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This is a theologically loaded question and it's difficult to present every aspect of a thorough answer in the space given; however, I'll attempt to make what I think are the most important points. First of all, prior to Jesus' coming, the word given to the Israelites to obey was merely law, and they kept it based on fear. Perhaps some were able to cultivate a sense of love for God by keeping the law; we read in many of the psalms that David professed to truly love God. However, God wanted to write His laws on our hearts and wanted us to be able to draw near to Him out of love. We read about this in Hebrews 8: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and i write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall j all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, k and I will remember their sins no more." In order for this to be possible, God needed to send Jesus to embody the word and to show us how it should be lived out. By sending the word in human form, He opened the door for us to love Him in a more personal way, relating to Him from the heart rather than how well we keep His laws. John 1 says, 14And z the Word a became flesh and b dwelt among us, c and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of d grace and e truth. 15 (f John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, g 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") 16 And from h his fullness we have all received. The one thing you have to always keep in mind as we ponder the character and the essence of God is that God is not like us, and He is not bound by our human understanding. It seems strange to us that Jesus could be God and also be the word of God; it's also hard to comprehend that He was always fully God when He walked the earth, but He was also fully man. These things don't always make sense to us, which is where our faith must step in. Some things we just need to take in faith, trusting God for deeper revelation as we grow in Him.
The phrase "word of God" appears often in the Bible and can have a slightly different meaning depending on context and the Hebrew or Greek word used. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word. ...
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God perfectly designed the book of Hebrews to overwhelmingly answer this question, starting in the first 3 verses: In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son, Whom He appointed The Heir of All Things, through Whom also He created the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature, upholding the universe by His Word of Power. When He had made purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty On High... There you have it. God expressed as much as we could learn from the Old Testament, then sent Jesus in the 4 Gospels, Who continues to speak through His Apostles in Acts and on through the rest of the New Testament. He continues to speak to us through both His Written Word and His Living Word speaking to us and in us. Are you listening?
The Bible is the written word of God. Jesus Christ is the personal word of God.
In my opinion, answering this question is the same as answering the question "what did Jesus mean when He said " I and the Father are one"? I think the answer to that question is that they are so much alike that if you asked them both the same question, they would each give you the same answer. EVERYTIME. IN that same way, if you put the whole of the Bible together, all it's precepts, all it's truth, all it's history, all it's prophecy, etc., you get what Jesus is. The Way, The Truth, the Life! You get Jesus. I don't think anyone can read and understand the Bible in it's entirity without seeing Jesus. And if you ask the Bible any question, you get the same answer Jesus would give.
Well, God is Spirit (Gen.1:2); the Word was God (John 1: 1-5); the Word became flesh (John 1: 14) and the words Jesus has spoken in the Bible are spirit (John 6: 63-65). So, the Bible, the sacred Scriptures of Christians and Jesus become One (John 14: 9-14), the Word of God.
Simply put, the Word of God, the Divine Logos, is a person, not a book. Jesus is the Word of God, therefore Jesus is God. Since divinity is an attribute we give to God, and Jesus is God, therefore, Jesus is divine. The Bible, also called Scriptures, is divinely inspired, i.e. the human writers where writing under the inspiration of God. Although the writing of the Bible is inspired by God, is it not God, therefore, not divine.
From what has been stated in John 1:1 read with John1:14 we understand that these verses clearly refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has been identified as The Word of God in Revelation19:13 asThe Word of God. Thus we understand that this is one of His many titles ascribed to Him in the Holy Scriptures. In 2Peters1:21we are told that Holy Spirit gave us the written words through the prophets which eventually began With the Writings of Moses. But who actually gave these words to the prophets? The answer is given in 1Peter1:11 that is was the Spirit of Christ who was working through these prophets. Further in Hebrews 1:1-2 we are told when The Word became flesh that is our Lord Jesus Christ He became the final God -Man to speak.In John 6:63 Jesus has told that His words are Spirit and Life. Thus we reasonably understand that Jesus Christ in whom The Godhead dwelt in bodily form as stated in Colossians 2:9 is actually the Bible Himself which in other words can be referred to as The word of God as we are informed in Revelation 19:13. To be honest I have not tried to prove the point but I have put forth some ideas whereby through an eye of faith we can understand Bible which is The Word of God is revelation about Lord Jesus Christ so that by knowing and believing in Him we may receive forgiveness of sin and establish a personal relationship with the Triune God. That the Bible is equal to Jesus Christ is not a question of mathematical exercise but it requires an eye of faith to believe.
I like what R.C. Sproul say's; "In Greek philosophy, the logos remains an impersonal force, a lifeless and abstract philosophical concept that is a necessary postulate for the cause of order and purpose in the universe. In Hebrew thought, the Logos is personal. He indeed has the power of unity, coherence, and purpose, but the distinctive point is that the biblical Logos is a He, not an it. All attempts to translate the word Logos have suffered from some degree of inadequacy. No English word is able to capture the fullness of John's Logos when he declared that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Attempts have been made by philosophers to translate Logos as logic, act, or deed—all of which are inadequate definitions. God's Logos does include action. The Logos is the eternal Word in action. But it is no irrational action or sheer expression of feeling. It is the divine Actor, acting in creation and redemption in a coherent way, who is announced in John's Gospel. That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us is the startling conclusion of John's prologue. The cosmic Christ enters our humanity. It is the supreme moment of visitation of the eternal with the temporal, the infinite with the finite, the unconditioned with the conditioned." Jesus is the Bible and the Bible is Jesus!
There could be a clear distinction between 'The Word' and 'The Word of God'. 'The Word' clearly means Christ(John 1:1-3, Rev. 19:13). It refers to Christ. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. All creations were made by the Word which proceeds from the invisible God. The invisible God became flesh for flesh to become back to 'The Word'. 'The Word of God ' is God-inspired. This means 'God-breathed'. The word of God in Old Testament is what God spoke and what God said, and God spoke through prophets. Where as, in the New Testament, the Word of God is the Lord' s commandment (1 John 2:3, 1 Cor. 14:37).
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