The Word and God

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

How we take this for granted…that this is really the wording, that it ‘proves’ that Jesus is indeed God.  No argument allowed…that’s what ‘God says through John’.  It’s called ‘Scripture’, it’s ‘inspired and infallible’.  You disagree with it on pain of eternal torment of your soul.

Well, do not fear.  There is indeed life after questioning this statement.  Actually, in questioning and examining it carefully for the message the words actually convey, it can be seen to ‘fit’ far more sensibly with what God teaches in the Torah.

However, it does cast serious doubt on what the church teaches from the beginnings of doctrines which it established in the 3^rd and 4^th centuries AD.

So, back to the quote from John…

In its most basic literal translation, this is what the text says in English:

(In) the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word.

If you broaden that a little, including a fuller picture of what the Greek terms mean (so rather than choosing one English word, attempt to ‘paint the picture’ the word conveys) then you might get this:

(In) the beginning was the spoken word of God, the expression of His thought, the sharing of His message, and this Word was a direction towards a goal, expressing the desires and emotions of the mind (of God), and what God was, the Word was (they were as one).

An expression like this doesn’t disagree with a ‘Trinity’ or similar viewpoint, but it also can be read outside of those doctrinal lenses.

It can be read that the ‘Word’ is the expression within the physical (visible) realm, of God’s spiritual (invisible) desire, will, message, plan, and goal.  The ‘Word’ that God spoke, brings the invisible into visibility, not directly, but through an intermediary.  In this case, that intermediary was creation and all that was created.  Was creation God?  No, that’s not what is said.  It’s well expressed in Romans 1:20

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

His invisible attributes were made most visible in the ‘adam’ (the mankind) that God created to rule over His creation.  Adam was created in the image of God, in the likeness of God, to rule as God would.  To rule in the physical as God ruled in the spiritual.  In the sense of a mirror image.  The image in the mirror has no substance apart from the reality of the person it is reflecting.  Yet it is a perfect image, likeness, representation.  The ‘adam’ was to be this kind of representation in the physical (seen) world of God, who is spiritual (unseen).

This first adam was to be this perfect representation.  But ONLY as he remained in the will of God.  And he didn’t.  He didn’t remain in perfect ‘one-ness’ with God’s will. 

The teaching of likeness, image, representation appears in Genesis 1:26,27; 5:1; 9:6, and it reappears in Hebrews 1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:4; and Colossians 1:15, 19.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…(NIV)

…the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…

He is the image of the invisible God…

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…(this is the same fullness that is referenced in Eph 3:19, that is to dwell in us)

Jesus is called the ‘exact representation’ or the ‘exact imprint of his nature’, the ‘radiance of the glory of God’.  Note that he isn’t called God.  There’s a difference between the actual and the image.  The image doesn’t exist apart from the actual. 

The first Adam, this very unique being, was to be the perfect representation of his Creator.  But he turned away, he rejected his inheritance.  So God sent another unique one, a second chance, in the person of Y’shua of Nazareth, known to the church as Jesus. Now isn’t that ‘second chance’ so true to the character of God?!  This ‘Adam’ is called the ‘last adam’ and HE didn’t turn away, but accomplished the will of his Father (and ours).  He wasn’t just another man born of the corrupted seed of the first Adam.  He was another unique being as the first ‘adam’ was a unique being.  The goal of who Y’shua is, was there already in the beginning, in the will, goal, intent and desire of the Creator. 

The picture of brothers is recognizable.  Cain/Abel/Seth, Ishmael/Isaac, Esau/Jacob.  The first one rejected or was rejected.  The ‘last one’ was through whom the promise came.  It’s the same with the picture of the first adam and the last adam…it’s the last ‘Adam’ that the goal of God is demonstrated in.

We’re to be renewed in the image of God.  And this can only be done by a ‘rebirth’ and a remaining in the blessing of this second chance. 

“The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

…put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection…

…and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

NOTE: quotes are from the ESV unless otherwise stated.  Also, no capital has been used in ‘he, him’ when referring to Y’shua, as this is an English theological modification only.

Teaching by Examples

Many believers are taught to take particular verses from the Bible to ‘prove’ their stand on particular spiritual issues.  They sometimes tend to pick the verses that uphold their view and ignore the ones that don’t!  However, that’s not the way God teaches.  He teaches by giving us examples.  The Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible…Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) contain God’s laws for humankind.  God’s law is given to show us what sin is, as all sin is disobedience of God’s Law.  This is consistent all through the Bible. All through the other books in the Tanak (Old Testament) we see example after example of people who either obeyed God or didn’t.  And we see the effect of obedience or disobedience.  We’re supposed to learn from the teaching these examples present.

Romans 15:4 says that everything that was written in the Scriptures (and that word as used in the ‘New Testament’ always meant what we today refer to as the ‘Old Testament’) was written for our instruction, that through endurance in obedience, and its encouragement we might have hope.   1 Corinthians 10:6 tells us that God gave us many examples in the Scriptures, that we might learn how to live, and not to do the things that led those others into sin.

So God teaches by giving us examples.  He’s given us His laws, and expects us to obey them.  We know that sometimes life is hard.  It’s harder when we also fight against God by disobeying His good ways.  We know we have hope, even when life is hard, when we are careful to walk in the good way of obedience to God. 

A Sad Thing

I think Genesis 3 is the saddest chapter in the Bible.  In it we see how (and how easily) mankind turns away from God.  What caused the first Adam to disobey?  We can read Genesis 3:1-6 and see that the test God allowed came in the form of a different ‘word’ brought to them not by the Creator, but by a created being.  This is often how we turn away too, if we receive an ‘interpretation’ of what God says, rather than receiving (reading and studying) what God actually said.  This is what religion is all about...man's attempt to interpret God's words in ways that seem right to him.  Rather than searching out what God says for themselves, people are more comfortable (or too busy, or don’t think they’re smart enough) to let someone else tell them what God really said. 

This is how the being in Genesis 3:1 introduced deception.  He slightly twisted what God said.  Note that Eve’s response was not to repeat God’s actual words, but to modify them slightly herself (she added ‘we must not even touch it’ verse 3).  The Deceiver then denied what she said; because of course God hadn’t said that.  The Deceiver also knew God was merciful…and he twisted God’s words again (verse 4).  ‘You won’t die’, he said, ‘You will actually gain more than what you have…and it will make you like God’.

Think about it…what more good could they possibly have?  If God had withheld something from them (and He did…the knowledge of evil) then surely in the context of ‘very good’, that would have been to their benefit. 

So here we see another teaching.  Our human nature is not content with what we have, we instinctively want more.  At the root of that desire is the fact that our human nature struggles to trust God.  God made us capable of resisting that temptation. He certainly made us capable of choosing good.  But to choose the good involves trusting God and in that trust, obeying HIS commands!  But this is work, probably the hardest work we do in life.  The enemy within us…our own desire to be ‘god’ in our life and obey our own ‘law’, and not to trust the God who made us, and obey His…this enemy is often the greatest challenge we face.  And we face it on a daily basis.