “and God said…”
That's because, at each act of Creation, the Will and Purpose of God was expressed, made manifest, and fulfilled by the power of His spoken Word. He literally SPOKE Creation into existence. No wonder John said the Word created all things.
Once you understand that the Word is God, has always been with God, and that Jesus is
that Word robed in humanity, you can see what Jesus actually meant when He stated that He was
sent forth and proceeded from the Father to fulfill His Will:
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and
came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me (John 8:42)
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. (John 4:34)
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 6:28)
In Isaiah 55:8-11, the prophet beautifully illustrates exactly what Jesus meant:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may
give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
That's Jesus! The same Word--the divine Expression of God,issued forth from God's Spirit and called
forth the universe out of nothing; appeared as God throughout the OT period, as He prepared a people for Himself; and nearly 2000 years ago, that same Word—robed in the humanity of Jesus Christ, revealed the Mind, Will and Purpose of God as He prepared to become the sacrificial Lamb of God.
The same visible expression of God’s divine Essence and Being that has existed with Him for eternity is now and forever enshrined in a glorified temple of humanity. We can see in the book of Revelation how God and Jesus are eventually merged into one.
And it is--appropriately enough--the Apostle John who sees this eternal temple--this miraculous fusion of God and man--which he refers to as “God and the Lamb” in the midst of the New Jerusalem:
“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”
(Revelation 21:22)
One throne is shared by God and the Lamb--for God is IN the Lamb--in Whom also the face of God will be seen by His people for all eternity:
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and
his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their
foreheads.(Rev 22:3-4)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3 NIV)
Unlike the Gospel as presented by Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Apostle John—in a prelude to the visions he would later recorded for us in the book of Revelation, opens his narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ with a glimpse behind the veil of eternity, and a heavenly vision of Jesus before He was Jesus—as He existed before the creation of the material universe—or even before the angelic realm was created.
And in a paradoxical premise that confounds our finite minds, John declares that, prior to His incarnation in the flesh, He both WAS God, and was WITH God.
What did John mean? How could God be with God? And why is He called “the Word?”
Most assume that the Son of God was originally God the Son, so it’s curious that John refers to the pre-incarnate Son as the Word (logos in the Greek text), which, when used with the definite article as here, always appears in the context in which John here uses it. Logos, the equivalent of our English “word,” is rendered as such in virtually all versions of the Bible, and is defined in Strong’s as:
From G3004; something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (that is, Christ):—account, cause, communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame, X have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say (-ing), shew, X speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.
As you can see, logos can denote both a thought or idea as it exists in the mind, and such a thought or idea as expressed. So why did John use “the Logos” to describe the pre-incarnate Jesus? What’s the connection?
To help you understand the concept of logos, and what John sought to convey to his readers, consider this: the words you are reading at this very moment originally existed as thoughts in my mind. They were invisible, unknown, and unknowable to you.
But, because I wanted to communicate those thoughts, I expressed them as words. You now know exactly what those thoughts are, because they have been expressed in a tangible form. That's the basic concept of "logos"-- a thought made known by communicating it.
In a similar way, God is invisible, ethereal Spirit, and would—like thoughts, be completely unknown to us if He had not chosen to reveal Himself through His Word. What we know about God and His plan of Salvation, we learned either from the Bible, from someone teaching from it, or by personal revelation. Either way, all knowledge of God comes from the revelation of Himself through His Word.
Consider that Abraham once believed in the false gods that were worshipped in Ur, and knew nothing about the true God until He chose to reveal Himself to him. And thank God that He did—that communication forever changed the course of both human history, and our ultimate destiny. Thank God for His mercy.
At any rate, this is a basic analogy of the Word of God—the divine Expression—the means by which He always expresses and reveals Himself. It has always been so:
It was the Word by which the angels beheld God’s glory on the throne of Heaven, long before the worlds were made; it was the Word whom men saw as the Lord in OT times (which is why, in John 8:56, Jesus told the Jews that Abraham had rejoiced to see His day ); and it was the same Word whom people saw and heard as the man, Jesus Christ.
Every time God has ever been seen or heard, it was by means of the Word of God—the visible image of the invisible God. (Col 1:15) It was the Word from Whom Adam hid in a garden called Eden, it was the Word who sweated out blood in the garden of Gethsemane, and it is the Word that John sees returning as King of kings and Lord of Lords. (Rev 19:11-16)
This then, is the Word John sees as both being God and being with Him. And that manifestation of the glory of God, John declares, became flesh, and dwelled among men, (John 1:14) and now represents the invisible God in a permanent form as His Son, Jesus, which is what John meant when he said:
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:18)
Yet, how do reconcile this statement with the claims by men in the OT—like Abraham, Jacob and Moses—to have seen God?
Both statements are true. No one has ever seen the invisible Spirit of God; yet He has indeed manifested Himself to some, when He chose to do so, by means of a visible form: the Word.
If you will indulge another crude analogy, consider this: you have never seen your own face.
Nope, you’re wrong—a reflection doesn’t count. Your reflection represents an exact likeness of you, certainly; but it is only an image. If your nose itches, scratching the one in the mirror just doesn’t help, does it? The mirror is but an exact representation of what we are unable to see.
In a similar way, while no one has ever seen God, some have seen that which completely and fully represents Him--a divine “mirror image.”
That, my friends, is Who Jesus is: the Word--the exact likeness of God, now and forever manifest in glorified flesh. The Scriptures leave no doubt about the fundamental truth that God had foreordained His Word to become His Sacrificial Lamb, long before the creation of the earth:
“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” (Psalms 138:2)
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:” (Heb 10:5)
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev 13:8)
Anyone who denies that Jesus is the manifestation of God in the flesh, demonstrates an ignorance of the Bible, for an abundance of Scripture testifies to that very truth:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (Col 1:15)
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1 Tim 3:16)
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:19)
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Heb 1:3)
John tells us in John 1:1-3 that it was the Word Who created all things, and that nothing that was made was made without Him. (Note that since God Himself had no beginning, the one referred to in John 1:1 must refer to the “beginning” as far as we are concerned: the Creation of the material
universe).
The first chapter of the book of Genesis refers to this same "beginning," and illustrates in an amazing way, what John meant: (You may have a different perspective of the Word after this)
Note that each of the creative acts is preceded by the words, “and God said…”
That's because, at each act of Creation, the Will and Purpose of God was expressed, made manifest, and fulfilled by the power of His spoken Word. He literally SPOKE Creation into existence. No wonder John said the Word created all things.
Once you understand that the Word is God, has always been with God, and that Jesus is
that Word robed in humanity, you can see what Jesus actually meant when He stated that He was
sent forth and proceeded from the Father to fulfill His Will:
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and
came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me (John 8:42)
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. (John 4:34)
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 6:28)
In Isaiah 55:8-11, the prophet beautifully illustrates exactly what Jesus meant:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may
give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
That's Jesus! The same Word--the divine Expression of God,issued forth from God's Spirit and called
forth the universe out of nothing; appeared as God throughout the OT period, as He prepared a people for Himself; and nearly 2000 years ago, that same Word—robed in the humanity of Jesus Christ, revealed the Mind, Will and Purpose of God as He prepared to become the sacrificial Lamb of God.
The same visible expression of God’s divine Essence and Being that has existed with Him for eternity is now and forever enshrined in a glorified temple of humanity. We can see in the book of Revelation how God and Jesus are eventually merged into one.
And it is--appropriately enough--the Apostle John who sees this eternal temple--this miraculous fusion of God and man--which he refers to as “God and the Lamb” in the midst of the New Jerusalem:
“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”
(Revelation 21:22)
One throne is shared by God and the Lamb--for God is IN the Lamb--in Whom also the face of God will be seen by His people for all eternity:
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and
his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their
foreheads.(Rev 22:3-4)