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| July 2010 |
| Billie Silvey |
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| Word of God |
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| A word is a sound that has meaning. We use words all the time—“dog,” “car,” “light.” Our words are powerful. They can hurt or heal. And the words we use say a lot about us. They can show more than we intend to reveal about the kind of people we are. God uses words as well. His words are much more powerful than ours. God's words can create or destroy. And the words he uses say a lot about him. They reveal his nature as well as his will for us. The word revelation means uncovering or disclosing. If God did not reveal himself to us, we would never know him. If he had not spoken, we could never have heard. |
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| The Creative Word |
| The first thing God did was speak. “Let there be light,” he said. And there was light. That one act says a lot about God. "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows his handiwork, day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2). He is powerful. God expresses a desire and it is immediately realized. He speaks and things appear. "By the word of God the heavens were made" (Psalm 33:6). He is active. He doesn't just wait passively to see if we can discover him on our own. He takes the initiative and reveals, or discovers, himself to us. He cares. His attention extends from the greatest to the smallest aspects of the universe. The first thing he created was light, which reveals the beauty of creation and enables us to move safely through the world. |
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| The Incarnate Word |
| We know a lot about God from the created universe. “For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20), but if that were all we had to go on, our knowledge would be incomplete.
The universe speaks of God's power, majesty and sovereignty, but it says little about his love. That is seen in the living, incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . In him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:1-2). The created world fails to say anything about God's desire for relationship with us, his people. He has "purified your souls in obeying the truth . . . having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever" (1 Peter 1:23). And it fails to express the extent of his sacrificial love for us. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Jesus is the rider on the white horse in the book of Revelation. "He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called 'the Word of God'" (Revelation 13:19). |
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| The Inspired Word |
| Finally, the phrase “the Word of God” refers to God’s revealed will or the the Holy Scriptures. Inspired means filled with or dominated by the Spirit. The concept first appears in scripture in the form of oral discourse. In ancient Israel, prophecy was uttered under the influence of the Spirit of God.
Early Christians understood the giving of the Spirit as a mark of full assimilation into the Christian community. The concept is also applied to documents written under the inspiration of the Spirit. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:1). Christians are to arm themselves with the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:16). A knowledge of God's will enables us to stand firm in difficult times. As Christians, we should be aware of God's message to us through the created universe, the incarnated Jesus Christ, and the inspired scriptures. We should appreciate and praise our God who speaks, who longs for relationship with us, and who reveals not just his power but his love and his will to us. Not that he wants to run our lives. He has given us individual personalities and free will. But being our loving creator, he knows that some things we might choose are counterproductive and destructive. He wants what is best for us. He came so we could have full, abundant, satisfying life (John 10:10). |