Too often, we miss the mark. We make the same mistake that the Pharisees of Jesus’ day did. They thought God was trying to force them to do all of the right things, to avoid all the wrong things, and know a plethora of ideas about Him from the Torah and traditions. Yet, God was calling them to know Him. Particularly, He was inviting them to know Him through Jesus. Jesus said they failed to understand the Word of God because they did not recognize who He was:

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40; all Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Years later, as St. John reflected on his time with Jesus, he summed it by saying that Jesus Himself was the “logos,” the living word of God:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1–3, 14).

That phrase, “the Word,” would make his Jewish readers think of the Old Testament Scriptures: the law of Moses, the historical books, the Psalms and poetic books, and the writings of the prophets. This would suggest that the entire written Word of God—the entire revelation of who God is—dwelled in the body, soul, and spirit of Jesus.

Greeks may have had a different perspective on “logos,” but it was likewise a true perspective of Jesus. To the Greeks, the “logos” was the logic, reason, or wisdom that governed the universe. The “intelligent designer” that brings order and structure to the galaxies, whom even some modern scientists acknowledge without associating it with the God of the Bible, is essentially the same as the “logos” whom some Greek philosophers pondered. St. John tells us that this “logos,” the logic and reason that governs the universe, became a man named Jesus. The “logos” whom the Greek philosophers considered was the “God” of whom the Jewish Scripture writers spoke. This “God/logos” was, in fact, Jesus Christ. The written Word of the Old Testament became the Living Word, Jesus. Future generations would be blessed by more written words describing the testimony about people’s encounters with Jesus and what they mean for all mankind.

Many Christians make the mistake of worshipping the written Word of God and losing sight of the Living Word Whom it reveals. The earliest Christians knew that God gave the Scriptures not merely so that we could read, analyze, and argue about them. The written Word of God pointed beyond itself to the One who created everything and the One who came to reveal God to us.

Copyright © 2019 Michael E. Lynch. All rights reserved.