More than 50 years. That is how long the apostle John honed his message about Jesus, arranging and rearranging the words, adding some in, dropping others out, morphing, forming, and refining them to maximize their impact. And then He opened his gospel with the spectacular statement: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
“The Word” Is a Way of Life Infused with the Holy Spirit
The chief attribute of God is not His power, His knowledge, or His ability to be everywhere at once. At His very core, He is comprised of a specific character. John emphasized this focus when he called Him “The Word.” This name is not a mere designation by which we distinguish one entity from another. Instead, it is a way of life infused with the Holy Spirit. And throughout the rest of his book, John unpacked what it means for us to have life by being in this name.
God Is Causing “The Word” to Grow
This focus on the Word has universe-altering implications for our relationship with God. The Father’s name is “The Word.” And He gave this name to Jesus in the form of His teachings, making Him an extension of “The Word.” But just as a company gains more employees over time, so “The Word” gains more members. Jesus gave these teachings to His disciples, causing this entity known as “The Word” to expand by eleven more. And He undergird those teachings with the heartfelt prayer, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, so that they may be one, even as We are one” (John 17:11, NASB). He was not here praying for the union of the disciples with one another, but for their ongoing union with Him on the level that He is united to the Father.
And then Jesus widened this prayer to include you and me, imploring, “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21, NASB). The Father and Son share deep fellowship with one another. And this is the same level of fellowship that He offers you and me!
Members of the One-and-Only Son
This fellowship happens as we receive the Word. John declared, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, NASB). According to this verse, God has one, and only one, Son. How, then, can you and I be called children of God? Thankfully, John, explains the mechanism: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12, NASB). We must believe in His name – and His name is “The Word.” Said another way, we must receive Him, the Word, in the form of His teachings. When we internalize these teachings, He dwells in our hearts to the point that He considers us as part of who He is. This association gives us the right to be called children of God, since we are members of the one-and-only Son of God. There is no avenue to get this title apart from Him.
Jesus “The Word” Is Our Food
God illustrated this process to the children of Israel. A few weeks after they left Egypt, they came into a wilderness on their way to Mount Sinai. Day after day their hunger pangs increased until desperation set in. But God rained manna down on the camp, sustaining them with a miraculous provision of daily food. This miracle was far more than a mere provision of their physical needs. He gave it to press home the lesson that “man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:2, NASB). Without the manna they would have died. And without the heavenly manna of the Word, we will die. What love we should have for His teachings! This is our daily bread. And Jesus promised that if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be filled (Matthew 5:6).
Just like with the manna, Jesus illustrated this point when He fed the 5000. The people came to Him the next day requesting an ongoing occurrence of this miracle. But He told them that He Himself is the heavenly manna. With striking language He revealed that the only way to have life is to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Upon hearing this startling statement, many people gave up following Him, but Jesus made no apology or attempt to soften the impact. However, He did clarify it to his disciples. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh provides no benefit; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are life” (John 6:63, NASB). It is not Jesus’ physical flesh and blood that bring life. But it is most definitely part of Him – His Spirit contained in His words. We are to ingest the life-giving words of Jesus. To crave for more of Jesus is to crave for more of the Word, for they are one and the same. And to love the Word is to keep the Word.
The Attitude that Saves
As foreshadowed by the manna, we live by every word that proceeds from God’s mouth. Our aim is not limited to following only a list of two or 10 or 613 commandments. God wants more than that. If I tell my kids, “Don’t run in the house,” they may rigorously observe that rule while still doing cartwheels and summersaults. But if they truly seek to understand the kind of behavior I want, they will avoid all three. And so it is with God. He desires for us to go beyond mere observance of rules to a deep zeal for carrying out His will, whatever it might be. It is not a checklist, but a love-based attitude where we wholeheartedly seek to know and do what pleases Him, depending on Him for strength. To confess Jesus as Lord is to follow Him as Lord, like sheep follow the voice of their shepherd, depending on the shepherd to guide and enable them.
If we practice this attitude, we are safe to save. The rebellious attitude is gone, even if the knowledge of God’s will may still be incomplete. As soon as one learns some new aspect of God’s will, he or she will align with it. This attitude is what it means to believe in Jesus. The commands in the Bible are a framework that teaches us a rough idea of God’s will, but the experience He really wants is where we hang on His every word, mining them for clues as to what pleases Him, and applying those learnings across broad swaths of our lives. He does not want His servants to take His talents and bury them in the ground, safely protecting them so that He receives obedience back solely with respect to the specific command. He wants us to take the talents and invest them, providing Him much more obedience in return than the initial command He gave us.
The Word Resolves the Tension Between Faith and Works
Down through the centuries, many have wrestled over the seeming tension between faith and works. Some read in Romans, “We maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Romans 3:28, NASB), and they develop faulty conclusions about obedience to God. Just the other day I heard of a man who thought that all that was required for salvation is a strong mental confidence that God will take us to heaven. He questioned whether repentance is even necessary! Others read in James, “A person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24, NASB), and they also come to wrong conclusions, believing that we must amass a certain level of good works to be saved.
But from the perspective of internalizing the Word, the tension between faith and works goes away. We are saved by exercising the right attitude – one where we are in a headlong pursuit of understanding His will and implementing it in our lives, relying on Him for strength. The moment we set our heart on this path, Jesus starts dwelling in us, which makes us part of His body. No works have accrued. We have not stepped off “Go.” But our orientation has changed. We are now hostile toward sin and friendly toward God’s will. This changed orientation unites us with Christ and sets us on a path of growth.
Sharing in Jesus’ Experience
The reason this arrangement works is that as members of Him, we share in His experience. Our sins become His sins, enabling His death to count for us, wiping away our past guilt. And His Holy Spirit works in us to make our character like His. This same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will one day raise us. And the glory that He has with the Father He will eventually give to us.
This experience could be compared to an auto manufacturing plant. When things are working properly on the assembly line, cars roll out the end. Likewise, when our practice is to seek out and internalize the Word, works are the inevitable outcome. If our good works are not increasing over time, then something is malfunctioning on the assembly line, figuratively speaking. We don’t fix the problem by focusing on the cars. We fix the problem by focusing on the manufacturing line. Similarly, we don’t fix the lack of good works by focusing on the works directly. Rather, we should focus on our orientation to truth and our dependence on Jesus. Then the works will follow.
But What If We Fall?
One might ask, “How much obedience is good enough? What if in moments of temptation, I knowingly sin 10% of the time? Or 30%? Or 75%?” But this question implies that we can target some level of obedience less than 100%. Although we are still liable to make these sorts of mistakes, our aim must be complete conformance to God’s will. We will loathe these sins, rather than excuse them. And we will wrestle against them, putting to death the deeds prompted by our sinful nature. We do not cease to be members of Jesus’ body just because we blow it. Rather, He zealously works in us to bring about spiritual growth, cleansing us just like He did the temple. And when we embrace this attitude of internalizing the Word, He not only helps us eventually overcome these obvious temptations, but He also imperceptibly changes us so that one day we look around and realize that He has silently caused us to move in the direction that we longed to go, ever closer to His will. Ask not how much is good enough but pursue Him with abandon. What counts is the attitude – one where we internalize His teachings.
Today Is the Day of Salvation
There is a judgment day coming when Christ determines who will continue as a member of Him and who will be separated. The deciding factor will be whether we allowed the Word to continue growing in our hearts. Did our orientation remain toward Him, or did it revert toward the world? He foreshadowed that day in many parables about His kingdom – He will one day separate the sheep from the goats, the good fish from the bad, the wheat from the tares, the properly clothed wedding guests from the improperly clothed ones, and the faithful servants from the wicked ones. But that day is not yet here. Today is the day of salvation. Jesus is our ever-present help, cleansing and empowering us.
If you blow it, turn to God immediately. Don’t wait to try to prove yourself to Him before seeking His help. Ask God to forgive you, recommit your will to Him, and keep practicing the next step in your walk with Him. Repentance involves both sorrow for sin and forsaking of it. But while we may temporarily sorrow for our failings, don’t stay there. Turn your eyes from your own failings and fix your attention on Jesus. We cannot purify our heart by mourning over our sad state. But Jesus can fix it. So run to Him. Say, “Jesus, I don’t have it in me to do what is right. But You can help me. Please work in me to give me both the desire and ability to carry out Your will. I cast myself on You. If You do not come through, I am done for. But I believe in You. I claim your promise that You are more willing to give the Holy Spirit to me than an earthly father is willing to give good gifts to his children. So please, create a new heart in me. Live out Your life in me. Cause me to do what is right.” And God will help us. Like Paul, we can make it our practice to forget those things that are behind. The only question is what our next steps are with the Word going forward. It matters not how far we have come, but in what direction we are headed.
Abraham’s Single Seed
God has amazing things planned for those who embrace this practice of internalizing the Word. God promised Abraham that his seed would be like the stars of the heaven in number. But as Paul pointed out, the Hebrew word for “seed” is singular. He declared, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many; but as of one, ‘And to thy seed,’ which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16). Of course, Abraham thought this promise applied to Isaac becoming a great nation, and God let it play out as he understood it. But there was a greater fulfillment coming. There is only one seed of Abraham, and that true seed is Christ.
Paul then shared an exquisite insight, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ…And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:27, 29). When we are united to Christ, then we are Christ; or more descriptively, we are members of Him. Though Christ had no biological descendants, God’s promise to Abraham was that this seed would be like the stars of the heaven in number. And so it has come to pass. Jesus, the single seed of Abraham, is composed of many parts. He has made us members of His body. Amazing promise! Marvelous hope!
Paul described this mystery as a body. Jesus is the head of that body, always the one in authority. Nevertheless, when His Word dwells in us, the connection is so close that He considers us as members of Himself, “of his flesh, and of his bones” (Ephesians 5:30). All believers become part of “the Word.”
The Greatest Invitation
One with God! The implications are mind-blowing. The greatest invitation ever given is set before us. Rub your finger on a penny and consider the value of the copper atoms that just came off on your skin. The world’s utmost fortune is of far less value than those copper atoms in comparison to the astonishing value of this invitation. Cradle it in your hands more tightly than a winning lottery ticket. Carry it more carefully than you would the Hope Diamond. Whatever you do, don’t miss this opportunity. If you have not already made it your practice, start internalizing the Word today!
“The one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24, NASB).
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