2. Pure and Clean: The Cleansing Effects of the Word

2. Pure and Clean: The Cleansing Effects of the Word.

“Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit. You are already cleansed because you have taken My words (“logos”) into your heart; you are spiritually pure because you have believed in My eternal words (“logos”) after hearing Me reveal My divine thoughts… If you abide in Me, live in union with Me as we dwell within each other, and if My spoken word (rhema) remains at home in your heart, your prayers will reflect My will and shall be done for you.” (John 15:2,3,7).

Clean. John’s gospel used the term for “clean” that is also used for “prune.” So Jesus is saying that His words have had a cleansing effect on His disciples, pruning what is unfruitful from their hearts, cleaning up their hearts and minds to make them more fruitful. The logos words of Christ purify as they become worked into our lives and take  up residence within us as the Spirit’s rhema words. His divine teachings are like a spiritual power-wash on believers.

The Word Purifies. The spiritual reality is that there is no difference between the presence of the Logos Word and the logos words in the life of  believers. Receiving the one is the same as receiving the other, with no distinction between the two. The Word purifies, right along with His words. Christ is the Divine Expression of God, so when we have Christ, we have His words. When we are in Christ, we are necessarily in His words as well. When His  teachings find a home in our mind and heart, Jesus is at home in us as well. Christ’s words have a cleansing effect because the living Word is the fountain of pure water, bathing us at the deepest level.

The Two Main New Testament Terms for “Word:” Logos and Rhema. Jesus is the Living Word (Logos), the Scripture is the written Word (Logos), and the Holy Spirit is the spoken Word (Rhema). We live by logos (Scripture), we listen to Rhema. Logos is the foundation of Rhema, so without logos, we would have no rhema. The Holy Spirit inspired Logos Scripture for our general benefit, and the Holy Spirit continues to inspire rhema words for personal application. The Holy Spirit is the One who turns the broader logos word into a particular rhema word. The logos has potential application, the rhema has specific application. One anonymous writer put it this way: “Logos is speaking the Word of God, and rhema is speaking a Word from God.”

The Greek Logos. Logos evidently started in the centuries before as a mathematical term, meaning to count up or give an accounting for, as in bookkeeping. It was still used occasionally in that way, such as in Matthew 12:26. For the most part, the term logos evolved into a Greek philosophical term. Using their famous Greek logical thinking, many Greek thinkers looked at our reasonable, well-ordered world and concluded that there must be a universal principle of Reason that is behind the running of the cosmos. They thought, mostly as a logical necessity, that there is an Intelligence somewhere, a transcendent source for this order that is beyond man’s understanding. There must be something that provides the world with this amazing form and coherence and exquisite design. They called this rather vague ideal “Logos.” This invisible force of Reason unifies the world into order from the chaos from before the world became reality. This logos is able to speak aloud, and whatever truth, goodness or beauty it speaks in fact exists the moment it is spoken. In a sense the Greek logos is able to create truth and reality. The Greeks never dreamed that their logos would become an actual person. The idea that logos would take on flesh would be laughable and unthinkable, and would actually defeat the whole purpose of this ideal of an impersonal, governing force in the world. The Greek logos had many hints of the true faith, though, and has been called a “bridge-word” because of the many Greeks who baptized the Greek logos into Christian belief after finding Christianity a logical step forward.

The Gospel Logos. The term Logos in John 1 has been the most debated and discussed term in all the Greek New Testament, according to the biblical scholars. It has been described and amplified and studied and defined in any number of ways. But for our purposes in the Christian faith, Jean Vanier’s definition of Logos is as good as any other: “Logos has come to mean the spoken Word, the thought and idea behind that Word, and the wisdom that inspired that Word.” The term logos was not a foreign word in that part of the world during the time of Jesus and the early Christians. The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, was widely used for biblical reading and considered the Bible of reference of that time. John decided to adopt that term and baptize the Greek version with a more complete understanding of it from the Christian viewpoint. In the New Testament era, logos meant the expression of a thought of the Father through the Holy Spirit; an utterance or a word embodying a divine idea; a message through speech or in writing; or more generally, reasoning expressed by words. John’s logos would include these sorts of thoughts:

(1.)  There is indeed a universal Reason that is behind the well-ordered and reasonable world. This powerful force of divine intelligence is the God of the holy Scriptures, Yahweh, the Sovereign God who put the cosmos together. This God is the Person who created the world with His spoken Word, and has sustained it ever since.

(2.)  This personal Creator God, the eternal Lord of the cosmos, wanted to yet again use His spoken Word to start a new beginning. God’s Word would once again be in the act of creation, but this time would create salvation and renewal. God’s spoken Word was actually a divine Presence, His Son, Jesus Christ.

(3.)  The Creator God expressed Himself with His spoken Word, and His ultimate self-expression was when He revealed Himself to the world in the form of His Son. In this way, God revealed His divine Reason and Wisdom, and His desire to personally share His presence in this world He created. So God, the invisible Source of Reason and Wisdom, sent forth His Son as His visible, eternal spoken Word. Jesus, the spoken Word, is thus the Voice of God.

(4.)  Jesus Christ is the Logos, the living Word of God, the Word who once said, “Let there be light!” That creative Word has taken on flesh and is the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus is the physical representative of God’s existence, heaven’s Ambassador of the Godhead to bring messages from His home. Jesus is the Co-Creator of the cosmos and has been face-to-face with the almighty God for all eternity. The Word that spoke light into the world has now become the Light of that world.

(5.)  So John declares that Jesus, the Son of God, is in fact the Logos…not only the spoken Word of God in the flesh in a new creation, not only God’s thought behind that living Word, but also the embodiment of the Wisdom that inspired God’s spoken Word. John presents Jesus as the absolute revelation and self-expression of God. Jesus is Yahweh spoken into flesh, the holy Scripture in the form of a Person. If we want to read God’s mind, we read Jesus.

The Rhema Word. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the (“rhema”) word of God.” (Romans 10:17). Rhema literally means “a word uttered by a living voice, a thing spoken that has a definite meaning,” and is used seventy times in the New Testament. The rhema word is different than logos, and in fact is based on logos. Rhema is the word that is inspired by the Holy Spirit that speaks to a specific situation. Rhema is a written or spoken word taken from Scripture by the Holy Spirit that speaks to a particular time. Rhema is a passage from the written Word that speaks truth that needs to be said at that time. Rhema is an inspired word from the Holy Spirit that is intended to be directly applied to a situation or a person. The rhema word is a wise and timely passage from the Bible that has special relevance at that moment. Paul is instructing us to be so familiar with Scripture that the Spirit can inspire us at any opportune time to apply a passage at just the right moment. If we don’t have the Word “dwelling richly” in us, then we won’t have the raw material that the Spirit can use for a rhema word. As unpacked by Rev. Bill Johnson, the word “nothing” in Luke 1:37 (“For nothing is impossible with God”) is actually the Greek words “no-rhema.” One translation puts the verse this way… “No word of God shall be devoid of power.” In other words, Rev. Johnson preaches, rhema words, the freshly spoken words from the Holy Spirit, will have the power to fulfill what the word says, and has the ability to accomplish God’s intention with that word. “No freshly spoken word is impossible. God equips us, as we ask Him, to wield the fruitful rhema word, which itself is based on the inspired logos Word.”

Logos, general Biblical knowledge, is foundational to Christian understanding, but the rhema words inspired by the Spirit of God are vital, because it is what God is telling us personally from Scripture. The rhema word is the Holy Spirit whispering to us an important application of the logos word. And so, thank God, both words have a divine cleansing effect on our hearts and minds.