“THE WORD BECAME FLESH”
Today we began reading the Gospel of John, the most remarkable and thought challenging of the four gospels. John portrays in far more detail the picture of the person of our Lord and His Father’s purpose in him. On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the crowd that Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” [Acts 2 v.23]
The translators confuse us by using the pronoun 'he' for 'the word' in John's opening verses. It is most helpful to read from v. 2 that "The word was in the beginning ... All things were made through a word ... in the word was life and the life was the light of men ..." In ch. 3 we will read, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."[ v.19-21]
Jesus often uses phraseology that has a symbolic meaning, as is obvious in the foregoing. What is also obvious today – is that people love darkness more than ever – and God’s Bible has become a forgotten book. We must do the opposite and love God’s word more than ever; may his word become flesh in us more and more - so our Lord will recognise us when he returns – and how soon will that be?.
Today we began reading the Gospel of John, the most remarkable and thought challenging of the four gospels. John portrays in far more detail the picture of the person of our Lord and His Father’s purpose in him. On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the crowd that Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” [Acts 2 v.23]
John
begins his gospel by telling us of this foreknowledge. Before our Lord
was born, he was "the word". How are we to understand "In the beginning
was the Word"? The LORD caused Isaiah to write [55 v.10,12], "as the
rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but
water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
So the word “word” is personified – God planning to provide spiritual
food through His Son – a parallel to causing natural food to grow.
We understand Jesus as "the word" that was in the mind of God from the
beginning. God spoke - and events followed. When Jesus was born, as we
read today, "the Word became flesh." The Greek word for 'word' is logos,
it has the foundation meaning of a 'spoken word' and is sometimes
translated as "sayings" in the Gospels, especially in the A. V. [see
Matt. 7 v.24,26,28] Take special note when you come to it in John 4
v.37,39. Recall how in Genesis 1 we read, “And God said” again and
again.The translators confuse us by using the pronoun 'he' for 'the word' in John's opening verses. It is most helpful to read from v. 2 that "The word was in the beginning ... All things were made through a word ... in the word was life and the life was the light of men ..." In ch. 3 we will read, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."[ v.19-21]
Jesus often uses phraseology that has a symbolic meaning, as is obvious in the foregoing. What is also obvious today – is that people love darkness more than ever – and God’s Bible has become a forgotten book. We must do the opposite and love God’s word more than ever; may his word become flesh in us more and more - so our Lord will recognise us when he returns – and how soon will that be?.
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