The Word Made Flesh

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. (NAS)

A few small groups that I am a part of are preparing to study the book of Romans.  As a prelude to our study I asked them what they thought about the bible and its claim of divine inspiration. The words inerrant and infallible were offered immediately as synonyms for inspiration. However the scriptures do not even make this claim about itself. The testimony of scripture is that it is inspired by God. Translators have arrived at the word inspired by way of the greek word theopneustros meaning literally, the wind, or the spirit, or the breath of God. After we went around the room sharing, a person asked me what inspired meant to me. I would like to share what I said along with the conclusive thought I had on this subject when I awakened this morning. 

Last night I shared that the Bible was one of the first books I read. Sadly I was 23 when I started reading. I had tried to read the bible in college but it did not click at all. But when I surrendered my life to Christ some big things happened in my heart. One of them was in regard to scripture. When I picked up the book this time, I found my heart saying “amen”. I didn’t understand all that I was reading but there was something in me that was strongly agreeing with the spirit of what I was reading. The words of the apostle Paul revealed the source of this miracle….

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God…. (1 Corinthians 2:12)

I explained that before knowing Christ my heart was like one of those old “floppy discs” that came unformatted.  This is one way I view our Fall (in Adam); that our hearts became unformatted, incapable of receiving and comprehending the light of God’s word. However, upon receiving Christ, God imparted the Spirit to us and re-formatted our hearts, enabling us to receive and comprehend his words.  This is one of the ways we know we have been born again.

Being one of the first books I read, I was blown away when I read in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

I wish everyone could share the unbounded joy of my deprived and depraved heart when I discovered that the same Spirit that had breathed the words of scripture into life had also just breathed into me – imparting a Life of like-kind. I was no longer a lost, lonely, increasingly drug dependent waste of a person. I was a brand new creation! I lived in an intense and  perpetual OMG-state of mind for at least 2 years. To say the least, the bible was a BIG BIG deal to me. The light had been restored to my spirit and I now had the capacity for personal relationship with God. OMG! It still blows me away.

After my reformatting, I soon came across Hebrews 4:12-13 and read….

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Hmmm. That sounds intrusive. Actually, that sounds painful!  About that time I also discovered Psalm 139….

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways…. (therefore)….. Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. [the first and last verse of the psalm with my (therefore) inserted]

Within a short time I had grasped that my heart was a big deal to God and that if I was to call him Lord, I would have to live knowing that I must say ‘yes’ to his word even when it painfully intrudes upon my understanding and my agenda. Yes, It is true that Thy word is a lamp unto me feet and a light unto my path but it can also be, when necessary, a dagger unto my heart. In reading 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, I  grasped why my heart was such a big deal to God. I had become his residence on earth! OMG! 

 …do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Alright Lord, What does that mean? He then speaks and awakens Romans 12:1-2 in my heart…..

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Honestly, I regularly thought (and still do) that it is an understatement to say that fairy tails really do come true; that frogs become princes! That is a watered down reality compared to my story. I was a hopelessly lost and clueless spirit plagued with doubt and bound up in a self destructive lifestyle, condemned to die when (rather suddenly) God breathed his very own life into me; releasing me from my slavery to sin; transferring me from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. I am no longer a slave to sin. I am a son of God! OMG!

I have been blessed to live for 37 years with these eternal values operating in my spirit. Everything that has happened to me since has had to pass through these filters. 

The thought that I awakened with this morning that I did not share with my group is related to Isaiah 55:11. 

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

God breathed out His Word and the the cosmos appeared. God’s Word is the DNA of creation which is even now holding it all together. At the same time the Word and the Spirit are working in tandem to reconcile all things back to God.  Both in the cosmos and in our hearts his Word…

will not return to Him empty, without accomplishing what He desires, and without succeeding in the matter for which He sent it…..

So, as my friends and I embark on this bible study I am praying that the spirit of His Word will make the living truths of Romans comprehensible, applicable and ultimately transformational and not just additional bible trivia to store up in our heads. I pray that as the Spirit of God blows over our own spirits with His Word that we too shall….

…..go out with joy and be led forth with peace; that the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before us, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands; that  instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and our hearts will be a memorial to the Lord – an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.

When our hearts can tell their own stories of how His Word,

living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword has pierced as far as the division of our own souls and spirits, of both our joints and marrow, and has judged the thoughts and intentions of our hearts 

…then perhaps the world look upon the glorious Bride of Christ and see that, as children of light, our claims about the light of God’s Word are true and that our own transformed hearts have become lights in themselves to the lost and dying ones around us still being held captive in the darkness of this present evil age.

In Genesis 1, the climax is the creation of humans, made in God’s image. In John 1, the climax is the arrival of a human being, the Word become ‘flesh’……The Word challenged the darkness before creation and now challenges the darkness this is found, tragically, within creation itself. The Word is bringing into being the new creation, in which God says once more, ‘Let there be light!’ (from N.T. Wright’s John for Everyone)

 Father, help us to not loose sight of the fact that you have never lost sight of us, that nothing and that no one are hidden from Your sight, but all things (especially our hearts), are open and laid bare to Your eyes, the One with whom we have to do. Amen.