the Word

For centuries before the time of Jesus, the Greeks tried hard to make sense of the world. They did it by pursuing what they called Logos, logic or, as they often translated it, words and ideas. They didn’t know they were really seeking God, questing for that thing that would perfectly match the shape of the hollowness they felt inside. 

The Gospel of John begins this way, in John 1:1-4: “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. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

Jesus was the capital-W Word by which God created the world. That means that in some way, God’s words aren’t just sounds vibrating the air or letters put on a page. God’s words are active in the same way our muscles are; in fact, in a very real way God’s words are themselves God. What God says, in the instance of creation, was accomplished and made true by Jesus.

Which is wonderful news, because John tells us later, in verse 14, “The 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.”

That same power of God to create the world was sent to save it. His son, the Word made flesh, took every word of God’s revelation and put them into action. He changed them from promises to accomplishments. And by doing so, he replaced the law of Moses with the grace and truth of God’s love for his original, sinless image-bearers.

Now, I as a Christian am encouraged to know intimately the word of God. I tend to think of this as scripture, the words by which God revealed himself through the centuries. Now I see that this is also a call to a relationship with Jesus, the Word who became flesh and then became Lord of the universe. In some way that I won’t understand until I live with God himself, the word and the Word are the same thing. Both are the revelation of God to us and the power by which he changes the world.

But it is the Word that brought us light and life.