Now in this message we need to consider thirty-five items of what Christ is. Christ is the Word (John 1:1, 14). When we say that Christ is the Word, we are not speaking of who Christ is, but of what Christ is. The Word is the expression of God. I may have a great deal of feeling within me, but if I have no words, my feelings cannot be expressed. But when my feelings are expressed in words, then you are able to understand them. Christ is the Word, the Word of God. Although no one knows God, Christ as the Word speaks for God, defines God, and even declares God. Hallelujah, Christ is the Word!
John 1:4, speaking of Christ as the Word, says, “In Him was life.” Thus, Christ is life. Life causes us to be living. To come to the Word and be made living by it means to receive life. But if instead of becoming living, you are deadened, this indicates that you did not receive life; rather, you received death. Every time we receive the Word in which there is life, we become living. This is life. Christ is the Word, and He is also life.
John 1:4 also says that this life is the light of men. Hence, Christ also is light. If you have life, then you have light. Anyone who is dead is absolutely in darkness, for death denotes darkness. However, life indicates light. As long as we are living, we shall be in the light and be able to see. But when someone dies, he is in darkness and sees nothing.
John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” Christ is full of grace. Grace is Christ for our enjoyment.
Christ is also the reality. Reality means the realization of what God is to us. Grace is related to life, and reality is related to light. Life is the essence, the substance, of grace. If you have life, you will enjoy grace. Light is the realization of what God is. When you have light, you gain reality. Thus, grace is connected to life, and reality is connected to light.
According to John 1:14, Christ is also the tabernacle. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. Christ in the flesh was God’s tabernacle, God’s dwelling place on earth.
John 1:29 indicates that Christ is the Lamb. This verse says, “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!” As the Lamb, Christ took away our sin.
John 1:51 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” This verse reveals that Christ is the ladder which Jacob saw in his dream (Gen. 28:10-22). Jacob’s dream is fulfilled in this verse. Christ, the heavenly ladder, joins earth to heaven and connects God to man.
In chapter one of the Gospel of John we have Christ as the tabernacle; in chapter two we see Him as the temple (John 2:19, 21). Christ is the temple of God, God’s habitation.
John 3:14 reveals that Christ is also the brass serpent. When the children of Israel committed sin against God, many of them were bitten by serpents and died. When the children of Israel cried out to Moses, the Lord told him to lift up a brass serpent on a pole. Everyone who looked at that serpent was forgiven, healed, and kept alive (Num. 21:4-9). In John 3:14 the Lord said to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” This means that when the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, He was lifted up as the brass serpent. He died so that the serpent might be destroyed. As the Lamb, He died on the cross to take away our sin. But as the brass serpent, He died on the cross to destroy the old serpent, Satan, the devil (Heb. 2:14).