A Layman’s Guide to Logos

A Layman’s Guide to Logos.

1. Ancient Questions that Led to Logos. Those good old Greeks weren’t afraid to ask thorny questions… How could anything as well-ordered and perfectly designed as this universe not have an organizing Principle behind it somewhere? Could the genius of human reason and deep wisdom even exist if there wasn’t something logical behind it all? Since the vast universe holds together so coherently and with such harmony, what connected all these pieces into one whole? There must be a hidden or invisible Idea somewhere that holds the world together. Is there some vast Intelligence that built the world so carefully? And then at some point around 500 BC, one of those Greek thinkers, Heraclitus, along with his buddy Pythagoras, said… I know what, let’s call this organizing Principle, this incomprehensible Intelligence, LOGOS! Sure enough, about 100 years later a genius named Plato seconded that idea, and instead gave this organizing Idea another name… World Soul. Plato’s Soul of the World represented to him the musical organization of the universe, and he thought the mathematical principles of music provided the structure needed in the universe for reason, logic, order and knowledge to exist. Plato thought that there was an Idea somewhere that provided the harmony of the world, and was much like what a person’s soul was to the human body. Plato’s “divine craftsman” was a self-moving Cause that gave the universe life and intelligence.
2. The Ancient Answer to Those Questions. “In the beginning was the Logos-Word, and the Logos-Word was with God, and the Logos-Word was God! He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were created. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. That light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never overcome it… The Logos-Word became human, took on flesh, and lived among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, the Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Gospel of John, 1:1-6, 15). How did St. John, a common fisherman, know to combine ancient, abstract Greek philosophy with the tangible Hebrew belief in flesh and blood reality to produce the amazing insight of a Personal Logos that fulfilled Greek thinking? Did John realize that the ancient Greek philosophers prepared the way for Jesus, that their brilliant pagan musings actually fertilized the soil for Christ to come? Hmmm, perhaps he was unusually intelligent and thoughtful, or perhaps he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, or better yet there was some human-divine collaboration going on here.
3. A Description of the Ancient Logos. The eternal wisdom within the mind of Reason; the perfect Word that forms God’s creative self-expression; the transcendent Element of life outside the universe that gave birth to the world; the everlasting Essence of objective truth, goodness and beauty; the divine Instruction that was pure reason; the supreme Idea that consists of perfect harmony, the fixed truth of music, and the orderly logic of mathematics; the coherent Reality of life itself.
4. The Logos-Word During Creation. “Lord Yahweh possessed me, Lady Wisdom (Sophia), at the beginning of His work. I was appointed from eternity, before He created the universe… I was there with Him, the master craftsman at His side, right beside Him as His artist and confidante. I was filled with delight day after day, enjoying His company, rejoicing in His presence, playfully rejoicing before Him. I laughed and played, so happy with what He had made. I delighted in mankind, happily celebrating the human family!” (Proverbs 8).
5. Logos-Jesus is Wisdom-in-the-Flesh. “Christ is the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24). The Greeks thought it logical that logos contained all the wisdom in the universe needed to produce such a spectacular world. So to them logos was comprised of wisdom, was inspired by wisdom, and represented wisdom to those with eyes to see. Little did the Greeks suspect that their abstract principle of logos-wisdom would take on flesh and embody wisdom itself. Christians believe that Jesus has been God’s Expression, His Word, of wisdom from all eternity. The leading theologians of the early church in the 1^st-2^nd centuries were convinced that Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible (as in the story of creation in Proverbs 8 above), is simply the pre-Christian way to identify Jesus. Abstract wisdom in the Old Testament is simply the intangible Person of Christ as revealed in the New Testament. Logos-Wisdom is not merely a character description of Jesus Christ, it is a title, a formal name for Jesus Himself. Jesus of Nazareth didn’t simply contain the quality of wisdom, He WAS Wisdom, the living Logos-Word.
6. The Elements of Logos in Creation. “Christ is the image of the unseen God, for in Him were created all things in heaven and on earth – all things were created through Him and for Him. He exists before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17). If the universe began with a Bang at the instigation of Logos, a song-burst of divine energy initiated by the living Expression of God, then we can imaginatively assume a few things…

• “Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the world, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate and external Form.”
• Since Logos was comprised of the fixed truth of music, then the 118 elements of the Periodic Table are not the first elements of life in the universe, they are not the first fundamental materials that make up matter. If the first elements of creation were hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, then what basic blueprint guided those elements in the creation of the world? The building blocks of the universe are instead, Do-Re-Me-Fa-Sol-La-Ti! All the elements of the first creation: air, firelight, water, matter, every raw material used in creation, was structured by the truth and beauty of music. The world is based on the musical scales, and music is imbedded within every aspect of nature, from the furthest galaxies to the most microscopic subatomic particles. The backbone of the universe is the God-song found within every scrap of reality. Albert Einstein was on to this idea when he said, “This world may consist of musical notes as well as of mathematical rules.” 
• Since Logos is inherently harmonious and nature is connected in a way that enables all the world to fit together and function purposefully, then there is an innate harmony in the universe. Everything created is connected, or at least it has been. The Fall disconnected these harmonious parts of the world, and all of creation is groaning (Romans 8) until Jesus-Logos puts everything back together again on the last day. God has a destiny for His universe, and that destiny is that He will re-harmonize the world when He sees fit. The Logos is zealous to bring back the Garden of Eden, to reconnect the pieces of the universe, to reconcile that which now seems irreconcilable. Logos yearns to fit together what belongs together, to heal that which has been fractured. Until that day, though, the world is much like what G. K. Chesterton once noted… “Everything has been sundered from everything else, and everything has grown cold. This world is all one wild divorce court.” On that eventual Day, though, all of the universe will be fitted together again in what St. Peter called “the Universal Restoration,” or “the Universal Reconciliation.” (Acts 3:18). Yes, the entire universe is destined to achieve through Jesus-Logos true and complete shalom, wholeness, and harmony.
• Since Logos is God’s eternal and creative God-song, and Jesus Christ is Logos with flesh, then Jesus is indeed an embodied, perfectly harmonious Song in the midst of a discordant world. He has come among us to bring the world back to singing the perfect harmony in the right key. Jesus-Logos is the fleshed-out God-song of the universe, and all the elements of Christ’s life mirror the elements of song.  Just as music, God’s greatest gift to mankind and the very language of heaven and earth, has an infinite number of possibilities, the Christ-Song has an infinite number of styles, applications, qualities, moods. So it makes sense that the life and mission of Jesus can be explored by taking a careful look at the elements of a song: the Overture; the Prelude; the Melody; the Harmonies; the Rhythm; the Lyrics; the Bridge; the Dynamics; the Key; the Genre or Style; the Voice; and finally, the Outro. To study Logos begs us to consider the aspects of the Christ-Song in the Gospels, to explore those elements of a song, any song.
• Since Logos-Music is woven into every aspect of creation, and the musical scales are the building blocks of all that God has made, we need to consider that nature itself has a soundtrack. As author Flannery O’Conner once said, “We need to discover a way of reading nature which includes the most possibilities.” There is a God-song, Logos-Music, hidden in the DNA of all creation that is outside human understanding. Nature must be exploding with music that we can’t hear… the harmonious sound waves that ripple through all matter in space; the massive bass note outside our frequency that is humming in space with high notes which had its origin in the Big Bang and now continues to rumble through the vast expanse of the universe in what scientists call a “cosmic symphony;” the coordinated dance movements of the electrons and protons at the cellular level in all matter that has living cells; the trees that clap their hands at the subatomic level, along with the singing hills, the roaring sea, the valleys that shout for joy, and the beasts of the field that rejoice in God their Maker. Nature has a soundtrack, and when we praise God, we’re only joining the party that has already begun. “There’s not the smallest orb which thou beholdest but in his motion like an angel sings.” (Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice).
• Since Logos is eternal, we can safely assume that He continues to work in His universe. The Godhead is the world’s only divine Labor Union and continue to be working stiffs. “My Father is always working, and so am I.” (John 5:17). It’s not an accident that the universe is a well-oiled machine. God continues to work because creative work gives Him joy and satisfaction. So Logos has a tireless work ethic… God is constantly expanding the universe at a faster clip than scientists can project; He is faithful in weaving together the body of every unborn baby in the womb (Ps. 139); He keeps His promise to Noah as He personally governs the earth and everything on it; He maintains the world in a way in which He offers His new mercies every morning (Lam. 3); He continuously renews the face of the earth (Ps. 104); He continues to observe the ways of mankind and the world like a watchman who never tires or sleeps; He listens to the cries of the hurting and needy, to the prayers of the faithful, reading our body language and being aware of our thoughts before we think them, our words before we speak them. And amazingly enough, Logos continues His 24/7 intercessory prayer ministry at the right hand of the Father in glory.

A Final Word about Logos… ‘in Whom all things hold together.’ “Jesus existed before time, matter and space. Everything was brought into being through him, and in him everything continues to exist, held together by him alone. He is the upholding principle of the whole scheme of creation, and in union with him all things find their proper place. Yes, Jesus holds it all together. And with Christ in the center, all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe, people and things, animals and atoms, get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmony.” (Colossians 1:15-20).