The Word

Welcome to a brand-new, blog-only series I am entitling One Thought. Here's the idea behind this new series:

The posts in our previous series were a bit longer than I had originally intended. So I wanted to swing the other direction by writing a series of posts which are much shorter, but still have the purpose of helping you follow Jesus. So I thought I would pick a section of Scripture, and simply share "one thought" from a verse or two in that passage. (If this goes well, we might do this series again, but with a different Bible passage.)

One Thought from John 1

For this inaugural One Thought series, I have selected John 1:1-14 as our passage. A couple of weeks ago, one of our teens in the Riverwood Youth Group asked a question about John 1:1. I was so inspired by this teen's pursuit of understanding Jesus, I decided we'd all benefit from a deeper look at this poetic passage of Scripture.

So here is this week's verse with my "one thought."

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:1-2 (ESV)

Preachers like me sometimes refer to the Bible as "the Word." And it is! Second Timothy 3:16 tells us God breathed the Scriptures into existence through human authors, thus making the Scriptures "God's Word."

But at the same time, the Apostle John says God's Word is more than just the Bible. In the first two verses of chapter 1 of his Gospel, John talks about God's Word as though it is a person. And it is! From the context, it's clear this "Word" is Jesus. For Jesus, as God the Son, was with God (the Father) in the beginning because He is God as a member of the Trinity.

But how is Jesus the Word and the Bible the Word?

Jesus, as the author of Scripture, lived out the teachings of Scripture perfectly. In other words, He embodied the very ideas, truths, and realities of the Bible. If the Scripture somehow could take on human form, it would be Jesus.

Yet, don't get confused - the Bible itself is not God. It is from God. It is truth that is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness. But that truth isn't God Himself; it is to point us to Jesus, as well as make us more like Jesus. For God to be God, He has to have personhood. The Bible doesn't have personhood. If it did, though, it would be Jesus, who does have personhood.

So this week's One Thought: Jesus is the perfect Word of God, living and thinking how you and I could not. It is this perfection that allowed Him to be the perfect, willing sacrifice for our sin. May this One Thought help you worship Him today!

Want more than one thought on this week's passage? Let this blog post take you deeper...