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. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, `He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known (John 1:1-18).

Don’t you sometimes wish that you could read another person’s mind? When your husband gets that blank look on his face, don’t you wish you knew what he is thinking? When your wife makes one of those vague comments that leaves you unsure what she’s getting at, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to unscrew the top of her head and take a peek inside? When you hold that little baby in your arms, frustrated that you don’t know what he is crying about, don’t you wish that your son could tell you somehow?

After sin, mankind’s biggest problem is that we can’t figure out what other people are feeling or what they want us to do for them. True, sometimes people let us know what’s on their minds, but other times they hint around and get mad at us when we don’t pick up on their hints. And quite often we don’t tell people what we really feel or want because we are afraid that our needs and desires will make us look weak, foolish, or self-centered. Such miscommunications leave many people feeling frustrated, unloved, and alone.

Our thoughts and our feelings lurk in our brains, invisible. There is absolutely no way for one person to figure out what is on another person’s mind, unless that person communicates using words. These words might be spoken out loud or written down, but the bottom line is this: without words, no one can know for sure what is going on inside anyone else.

In addition to giving us information, words have another use: they cause things to happen. Words motivate us; words call us to action. A politician uses the words of a campaign speech to influence us to vote for him. A counselor uses words to help his patients identify what is troubling them and design a plan to live a healthier lifestyle. Bosses use words to get their employees to work harder and faster and to produce better quality. Parents use words to give their children boundaries to protect them and to give them confidence in making good decisions on their own.

Words are powerful things.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is called the Word of God. Of all the names the Bible gives to Jesus, this one seems the oddest. What exactly does it mean that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh? Actually, it means a couple of things:

First of all, Jesus is how we know God. I pointed out earlier that no one can read another person’s mind; actually, I should have said that no human being can read another person’s mind. God, of course, can read minds. There is no sinful thought that we can keep hidden from Him; Matthew tells us, Jesus knew their thoughts (Matthew 12:25). In Jeremiah 17:10 God says, I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve. God knows our every thought and desire; the problem is, we don’t have that same ability. We can’t search God’s heart or examine His mind, any more than we can read the mind of our spouse or child.

God knows our limitations, so He sent His eternal Son to be born in a human body in order to communicate with us. John writes, No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. That is much of what Jesus came to do—He came to us that first Christmas, so long ago, to make His Father known to us. No one can feel the Father’s hug—but Jesus hugged little children. No one can see God, but thousands of people saw Jesus. Jesus brings the Father to us that we might know His thoughts, know His heart, know His desires.

Jesus is the means by which God communicates with us. Jesus does the same work that words do—like words, Jesus lets us know what God is thinking and feeling. Jesus is God’s words put into human form. But Jesus is not fallible like us. Sometimes we fail to communicate properly. We choose the wrong words and end up giving the wrong idea. Jesus is not like that. Jesus always represents God perfectly, because Jesus is God. The Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Jesus lives in the presence of the Father; Jesus has been with His Father from eternity. Jesus knows the Father’s heart perfectly because they have been together forever, and because they are--together with the Holy Spirit--one God. When Jesus speaks for the Father, He speaks for Himself—He speaks for God. Jesus is the completely dependable, authoritative Word of God.

But just as with written words, the Word of God does more than reveal God’s heart to us; like our words, the Word of God causes things to happen. Remember how God created the universe? On the first day, God said, "Let there be light," and there was light (Genesis 1:3). God created light, created the universe, by the power and authority of His spoken word. Psalm 33 says, By the word of the LORD were the heavens made. Now, consider what John says of Jesus’ role in the creation: Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. Of course Jesus was involved in the creation of our world; Jesus is the Word of God, and God creates by the power of His word!

Human words have power only insofar as they influence our thoughts and feelings. But the Word of God, being God Himself, has power in Himself. Consider the miracles of Jesus. Jesus ended a storm on the Sea of Galilee with the words "Quiet! Be still!" (Mark 4:39). Jesus healed a paralyzed man by commanding him, "Get up, take your mat and go home" (Matthew 9:6). Jesus cured a man of leprosy with the words, "Be clean" (Luke 5:13). Jesus removed a demon from a possessed man by saying, "Come out of him!" (Mark 9:25). Jesus raised a child from death by saying, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!" (Mark 5:41).

There is real life-giving power in Jesus, the living Word of God. That is why we pay such careful attention to Jesus’ words. That is why many Bibles highlight Jesus’ words with red ink. Jesus’ words are powerful and effective. Jesus’ words can create faith in our hearts, as we see when Jesus’ disciples refused to abandon Him: "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:67-68). It was the words of Jesus that had created faith in His disciples, faith that Jesus spoke the very words of God. This is possible because God works through His words: Jesus said, "The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me" (John 14:10-11).

The Bible shows us over and over again how powerful the Word of God is, because we need to trust it. We are all infected with sin. Sin twists our thinking, makes us question whether there is anything that is true, anything that can be relied upon. Our experience as sinful people is that no one can be trusted to always tell the truth, no one can be relied upon 100%. So when Jesus tells us about what sin is, we tend to be unconvinced. Those things that Jesus labels as sins—well personally, I think they’re kind of fun; how can I be sure that I really need to ask for forgiveness for doing that? Like the song says, "how can something be wrong when it feels so right"? When Jesus tells us that He has made things right with God by dying in our place for our sins, and that we can have a passport to heaven if we trust in Him alone, we tend to be skeptical. How can I know that there is anything after death except eternal nothingness? And even if there is a God in His heaven, isn’t it a little narrow-minded to claim that there is only one way to get in? Our sinful nature distorts our thinking, so that the truths spoken by Jesus seem like untruths to us; this is what John meant when he wrote, The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

God spoke, and the world was made. Sin entered the world, and the truths of God became hard for us to hear as we began shouting sinful lies and half-truths at each other. But God did not stop speaking. The Word of God is eternal and eternally active; the Word of God was revealed through Moses and the prophets, and finally took on the characteristics of a man in order to speak to us directly, face to face. In Jesus, the words of God come from God’s own lips; at Jesus’ transfiguration the Father said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" (Matthew 17:15).

It is important that we listen to the Word of God. It is important that we hear Jesus say, "Friend, your sins are forgiven" (Luke 5:20). It is important that we hear Jesus say, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). It is important that we hear Jesus and believe Him when He says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25-26). It is critical that we hear Jesus and believe the truth of His words, because Scripture tells us, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

Jesus is the very Word of God, who came among us as a man that we might hear and believe and have true, unending, perfect life. For your sake, I beg you—listen to Him.