The Final Word

One thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to communicate with words intellectually. Many animals have a form of communication but none, even dolphins and chimpanzees, are as sophisticated as our ability to construct words and formulate sentences. When we speak, we express our will, purpose and intentions. By our words we convey our thoughts. 

One thing that separates us from God is that when he speaks, his will, purpose and intentions spring into action. By God’s Word the universe leapt into existence. By his word, he issues his command, he makes his promises and by his Word the prophets speak. God's Word commands awe! His Word is enlightenment and truth.

Isaiah 55:10-11  

¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

The introduction to the gospel of John has to be the greatest prologue ever written. I  remember when watching Star Wars, as a child and now with my children, feeling the anticipation as the opening text scrolled across the screen. “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”

It set the scene and created excitement and anticipation. 

That’s what happens when John begins, “In the beginning was the Word….”

Where Matthew and Luke focus on the birth of Jesus, John instead reveals that this is far from an ordinary birth. This is God incarnate. This is God revealed in the flesh. This is God coming to the rescue of humanity.

Jesus is the Word of God! He embodies the will, purpose and intention of God. Through Jesus the world was created. All the promises of God find their Yes in him (2 Corinthians 1:20). The prophecies find their fulfillment in him. It’s not that he is simply the voice of God. He himself is God. He himself is life, light and truth taking on the form of humanity for you and me.

So before your pain, before your sorrow, before your heartache, there was the Word. He was with God and He was God. He embodies truth and order and love and perfection. Without Him was not anything made that was made. If you trust in him, you have no reason to succumb to fear. He’s the final word!

John 1:1-18 

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸ He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 

⁹ The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  ¹⁵ (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.