Listen:  110.3

Let’s begin by reading John 1:1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”  We are told here that the Word was with God and the Word was God.  Just who is this Word?  Let’s read John 1:14-15, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.”

We see from these verses that the Word is God incarnate.  The Word is the Lord Jesus Christ.  John the Baptist affirms that the Word made flesh is the one that he spoke of.  Before the Lord began His public ministry, John had been telling others of Him.  He says here, that Jesus is the one he had been telling them about.  We learn in these few words the distinction between the persons of the Godhead and the equality of the Son and the Father.

Why is the Lord Jesus called the Word?  It is because God spoke to us through him, and makes known His will to us by Christ, as we make known our minds to one another by our words.  I want to read Hebrews 1:1-2 in the J.N. Darby translation because it truly makes the meaning clear.  That says, “God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in the person of the Son, whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”  That’s an amazing thought: God speaks to us in the person of His Son…the Word.  We read in John 14:9, “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father…”  In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read of, “…Christ, who is the image of God…”

Jesus is the Son of God.  He is God and has existed for ever.  As we just read in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Notice that the Word was never created.  The Word existed in past eternity.  “In the beginning was the Word” shows the Word existed before creation.   In the beginning of the all things that were created, the Word already existed.  The Lord Jesus Christ already existed.  Let’s read Solomon’s words concerning the Son of God, personified by the word ‘wisdom’ in Proverbs 8:23-31, “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.   When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:  When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.”

Before we close this subject, let’s read the words of John the Baptist in John 1:23, “He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.”  The Lord Jesus is the Word; John the Baptist was a voice.  As believers, we also should be voices that speak the Word…the Lord Jesus Christ.  (110.3)