Message Two

The Word of God

(2)

3. The intrinsic, central line of the five historical events in the introduction to the Gospel of John as the "trunk" is that:
1. In the Word, who is Christ as the definition, explanation, and expression of God, is life—John 1:4a.
2. The life in the Word is the light that speaks to the world by shining forth, as His coming to the world, what God is—John 1:4b-11.
3. Whoever receives the shining light, which is Christ Himself, can have the divine life, carried forth by the light, that they may be born of God to be His children as the constituents of the house of God, Bethel—John 1:12-13.
4. This ultimately consummates the New Jerusalem organically for the fulfillment of God's eternal economy revealed to us by the same writer, John—Rev. 21:2.
4. The Word, God, and the Spirit, the three cooperating and coordinating together in the speaking for God:
1. God has the Word to speak for Him and He also has the Spirit to bring forth the Word. This is seen in the creation when Christ as the Word of God was creating by speaking (thus, the universe has been framed by the word of God—Heb. 11:3), and the Spirit of God was brooding (Gen. 1:2).
2. In addition to the speaking of Christ as the Word in the five great historical events, Christ as the Word of God spoke for God by the prophets through His Spirit (1 Pet. 1:10-11). When a particular point concerning Christ was conceived in a God-seeking person as a prophet, the Spirit of Christ brought forth the speaking of it through the prophet as the instrument. This was the way of the prophecy concerning Christ by the prophets in the Old Testament (Luke 24:44). It was Christ as the Word of God, God Himself, and the speaking Spirit of God cooperating and coordinating in the speaking for God in the prophecies concerning Christ. This can be illustrated by Isaiah 7:14 concerning Christ being born of a virgin, Micah 5:2 concerning the birthplace of Christ, Daniel 9:26 concerning the time of the death of Christ, Malachi 4:2 concerning Christ's second appearing as the Sun of righteousness, etc.
3. In the New Testament Christ as the Word of God was incarnated to be a man (John 1:14) to express God, that is, to speak God. Hence, Hebrews 1:2 says that at the last of these days God has spoken to us in the Son. The sonship in God's New Testament economy is not only individual but also corporate. In the New Testament God speaks in Christ as His firstborn Son (Rom. 8:29), indicating that all the brothers of His firstborn Son as His many sons have to be the word of God speaking for God. They are not only the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, etc. (Eph. 4:11), but, even more, the sons of God, who are the members of His firstborn Son. They are much higher than the Old Testament prophets.
4. Christ as the Word of God in three forms:
1. In the form of a Person—Christ Himself.
2. When He was prophesied by the prophets of the Old Testament and spoken by Christ with all His brothers as His members, it is the spoken word.
3. When the spoken word is written down, that which can constitute the Bible is the written word.
5. When the word remains in us, it is the speaking of God. When it is spoken by us and received by others, it becomes spirit and life (John 6:63). When it remains in them, it is again the word, but when it is spoken forth by them through the Spirit (1 Cor. 7:40), it becomes spirit and life. In this way Christ being the Word of God implies Himself as the word in the form of a Person, the spoken word, and the written word—the Bible. All these define, explain, and express God as the revelation of God.