Life-Giving Word

Jesus is the Word made flesh through whom the glory of God is revealed, the same Word by which God created all things.

The Gospel of John identifies Jesus as the ‘Logos’, the “Word” through which God made the Universe. This theme is prominent in the Gospel of John. It builds on traditional ideas from the Hebrew Bible about how God created the world, especially life, through His spoken Word. Jesus of Nazareth is the Living Expression of that Creative Word.

In his words and deeds, Jesus reflects the grace and nature of God. Though put to death by his enemies, the Father vindicated him by raising Christ from the dead and installing him as the Lord who gives life and the Spirit to his people.

[Green Valley - Photo by Dayan Quinteros on Unsplash]

In every sense, Jesus is the Living and the Life-Giving Word of God.  What is truly revolutionary in the Gospel of John is the claim that this “Word became flesh” in Christ, a man from the insignificant village of Nazareth.

The Psalmist wrote, “By the word of Yahweh were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth <…> For he spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” - (Psalm 33:6-9).

In the creation account of Genesis, we read that Yahweh “formed the man from dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” – (Genesis 2:7, Hebrews 11:3).

In John’s Gospel, the opening clause echoes the first words of the Book of Genesis – “In the beginning.” Likewise, in Genesis, “in the beginning, God said: Let there be light, and there was light.” The Gospel of John opens with the declaration:

• “In the beginning, all things were made through him <…> In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

God created all things through His spoken word. We meet this “Word” face-to-face in the flesh and blood man of Nazareth. “In him, the Word became flesh,” thereby revealing the unfiltered glory of God for us to see.

John uses the term “flesh” in the same way as the Hebrew Bible to refer to men in their weakened and mortal state. Jesus was a genuine human being who participated in the same mortality as the rest of humanity, only without sin. He is the ‘Logos’ (λογος), the Word of God, and we find this idea expressed elsewhere in the New Testament:

• “Since the children are partners in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death, he might bring to nothing him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all them who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage <…> Wherefore, it was necessary for him in all things to be made like his brethren that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things of God” – (Hebrews 2:14-18).

• “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that has been in all points tempted like us, yet without sin” - *(Hebrews 4:15.  Compare Philippians 2:7-8).

This is why the “words” of Jesus are Living and Life-Giving. They determine whether a man receives everlasting life. He was not just another philosopher or religious leader. In his teachings and actions, men heard and saw the creative “Word of God” in action.

The Nazarene was and remains the ultimate expression of the Father. In the truest sense, he is “the image of God.” Just like God “makes alive,” so “the Son makes alive whom he wills,” imparting life where there was none. This is the heart of the Good News announced by Christ and his Apostles, that salvation is freely given in and through this same Jesus, and nowhere else.

• “And in none other is there salvation, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!” – (Acts 4:12).

• “And the witness is this, that God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has this life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life” – (1 John 5:11-12).

HE GIVES LIFE

The words of Jesus give life. He alone has “the words of life,” a theme developed in John’s Gospel (John 6:68, “You have the words of everlasting life”):

• “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he will” – (John 5:21).

• “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, even though he dies, he will live” – (John 11:25).

• “I am the light of the world. He that follows me will not walk in the darkness, but he will have the light of life” – (John 8:12).

Those who heed his words inherit everlasting life. As Jesus declared, “He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me, he has everlasting life and has passed from death to life.” Every man who “keeps my word will not see death,” and those who are his true disciples will “abide in his word” - (John 5:24, 5:38, 8:31, 51).

Moreover, the “Word made flesh” is “full of grace and truth.” Not just more truth or the reaffirmation of the Mosaic Law, but grace beyond measure for every man and woman who embraces the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

• “For of his fullness we all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ” – (John 1:16).

• “For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one, much more will they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.  <…>For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one will the many be made righteous” – (Romans 5:17-19).

The fullness of God is revealed in His Son. The Father is not known apart from him. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me <…> From henceforth, you know him and have seen him.” Like the living waters of the Earth, his words impart life - (John 14:6-7).

• “He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might be preeminent. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens” - (Colossians 1:18-20).

• “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those who are perishing, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. Seeing it is God who said, Light will shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” - (2 Corinthians 4:3-6).

God is manifested fully in Christ’s life, words, and acts of mercy; therefore, if anyone has seen or heard him, he has seen the Father. Only in and through Jesus can we begin to understand the nature of the Living and Life-Giving God. Truly, Jesus is the Word of Life.

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SEE ALSO:

• God is Speaking - (God has spoken His definitive word in His Son. All previous words given by the prophets were preparatory, promissory, and partial)

• The True Tabernacle - (Jesus is the Greater Tabernacle in which the presence and glory of God dwell and manifest for all men to behold – John 1:14)

• The Logos - (Jesus is the Living Word in flesh, the true Tabernacle where the Glory of God is revealed. He is the man who reveals God’s Grace and Truth – John 1:14)

• La Palabra de Vida - (Jesús es la Palabra hecha carne a través de la cual se revela la gloria de Dios, la misma Palabra por la cual Dios creó todas las cosas)