(35.) On Christ as the Word
On Christ as the Word.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, for God created everything through Him; not one thing came into being except through Him. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” (John 1:1-4).
The Gospel of John is a spiritual biography of Jesus the Son of God. It is not so much a chronology of His life like the other three gospels. It was undoubtedly written by John when he was engaged in deep, silent contemplation. So the mood of the gospel is thoughtful. John’s focus seems to be more on what Jesus said and thought and not so much on what He actually did. We probably need to read John in a spirit of meditation, not in a search for knowledge or information. John wrote his Gospel in the flow of the Spirit, so it doesn’t’ all tie together from one section to another. As opposed to the usual biography, John wanted to reveal the mystery of Christ as God’s Son. Readers need to be intent on being drawn into that mystery of Jesus as opposed to an academic exercise of some sort.
Another way of unpacking the first part of John’s Prologue might be: In the first beginning, God spoke His divine Word to create the heavens and the earth. God’s speech shaped the entire universe. His holy Word had been with God forever, even before time itself. And the Word was at God’s side throughout the creation of the universe. In the new beginning, God once again used His eternal voice, and He spoke His divine Word to create something, this time to create salvation and renewal. This living Word, who was identical in essence with God, became a man, and submitted to taking on flesh and blood, becoming a human being who was full of grace and truth. The Word brought God’s life with Him to earth, and His life was the light needed to guide mankind to the truth. The living Word of God humbly made His dwelling among us. (swl).
The Greek Logos. The Greek term for “word” was 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. 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 anew 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.
(6.) An interesting thought from Revd. William Austin: “Christ is the inward Conception in the bosom of the Father, and that is the Word. And yet the Word is the intention uttered forth, as well as conceived within. For Christ was no less the Word in the womb of the Virgin, or in the cradle of a manger, or on the altar of the Cross, than He was in the beginning, in the bosom of the Father.”
The Hebrew Logos. The Bible used during the time of Jesus and the early Christians was usually the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The original Old Testament was written in Hebrew, but Greek was the prominent language used during Jesus’ time. The Septuagint had been translated several centuries before Christ, and so it was commonplace for New Testament writers to quote the Greek version and not the Hebrew version of Scripture. For the most part, when we see a quote from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament, it is from the Septuagint. The Greek term logos was used literally hundreds of times in the Greek Bible, and was often used to highlight the Word of God. Logos was also used to translate “truth,” and implied thought, meaning, planning and design. It’s interesting that the Hebrew Bible’s logos was so similar to the Greek understanding. In many ways, the Greek Old Testament laid the groundwork for John’s use of logos. The Word of God in the Hebrew Bible (logos), as with John, signified the presence of the Lord. Logos suggested God’s self-expression, whether in creation, in the prophet’s message, or in the Torah itself. When a prophet declared “the word of the Lord,” the prophet’s words were considered coming from the mind and mouth of Yahweh Himself.
A fascinating use of logos in the Hebrew Bible is found in Deuteronomy 32:45-47. Moses had just finished delivering the truth of the Torah to the Chosen People ready to enter the Promised Land. And logos was used a number of times in his final words to his people. Moses declared that logos is life itself, with supernatural power. “When Moses finished reciting all the words (logos) to all Israel, he said to them… ‘Take to heart all the words (logos) I have solemnly declared to you in this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words (logos) of this instruction. They are not just idle words (logos) for you – They are your life. By them, you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
When Jesus declared that He was “the Life” (John 14:6), I wonder if there were many listeners who made the connection to Moses’ reference to logos being life. Did any listeners of Jesus believe that with these and so many of His other words, He was the embodiment of the Hebrew Bible… not just its fulfillment, but its embodiment. The Greek Bible translated the term “the Ten Commandments” (Deut. 5, Ex. 20) into “the Ten Words,” the Ten Logos.” That’s why so many refer to the Decalogue when referring to the Ten Commandments. As outrageous as this might sound, Jesus wasn’t merely fulfilling the Word of God, He was embodying it. He wasn’t merely living in light of the Ten Commandments, He was a living, breathing version of them. Jesus was not merely unpacking the Torah in His teachings, He was the Torah. Jesus the living Word, Scripture in the flesh, Torah with a pulse.
Wisdom. John was very intentional in his Prologue, to say the least. His very first verse mirrored the creation story in Genesis 1:1, “in the beginning.” By doing that, he ushered in thoughts of the creation story of Proverb 8:22-32, in which the eternal quality of wisdom was presented as a Person, a Co-creator. In John’s day, Logos was closely associated with Wisdom when it came to creation. The early Christians were convinced that the Wisdom in Proverbs 8 was actually a direct reference to Jesus. To find another abstract quality like Logos and consider it to be the Person of Jesus was thus no stretch of the imagination. If Wisdom could be considered a Person in Scripture, then certainly so could Logos. With Jesus, abstract concepts take on Personal qualities, they take on flesh. Jesus continued in this train of thought when He called Himself “the Truth” (John 14:6). Truth in human form, not just consisting of truth, but being Trueness itself. Jesus is so filled with truth, wisdom, and God’s Word, those qualities have taken on life and form His identity. Jesus is in literal union with those concepts, He actually embodies those ideals. When a mathematical concept like 2 + 2 = 4 is understood as established fact, we can grasp that process. But when that concept becomes somehow solid, real, and takes on flesh? Hmmm, that’s difficult if not impossible to understand. As it turns out, apparently God loves to turn invaluable concepts into something personal and tangible, the abstract principle into tangible material. Truth becomes Person (John 14:6); Word became flesh (John 1:14); Wisdom defines Christ (1 Cor.1:24); Spirit becomes personal (John 14-16); Love identifies God (1 John 4:16); Chaos, formlessness and emptiness becomes tangible, well-ordered and beautiful (Genesis 1-2). So isn’t it just like our Logos to design truth, goodness and beauty into our world, and that this living Word embodies all three of those eternal qualities for us?
“… and His name is called The Logos of God.” (John’s Revelation, 19:13).