This is The Way – Devo Day 7

The Word of God was spoken before it was written. Jesus was seen and touched and heard before He was written about. It is this spokenness, the living, dynamic creativity, that characterizes the Word of God above everything else.

Eugene Peterson

We learned yesterday from the passage from Psalm 119:9-16 that a life of moral and spiritual purity does not happen naturally to sinful man. It admonished us to “guard” our way and declared that the Word of God was the necessary way and means to a righteous life that is pleasing to God. But that brings us to a simple question that most Christians have never considered – “What is the Word of God?”

Your first answer would probably be, “That’s silly. It’s the Bible.” But The Word of God that the Bible speaks of predates the written Scriptures like eternity predates time; it is greater than time but includes time. The Word of God was around before the words were written down. It was verbal, it was action before it was written down in what we know as the Bible.

You might be tempted to think, “So what” but this is a necessary understanding if we are to truly know the power of the Word of God that can change the human heart, heal body, mind, spirit, and emotion, and influence those in our life for the Kingdom and their eternity. It’s critical that we understand that the Word of God is not just a printed book. Before it was anything else, the Word was and is an invisible, eternal Person, co-existent, and co-equal in the Trinity He eternally existed before the beginning. The Word has never been less than such a Person! Listen to John’s lofty description of the Word:

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.

John 1:1–5 (ESV)

Here John gives us the most beautiful and powerful statement of the essential identity of the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Our understanding of the Word of God must be grounded in this fact. Jesus always was, is, and always will be the Word of God.

Before there was a spoken word, there was the Person of the Word. Long before Moses wrote a word or the prophets thundered out their word, He was the Word of God. Before Abraham was, He was. Before anything was, He was. Before He was (as a baby in Bethlehem), He was (as the eternal pre-incarnate Son of God). John then goes on to say, concerning Jesus, in John 1:14:

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.

John 1:14 (ESV)

The Word of God, who was eternal, invisible, the Creator of heaven and earth, became a human being, a baby human being! Here is the incarnation, an event that defies human understanding. And He is named what He has always been in eternity, the Word. He is called what He was, the message from God. He is what God has said and what God has to say. He was what God created human life to be and look like when He spoke it into existence.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)

But to experience the Word of God and know His power to cleanse, transform, renew, guide, and protect we must hear God speak it to us and that is more than just reading words on a printed page. This is where the Word of God becomes alive to us. We can know the words that God inspired the authors of the Bible to write but it is only the Spirit of God that can bring life to those words again. The Holy Spirit brings revelation, illumination, and correction from the words of the Bible and that makes it alive and powerful for change, growth, and battle. We need the Holy Spirit to breathe life into the words of the Bible. We need to ask for His help to know, understand, and experience the Word of God.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ – This is The Way

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (ESV)

Questions to Ponder

1. Have you ever struggled to understand what you read from the Bible? If so, have you prayed and asked for God’s help? What could you do the next time as you sit down to read the Scriptures?
2. Did you realize that the Word of God is a person – Jesus? Now that you know that, how might it change the way you approach reading the Bible? Does it help you to think of God speaking to you rather than you just reading what He said?
3. Do you find delight when the Word comes to life, when the dots get connected, or when you feel God is talking to you? How do you feel when that happens? Was there anything you did or didn’t do that you think allowed that experience to happen?

If you are just starting and want to go back and read the previous posts in this series