"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." (John 1:1-3)
Who Is He?
That this Word means Christ, there is no room for doubt. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
Again, John writes of the Word of life, "Which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." (1 John 1:1)
And when the same writer saw a vision of Christ, the "Faithful and True," (Revelation 1:5; Revelation 3:14) "the King of kings and Lord of lords," (Revelation 19:16) coming to judge the world in righteousness, he saw Him as: "The Word of God." (Revelation 19:13)
The One of whom we are reading, therefore, is the One who dwelt on earth in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth.
In the Beginning
The Word, the only begotten Son of God, was "in the beginning." (John 1:1)
When was that? It cannot be located. Let the mind run back to "the beginning" when God created the heavens and earth, and there we see Him. Just before His crucifixion Jesus prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with You before the world was." (John 17:5)
If we could find the beginning of all created things, "whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers," (Colossians 1:16) we should still see that "He is before all things." (Colossians 1:17)
Yes, He himself is: "the beginning of the creation of God." (Revelation 3:14)
Finite minds can never span the space between "the beginning" when the Word was with God, and the present time; "[His] goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, [even] from the days of eternity." (Micah 5:2,margin) "[He is] from everlasting to everlasting." (Psalm 90:2)
The Word of Wisdom
Jesus Christ is the One "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ... [He is] the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (Colossians 2:3,22)
The Hebrew word here rendered "possess," is the same as that rendered "gotten" in Genesis 4:1, where we read that Eve said, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." (Genesis 4:1)
Christ is the only begotten Son of God. In Proverbs 8:22 there is no preposition in the original, so that a more proper rendering of the verse would be, "The Lord possessed me, the beginning of His way, before His works of old." (Proverbs 8:22)
This is indicated in the margin of the Revised Version. Christ was not only in the beginning, but: "He is ... the beginning," (Colossians 1:18) even the beginning of the way of the Father. Without Him there was nothing.
The Word Was God
"Being made so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." (Hebrews 1:4)
The Son must inherit the name and titles and estate of the Father. Whatever titles belong to God the Father belong equally to Christ. They are His by right. By birth He is "heir of all things." (Hebrews 1:2)
The Apostle Paul writes of the glorious appearing "of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:13)
The Father himself addresses the Son as God, saying to Him, "Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever." (Hebrews 1:8)
The Word and the Thought
A word is not merely a sound; it is a thing. The ancient Hebrews had but one term for both "word" and "thing." So in the Hebrew Bible the word which is rendered "word" is the same that is rendered "thing." A word is the expression of a thought or an idea. The Word of God is the expression of the thought of God. "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." (John 1:18)
Christ is the expression of God's thoughts to man; and since the thoughts of God toward us are "thoughts of peace, and not of evil," (Jeremiah 19:11) "[Christ] came and preached peace." (Ephesians 2:17)
Why is it that men do not understand God, but think of Him as stern and hard? Simply because they do not know Christ. It is impossible for anyone to know and believe in the one true God, without knowing Jesus Christ, for: "No man knows the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." (Matthew 11:27)
The Word Spoken
"No prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:21)
But it was the Spirit of Christ in the prophets. "Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." (1 Peter 1:11) "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable." (2 Timothy 3:16)
An inspiration is a breath. Inspiration of God means the breath of God. Scripture inspired of God, is Scripture breathed of God. Thus we read, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." (Psalm 33:6)
The Scriptures the Word of God
Since the Scriptures are God-breathed, they are the Word of God. This is what they claim to be. To Jeremiah the Lord said, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth." (Jeremiah 1:9)
God said, "He that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully." (Jeremiah 23:28)
To Ezekiel He said, "You shall speak my words unto them." (Ezekiel 2:7)
Again, "Son of man, go, get you unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them." (Ezekiel 3:4)
And over and over we find this statement in the prophets, "The word of the Lord came unto me;" (Jeremiah 1:4) (This phrase is found extensively in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah) "The word of the Lord, which He spoke" (1 Kings 2:27) (This phrase is found extensively in 1 Kings and 2 Kings) by this or that one. David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue." (2 Samuel 23:2)
Paul thanked God that the Thessalonian brethren received the word which he spoke to them, "not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God." (2 Thessalonians 2:13)
Again he wrote, "If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 14:37)
David said to the Lord, "Your Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. ... Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:105,11)
But time and space would fail to repeat all the instances in which the Holy Scriptures are declared to be the Word of God. That is the claim that they make for themselves. Just as surely as they are true, so surely are they the Word of God.
Christ and the Written Word
Some people imagine that to call the Scriptures the Word of God is derogatory to Christ. They think that since He is the Word of God, the Scriptures cannot be. They forget that this is the very reason why they are God's Word.
Through the Scriptures, which we can see, we become acquainted with Christ, whom we cannot see. The unity of Christ and the written word may be learned by comparing Deuteronomy 30:11-14 with Romans 10:4-8. We cannot take space to quote them in full, but you can read and compare them for yourselves.
The commandment, we are told, is not hidden, nor far off. It is not in heaven, that we should say, Who will go up and bring it to us? nor is it in the deep, that we need to bring it up. The Apostle Paul uses this same scripture, only inserting Christ in the place of commandment.
When Moses said that it was not necessary to go up to heaven to bring the commandment down, it was the same as though he had said that we need not go up to bring Christ down. He has come, and He is risen,--the Word of life,--and the words which He speaks are spirit and life. (John 6:63) Whoever reads the words of the apostles and prophets as the Word of God, finds Christ.
The Creative Word
"All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3)
The Norwegian translation expresses the emphatic declaration of the original: "Without it [that is, the Word] is not even a single thing made." "For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." (Colossians 1:16-17,RV)
And yet there are people who deny that the Son had an existence before He was born a baby in Bethlehem! To deny that is the same as to deny His present existence.
Creation by Wisdom
The Father, addressing the Son, says, "You, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of your hands." (Hebrews 1:10)
God made the worlds by Him: "By whom also He made the worlds." (Hebrews 1:2)
We have already seen that Christ is "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24)
Now read, "The Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King; ... He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom." (Jeremiah 10:10,12)
And then read again the words of wisdom, "When He gave to the sea its bound, that the waters shouldnot transgress His commandment; when He marked out the foundations of the earth; Then I was by Him as a Master Workman." (Proverbs 8:29-30,RV)
The common version has it, "as one brought up with Him," which is also the truth. "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way." (Proverbs 8:22,RV)
He was "the beginning of His way." He was the Architect, the Master Workman, without whom nothing was made.
The Power of God to Salvation
It is not as a matter of mere curiosity that the Scriptures set Christ before us as the power of God,--the One to whom creation owes its existence. It is that we may know His power to save us from sin. "The Word of truth [is] the Gospel of our salvation." (Ephesians 1:13)
The eternal power of God is seen in the things that are made. (Romans 1:20) But the cross of Christ is also the power of God to them who are saved by it. (1 Corinthians 1:18) There is the manifestation of one power by which all things were created and still exist. We have redemption, even the forgiveness of our sins, through the blood of Christ, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation; For in Him were all things created." (Colossians 1:15-16)
Christ is Redeemer because He is Creator; the power by which He redeems is the very same power by which He creates.
The Word of Peace
Christ is the Word of the God of peace. So, "He is our peace." (Ephesians 2:14)
When He came to earth, He came speaking the words of God, who said to Moses, "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put my words in His mouth." (Deuteronomy 18:18)
So He came, "preaching peace." (Acts 10:36)
That was the word that He spoke when the storm was raging on the Sea of Galilee. "He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." (Mark 4:39)
The winds and the waves recognized the word of the Creator. Power over the elements,--creative power,--was manifested in that word "peace." It is the same word which by the Gospel is preached unto us; for Christ says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." (John 14:27) "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) "The peace of God rules in our hearts," (Colossians 3:15) only when "The word of Christ dwells in us richly in all wisdom." (Colossians 3:16)
It is the word that creates, because in Him we have peace, and, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Rest and Peace
Says the Saviour: "Come unto me all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," (Matthew 11:28)
Both peace and rest are found in Him, because: "in Him were all things created." (Colossians 1:16)
The firmer our foundation, the more securely we can rest. We rest upon the word of God, and find perfect rest there, because it is the word that created all things. "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed." (Exodus 31:17)
He rested upon His own word, which is living and active, and which continued to uphold that which was created. The seventh day, therefore, "the Sabbath of the Lord your God," (Exodus 20:10) is the rest of God. It is the rest which Christ gives to us; for since Christ created all things it was He who at the close of the six days' work rested on the seventh day.
The seventh day is emphatically the Lord's day,--the pledge of the rest that Jesus gives; and our acceptance of it in spirit and in truth is the sign of our accepting the rest that He offers us.
Sanctification by the Word
The Saviour prayed, "Sanctify them through your truth; your word is truth." (John 17:17)
That is the word of Christ, the word by which all things were created. He himself is the Truth, (John 14:6) and He of God "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption." (1 Corinthians 1:30)
Now hear what the Lord says of His people who had forsaken Him: "I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them." (Ezekiel 20:12)
God has made Christ sanctification to us, and He has given us the Sabbath in order that we may know that He does sanctify us; therefore it follows that our highest knowledge of God in Christ is found in the Sabbath. To know that God has given the Sabbath, and then to reject it, is to reject complete sanctification.
Perfection and Growth
Consider this point further. At the close of each day of creation, "God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:10,12,18,21,25,31)
Everything was perfect as He went along. But suppose He had stopped at any point of time before the Sabbath, and done no more; what would have been the result? Evidently an imperfect, unfinished creation.
The Sabbath was the crown, the mark of a perfect and complete creation. So with men. They may have come to Christ, to learn of Him. They may have made great progress in His school. It is all good. Sanctification is through obedience, through the Spirit, and if they are mindful of all that He shows them, they are as perfect through the little that they know as if they had known everything.
But suppose the Sabbath, "as the truth is in Jesus," (Ephesians 4:21) is made known to them, and they reject it. They then stop short in their growth and are imperfect, no matter how excellent they may have been. The saints of God are the planting of the Lord, "that they might be called trees of righteousness;" (Isaiah 61:3) but the tree that stops growing is dead.
Knowing God
"This is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." (John 17:3)
But we do not know God unless we know Him as Creator, and we cannot know Him at all except as we learn of Him in Christ, by whom all things were created.
It is a terrible error to deny the existence of Christ before He came to this earth in the flesh; but the only evidence of His pre-existence is the fact that He created all things. To deny Him as Creator, is to deny His existence at all. To neglect to honor Him as Creator, is to "neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord." (Hebrews 2:3)
And we cannot honor Him as Creator unless we accept without questioning the word which tells us about His creation work, and of the rest that follows.
And the only way to know this indeed is to share that rest with Him, as we read again, "Hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God." (Ezekiel 20:2)
Let us then "go on unto perfection," (Hebrews 6:1) finding in Christ sanctification and redemption according to the measure of His power as Creator, and rejoicing in the Sabbath, the sign which He has given us of creation perfect and complete.--Present Truth, October 24, 1895--John 1:1-14.