What is the living Word?

Hebrews 1 commences with those wonderful words — "God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in the Person of the Son." Many pages would be needed to express the sayings of God to and of His blessed Son in the gospels, but we desire to call attention to a few of the actual words of Christ Himself, all well-known but ever competent to reveal fresh rays of His glory to our hearts. He is "the Word" -eternally so! "The Word was with God, and the Word was God." Not only did He manifest all that lay in the Divine heart and mind but He Himself was the very substance of it all. He is the embodiment of all that the Scriptures say. Not only the "Alpha and Omega," but the "Aleph and the Tau" (the word "ME" in Zechariah 12:10 is composed of the first and last letters of the Hebrew language). He is the living Word — the written word becomes vibrant, powerful and exceedingly glorious in character and appeal as we see Christ Himself as the "Beginning and the End," "He who is, and who was, and who is to come" (Revelation 1). Kindly not carefully the order of the tenses.

A designation of the Lord Jesus, employed by John in the opening of his gospel, and mentioned in Luke 1:2. The word is λόγος, which occurs constantly in the N.T. and is translated 'word, saying, speech,' etc. In John 1 it is 'the Word who is in view,' and what is stated asserts clearly three things concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us consider Him as "the Word". A word is the expression of a thought and the Lord Jesus is the full expression of the mind of God.

The Lord Jesus is "the Word". A word is the expression of a thought and so "the Word" is the expression of the mind of God. The Lord Jesus did not just say "Thus saith the Lord", He did not just tell forth the mind of God, but He Himself was the full expression of God; He is God. "The Word became flesh" and John was still enjoying the wonder of it, 'To think, He came here and lived! He dwelt among us! and we have contemplated His glory!"

In the beginning was the Word, in Greek, Logos. Logos is the intelligence, and the intelligible-reason, the thing thought. Logos is the mind of God expressed, the expression of what God is. This Christ was on earth, the Logos.

In the Gospel by John the Spirit of God opens out to us the glories of the Word. As the Word, He is the universal Representative of all the mind and thoughts and ways of God, both in His own Person and by means of what He says and does. If at any time any revelation required, or requires, to be given of God's thoughts and plans and will, the revealing thereof took place, or will take place, through Him. We are to think of Him as the One adequate, and He alone, to fully disclose all that is in the mind of God, and to bring into being all that the mind of God has planned.

As to the meaning of the term, "the WORD," it brings before us the fact that "He is, and He is the expression of the whole mind that subsists in God." All that God is, is therefore revealed in Him; and hence it was said, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (v. 18.) Only here, He who was the Word is spoken of as the only begotten Son. As the Word He is, and He is the expression of the whole mind of God; but as the Son, the eternal Son, He is, in incarnation, the revealer of the Father.

— “His Name is called the Word of God.” Of the eight sacred writers of the New Testament, John is the only one who applies this title to Christ. As the Word He represents and expresses God in His Being, character, and works. He is ”The Word of Life” (1 John 1:1), as being in His Person and ways its living embodiment. He is termed “The Word of God,” as perfectly expressing Him in judgment. As the WORD He has personal, independent, eternal existence (John 1:1-2); and as the WORD He is the maker of all things (v. 3). He is the Revealer of God, the ONE Who makes Him known. Our words ought to be the exact expression of what we are; the words of Christ were the absolute expression of what He ever is (John 8:25). As the WORD He reveals God in His essential nature as light and love, and as the “only begotten Son” He declares the Father. The first without the second would have left a huge blank, for the heart craves for a known and enjoyed relationship. God is our Father.

The 'word of life' does not here mean 'a spoken utterance concerning life'. It is a reference to the Son, Jesus Christ. The name 'Word' tells us both who He is and what characterises Him. Our words give expression to our thoughts. All that is in God's mind is expressed in the Word - in a Person. What is distinctly in view here, however, is life. All that God has in mind concerning life is expressed in the Word, here called 'the Word of life'.

What I press is the Word. Christ is the Living Word; so it is the Word of God that has come from God, and has come into this world, and by which all and every operation of God is effected. Where that is not the case, there is no real result. Miracles were proofs of His mission, but they were not life in the soul. If faith rested on the evidence of miracles alone, the Lord would not trust man. Where the Word is received, the soul is begotten of God.