The LOGOS of God
by David A. DePra
Today I am going to begin a new series on the gospel of John. As we are going to see, the Gospel of John is a revelation given of God, through John, of the Person of Jesus Christ, His Son. This gospel, if it has a theme, is the Person of Jesus Christ -- and speaks of His identity, the purpose for which He came, but also, just as important, the theme of John is who Jesus is TODAY for believers. It is who Jesus is to be, TO us and IN us. That is why Jesus, in John, nine times, said, “I AM” -- and then gave a description of Himself. These are descriptions of who Jesus is to be to us today as believers -- even as He dwells in us. And so this is the theme of John: The Person of Jesus Christ and God’s revelation of Him in us.
The other gospels, of course, touch on these things as well, but there is a special emphasis in the Gospel of John of the personal identity of Jesus Christ. Now, this is the case because John wrote toward the end of the first century after the other three gospels had already been written. It was at that time when the church began to drift away from Jesus Christ as our life. The church began to drift away from the definition of Christianity, which is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christianity began to be about other things. So, in going through the Gospel of John, we might say that this is a very much needed gospel for today -- because those same problems exist in the Body of Christ today -- probably to an even greater degree.
I am not going to go over a whole lot of facts or history regarding the Gospel of John. I have already mentioned one -- and that is that the Gospel of John was written toward the end of the first century -- and after the other three gospels had already been written. In fact, I think that it is probably correct to say, though we can’t prove this, that John had access to what was written in the other three gospels. The reason that this is probably true is that the gospel of John contains a lot of material which is not found in the other three gospels. It is almost as if John wanted to fill in the blank spaces as to the things which Jesus did and said -- which are not recorded elsewhere. I think I remember reading somewhere, a long time ago, that 92% of the Gospel of John is unique. And, of course as I noted, the purpose of John’s gospel is to bring front and center: Jesus Christ as our life -- and His Person as the very core of Christianity.
John’s Statement of Purpose
Now, before I begin reading in the first chapter of John, I want to read the purpose that John gives for the gospel in John -- chapter 20, verse 31. John writes there, “But these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name.” So John is saying that the purpose for his writing is to convey to us, by revelation, who Jesus Christ is -- and if we come into a relationship with Him, what that will mean. This revelation includes what Jesus will MEAN to us, who Jesus will BE to us, and what the purpose is of Christ coming to dwell in us. All that is the purpose of John in writing this.
If you read verse 31, it doesn’t directly give some of these things as His purpose, but it is what John is getting at -- because in order to believe -- depend upon and trust in Jesus Christ as your life – you must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God -- you have to have revelation as to the identity of Jesus. Thus, who Jesus is to be to you, and the purpose of God in sending Him, is absolutely included in this revelation. You have to have some revelation if you are going to walk, in faith, with Christ.
John also adds this: If we believe we will have LIFE in His name. How many understand that once we begin to use the word LIFE -- as in CHRISTIAN LIFE -- we are talking about EVERYTHING that God is doing. Sure. We are talking about the entire purpose of God in sending Christ and how this is lived out and experienced. And so, John says, “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” He has written these things to reveal to us who the person of Christ is, and who He is supposed to be to us -- once He comes to dwell in us. He’s writing these things that we may understand what life in Him means, and that we might learn how to walk with God in Christ AS our life.
The Word or LOGOS
Now, let’s turn to John, the first chapter and read verse 1 -- which is a verse which is so very familiar to everyone of us who know anything about the Bible. John writes there, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Now, clearly John 1:1 contains a ton of Truth. We are going to spend much of our time today talking just about this one verse. The title for today is going to be, “The Logos of God.”
The word, “logos,” is a Greek word that is here translated, “The WORD” -- John is here calling Jesus, “The Word.” John is calling Him, in Greek, “The LOGOS.”
I want to get to this word, “logos,” at length in a second, but first of all, we can see in John 1:1 that John is saying that not only was Jesus Christ, God -- in other words, Divine -- but that He was separate and distinct from the Father. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was WITH God.” How many see that there have got to be two personalities there -- two people? And then, “The Word WAS God”. So John is telling us in this verse that you have two distinct Persons: The Father and the Son -- and both are divine in nature.
Now, let’s talk about this word in the Greek, “logos” -- and discover a little bit as to why God chose that particular word as a term which would describe His Son, Jesus Christ. What does the word, “logos,” mean in the New Testament Greek? At the root, it means, “a spoken word.” But the definition absolutely includes the entire thought, concept, and intent BEHIND that spoken word. So, don’t think of, “logos,”’ as just what is spoken -- but also think about what is in the mind of God when speaking it. That will give you a better grasp and handle on this term, “logos,” as God has used it in reference to His Son.
M.R. Vincent, who is a really fine Greek scholar, says that the root word, “logos,” comes from a family and a group that means, “to pick and gather up.” But since we are talking here about thoughts and speaking -- what this means is that, “logos,” is a gathering together of the entire thought and mind of God. But this, “thought and mind of God,” is not conveyed to us merely in WORDS -- but in the form of a PERSON, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is, as a Person, the FULLNESS of all that is in the mind of God -- which He wants to reveal to us. Jesus, in other words, is the WORD that God is speaking. He is that. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, IS the Logos -- the Logos of God.
Notice that this goes far beyond the fact that Jesus taught Truth, or that He gave revelation. Well, He did. BUT Jesus Himself IS the revelation of God. He IS the absolute expression of God to us -- and this is why He is called the LOGOS.
This is an incredible thought. We think of Jesus as teaching Truth. We think of God teaching Truth -- even Truth ABOUT Jesus -- and all that is a fact. But no, Jesus, Himself, said, “ I AM the Truth.”
Now, can we see a little bit more as to what LOGOS means? If Jesus is the sum total and the gathering together of the entire mind and thought of God -- wrapped up in a Person -- then obviously He could say, “I am the Truth.” Such a simple statement: “I am THE Truth”. Or to put it another way, “I am the true LOGOS, given to you from God, spoken…” -- and we can say this figuratively – “spoken to you by my Father as His revelation of Himself. I AM that LOGOS,” Jesus is saying. That is what is wrapped up in the incredible, all-encompassing term, “LOGOS.”
Logos and Rhema
Now, before I go on here, I want to step aside just for a couple of minutes and talk about something else which is going on in the Christian church -- having to do with God speaking His Word to us. As we have seen, there are a number of places in the New Testament where the English term, “word,” is from this Greek word, “logos.” But in some of those instances it is not referring to the Person of Jesus Christ -- but just to a word which someone speaks. For example, it will say that, “The WORD of the Lord came…” to so and so. In the Old Testament, in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, that term, THE WORD, is also found -- and the Greek word there is again, “logos.” This is a very common Greek word.
Now, there is another Greek word which is often translated, “word,” in the New Testament -- and that Greek term is, “rhema.” “Rhema,” also means, “spoken word” -- but it is not as deep as LOGOS. LOGOS, as we have seen, also includes in its meaning the entire thought, mind and intent behind that spoken word. RHEMA does not.
In the Charismatic movement, starting in about the 1960’s and in the 1970’s, a teaching was propagated which said that LOGOS was, “the general word of God,” and RHEMA was when God sort of, “quickened a passage of scripture and applied it to you personally.” Well, that is nonsense. You do not have any warrant in the New Testament to do that at all. You look in the New Testament at all of the examples, and all of the teachings, and you don’t see a line drawn like that between LOGOS and RHEMA. But folks did that -- and in doing so -- they kind of elevated RHEMA to a level higher than merely LOGOS because they were claiming that RHEMA is when the word, “comes alive,” and God specifically speaks to you. Well aside from the fact that God can do that -- quicken a personal word on a given occasion -- the fact of the matter is that ALL of the word of God is ALWAYS applicable to us.
But all of this being said, what term -- logos or rhema -- does God use to refer to His Son? LOGOS. But the word, “rhema,” is NEVER used to refer to Jesus. So which word, in the eyes of God, do you think is more important -- and which carries with it a deeper meaning? If God is speaking to us the Person named LOGOS, The Word of God, then I would suggest than when you say that RHEMA is really THE word God uses when He quickens to you a scripture, that you are getting off the track there. And so we do not have any warrant for making such distinctions.
I just thought I would add this because we need to get some of these things straight. Some of these teachings which are going around are burned into people’s brains, and they begin to walk according to them -- when really they just need to discard them. Jesus Christ is the living Word of God -- the living LOGOS. This is GOD’S name for Him. So let’s drop this business that LOGOS is somehow inferior to, “rhema.”
The Logos is the Living Revelation of God
Now, let’s get back to the subject at hand: The LOGOS is the living embodiment and representation of God -- of His mind and His thought. Again, the word, “logos,” means that. It means not only the spoken word, but the entire mind, concept and intent behind it. Jesus IS that -- He is that to us from God.
Many times in the ministry of Jesus, He said that He was the revelation of the Father. For example, I am thinking now of the time -- which I think is in the latter chapters of the Gospel of John -- where Jesus kept saying that He was going to go to the Father. He kept talking about the Father…remember that? Then Philip said to Him, “Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” This is a narrative, here in the Gospel of John. Jesus responded and said, “Philip, don’t you know that whoever sees Me sees the Father?” This is exactly the same Truth in simple language. Jesus is the embodiment of all that God is, as the entire thought, mind and reason of God -- wrapped up in a Person -- the Logos; the Truth. He also said, at times, that one of the reasons He came was to reveal the Father. And so, again and again, Jesus spoke of Himself in ways that are in absolute harmony with this term -- by which he is referred to here -- the LOGOS of God.
Now, I want to read a couple of other scriptures that will verify that as well. For example, let’s turn to Colossians 2:15 -- referring to Christ, Paul says, “…Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” This is a description that is easy to race right by and not catch the significance of it. Jesus is the very image -- the very representation of God. The word there for image is actually the word, “icon” -- and we know what an icon is. It is a representation of something -- and this is what Paul is saying here in his epistle to the Colossians: He is saying that Jesus is the image or representation of the invisible God. He was certainly that as a man, but frankly, He was that beforehand as well -- because Jesus, here in John states that He was with God in the beginning. In other words, He was the LOGOS before he became a man.
Catch that…Jesus is called the Logos before He became a man. In fact, it says in John 14, “And the Logos became flesh.” Well, He had to be the Logos before He became flesh or He could not have become flesh AS the Logos. So, we need to get our definition and our context straight.
All Things Became by Him
“In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God.” It goes on in John to say in verse 3, “All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Likewise in Colossians 2, again, in verse 16 -- right after it says that He is the image of the invisible God -- it goes on to say that …”by Christ were all things created which are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him.” In verse 17, “And He, [Jesus Christ], is before all things and by Him all things stand or hold together.”
I really like that. He is before all things and He created all things, so now we see why it says in John 1:1, that He was in the beginning. It says, in the beginning, because He was the Word and the Word was the beginning. The Word, the Logos, was there before anything else WAS in all of creation -- and He created it. So these epistles that Paul wrote agree 100% with this John one, verse one.
God is Speaking Son-Wise
Now, back to this word, ‘logos’. Logos means in the Bible, in reference to Jesus, the full thought and mind of God as it is expressed in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Let’s read a couple of other verses that expand on this somewhat. Let’s read, for example, in the first chapter of Hebrews, which is a verse I read fairly often because it is so fundamental to understanding what a Christian is, and what God is doing in our lives. Hebrew 1:1-2 says something which absolutely agrees with the fact that Jesus Christ is the Logos, the Word of God -- that Jesus Christ is the mind of God, spoken spiritually and revealed to us, and in us.
Hebrews 1:1 says: “God, who at sundry times and in different manners, spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets…” This is a reference, then, of how God USED to speak, but verse 2 says, “God in these last days has spoken unto us in a Son.” A literal translation of this would be, “God has spoken to us SON-WISE.” In other words, Jesus Christ, the Person, is the living Word, or living Logos, which God is right now speaking to you and me. Jesus, if I could say it this way, is, “the language,” by which God speaks in His people.
Now, that might seem strange to say it that way -- that God has spoken to us son-wise; that God has spoken to us in a Son. What does that mean? It means that God is primarily today speaking to His people through an on-going and inward revelation of the Person of Jesus Christ.
If you are a believer and you are saved, you are joined to the Lord and one spirit with Him -- and Jesus Christ dwells in you. The purpose of God then, from that point, is going to be to form Christ in you -- to bring you into and inward discovery and realization of the Christ with whom you are one in spirit -- and who dwells in you. This is how God speaks to us son-wise: Through an on-going revelation of the Person who IS the Logos.
You start to read these things and you begin to discover how wonderfully they all tie together. Think about it: If there is a Logos -- which means spoken word and the entire thought behind it -- if there is a person called the Logos -- and we have seen that there is, Jesus Christ -- then there has to be a God who SPOKE that Logos -- and who is NOW speaking Him, right? You cannot just have a logos -- because the term itself demands that there be one who speaks the logos. So, Jesus IS God’s word; God’s Logos. He IS God’s revelation to us -- the One who is the expression of His full mind and thought.
Now I recognize that when we begin to talk about Jesus as the Logos, as the revelation of God, and that God spoke Jesus, people can misunderstand this and think that you are suggesting that Jesus really isn’t a Person, or really isn’t God. Well, of course I am not suggesting anything of the kind. We just read John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Jesus Christ is God. It says it in John 1:1. And all the arguing and demanding and screaming to the contrary, which people like to do today, to discredit Jesus as God, isn’t going to change that verse nor change dozens of others which simply affirm it or repeat it.
Jesus Christ is God, but as God, He is the Logos, and the Father has spoken His full mind in that Person who is the Logos -- and given and revealed Him to us. Jesus Christ is the way and the means by which God speaks to us today. We see this again here in Heb. 1:1-2, “God has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son,” in a Son; Son-wise; in a Logos -- as a full revelation of Himself in a Person.
Now notice what else it says here in Heb. 1:1-2, because again, it will tell us the same thing about Jesus Christ that we read in John 1 and in Colossians 2. He says about the Son, “Whom God has appointed heir of all things, by Whom He made the worlds, whose being is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power such that when He had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Notice that first part of Heb. 1:3, which says that Jesus Christ is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person and it means substance. Again, the person of Jesus Christ is IN Himself in every way, the full expression of God, not only in what He did, and what He said, but in His very being He IS the Logos, the full thought, mind and intent of God.
So you and I right now have Jesus Christ in us if we are believers. If we do, then God is speaking to us Son-wise. He is revealing to us His will, His purpose, and revealing Himself to us in the on-going unfolding of Jesus Christ in us. And if that happens, we are coming into a knowledge of the truth, aren’t we? So there again, you have this absolute agreement that Jesus Christ is the Truth of God. He is the true Logos, and really, the only One there is.
We could go on with this. For example, we are going to read later in the Gospel of John how Jesus continually said that the purpose of God’s spirit would be to reveal Christ to us, in us, and through us -- to testify of Him and to guide us into all Truth. How many see, right there, that this is an inward realization of Jesus Christ in the believer? This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and this is what the spirit of God was given to do. This is another way of saying that God, through His spirit is speaking Jesus…is revealing Jesus.
Confessing by the Spirit of God
Now, I want to read one other passage, and I am going to be very careful here not to get off the track, because there is a lot in this -- it is 1 John 4. John gives a warning there -- the same John who wrote the Gospel. He says, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby, we know the Spirit of God: Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is of God.” Now note something here – John is saying here in I John 4 exactly what I referred to in John 14, 15, and 16 – that the work of the Spirit of God is to confess Jesus. How many see that, “confessing Jesus having come in the flesh” – as John stated in I John 4 -- is simply another way of saying that the work of the spirit of God is to speak Jesus? The work is to speak forth the Logos?
The work of the Spirit of God, and of course the Father is behind it, is to reveal Christ in us. This is how the Spirit of God confesses Jesus Christ: By revealing Himself in us. So, in other words, when 1 John 4 says that the Spirit of God will always confess, “Jesus having come in the flesh,” this is simply another way of saying that the work of the Spirit of God will always be to speak Jesus, to unfold Him and reveal Him in flesh and blood human beings. Again, this is, “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” The Holy Spirit will always unfold the Christ who is in us -- and we are the flesh and blood human beings.
This is what the Spirit of God does. This is what I John 4 says is a test for truth. In fact he even goes so far as to say in verse 3 that, “every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is not of God. It is the spirit of antichrist.” If you read this, you cannot escape the conclusion that Christianity IS, “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” Christianity is the, “treasure in an earthen flesh and blood vessel” -- and this is how God is working. The Spirit of God will confess and reveal Christianity to be this, but more importantly, God by His Spirit is going to speak to us Son-wise. It is the purpose of God to reveal Christ in us. And so we see this same Truth -- even here in 1 John, chapter 4.
Separation of Soul and Spirit
Now, one other passage -- Hebrews 4:12. I heard a pastor guy get up one time -- and he had this belief that there was a big difference between the rhema and the logos -- He preached a sermon on this verse, Hebrews 4:12, and he said, “The word of God is quick and powerful…,” and so forth, and he talked about how the word RHEMA is used there, and that this is referring to when God really quickens a word to you -- in the sense of how people have defined rhema – and that this is describing how this RHEMA is going to effect you – it is going to cut through everything -- joints and marrow – “and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.”
I sat there and listened to that and then went home and looked up the word, as it is translated there in Hebrews 4:12, where it says, “For the WORD of God ….”. I wasn’t all that shocked to discover that the word translated WORD there is NOT rhema but is LOGOS -- and there went the sermon down under that one simple fact. And that is why these things are so silly sometimes when we try to make them something they are not.
Actually, this verse alone proves the point that I was making earlier -- because if the Logos of God is able to do this and the Logos is Jesus Christ being revealed in us -- why in the world do we need to have all these other things that we come up with like RHEMAS and so forth? People, by the tens of thousands today, walk around thinking and claiming that God is talking to them every five minutes. “God spoke to me; God told me to go here or there; I just feel in my spirit that God wants me to do this and that; God gave to me a rhema and He quickened to me a word.” Listen, I am not going to put any of that down. God knows people’s hearts. But how many understand, that stuff like that, in this day and age especially, has become a very dangerous blinding substitute for simply knowing the WORD that God IS speaking…His Son. People by the thousands, and I used to be one of them -- so I am not condemning anyone, I am part of the crowd – walk around claiming to have heard from God. They claim to know His will but do not know God Himself. They don’t hear Jesus Christ and don’t even know that God wants to reveal in them in His Son. But they have all these RHEMAS, all these words, and it can become a massive deception. You can live your entire Christian life under something like that and never come to know the One about Whom it is all supposed to be.
God is today speaking to us in a Son -- HIS Son. Jesus is God’s spoken revelation. So what else do we need? Now don’t hear me say that God never speaks to people, or that He wouldn’t on some occasion, which fits His purpose, speak to you and me in a special way, and give us a quickening word. That can happen -- but it is not the norm. It is not an everyday thing, nor is it every five minutes. It is once in a great while when we really need it. But God is primarily speaking to us in HIS SON.
But notice, and this is so important to hear, if God is speaking to us in His Son and revealing Jesus in us, aren’t we going to know the will of God most of the time? Not all of the time -- because we are growing and we have a lot of learning of Christ to do. But to the degree that we begin to come into the knowledge and realization of Jesus Christ, we are going to know what God’s will is in specific matters more and more. Where we don’t know, sure, God can speak to us. But can we see the danger of taking those special times when God quickens a word and speaks to us for a specific situation, and taking it and making that the norm, and relying upon and seeking after that, instead of realizing the Christ and being governed by a knowledge of Him?
This is what is happening in Christianity today in many places. People are walking in signs and wonders. They are walking in these supernatural, “words,” which they say God is speaking to them, and they don’t know THE WORD, the LOGOS -- which is the word that God IS speaking, Jesus Christ. We have got to see the Truth on this.
Now, in Hebrews 4:12 it says, “For the Logos of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even unto the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Now, there is a principle here that we need to understand, having to do with the Logos. We’ve already read that Jesus Christ is the Living Logos and God is speaking to us that very Logos, His Son. He is speaking to us In a Son. We might even say that He is speaking His Son into us. This is what is being referred to here in Hebrews 4:12. “For the word of God” -- and we might even paraphrase, “For the on-going revelation of Jesus Christ to you and me” -- as God speaks to us Son-wise in that way -- that revelation, that Life, that Truth, in Christ – “is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit.”
How many understand that what is being describing here is what happens when we begin to see Jesus? The revelation of Christ in us is going to be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts. It will further define the difference between soul and spirit.
Now for those who don’t know, let me repeat the distinction between soul and spirit, which I often give. I mentioned earlier and I repeat, that when you are saved, it is because you are joined to the Lord in spirit. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (1 Corinthians 6:17) You are one spirit with Christ’s spirit -- your human spirit is united to Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit -- and you are one with Him in spirit.
Now how many understand that this does not unite you with Christ in body or in soul -- your natural man. Not at all. In the Bible, where you read the term, “natural man,” the Greek word behind that is usually, “psyche,” which means psychic or soul. And so, “natural man,” really means, “soul man.” It is the soul make-up of man -- the immaterial parts of natural man’s make-up. When you are untied with the Lord and joined with Him in spirit at salvation, your body and your soul man remain outside of that spiritual union. They will always be natural in this age, although God wants to bring us to where our body and soul man progressively become governed by our union with Christ in spirit — in other word, “Jesus is Lord.”
That is a whole other subject, but just for now what we need to see is this union between our human spirit and Jesus Christ in spirit – as opposed to all that which is outside of that. This is a division -- and that’s the distinction between soul and spirit. Our union with Christ is spirit; all the rest is soul, just to simplify the terms. And so you have a division between spirit and soul -- just by virtue of the fact that you are united with the Lord and made one spirit with him. As soon as you are joined to the Lord and made one spirit with Him, a division automatically occurs. You are united with Him in spirit and there is a division between that and everything that is not united with Him, i.e., your body and soul man.
Therefore, you and I have these two natures in ourselves -- if we are believers -- and thus we have the conflict. The flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that you cannot do what you want to do -- as written in the whole Romans 7 narrative that Paul gives -- about nothing good dwelling in Himself, that is to say, in his flesh -- and how he can’t do what he wants to do and he can’t stop doing what he hates -- and so forth. This is the Truth behind those verses: You and I have two natures in ourselves. We have to contend with them.
There is a separation between the two -- as they are contrary to one-another. It is also why it is possible to believe that God is saying something to you, when in fact, it is really you. It is that soul man reacting to your environment, and so forth, and it takes time to learn Jesus Christ. People often ask, “How can I learn to discern what is of my soul man and what is of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit?” There is only one way and that is by knowing Jesus and coming into an inward realization of HIM. Then you will know what is of Him, and obviously, you will know what is not of Him.
This is not a, “how-to.” You can give principles. Obviously, if you think God is telling you to go out and rob a bank, you can be sure that that is not God. It is you. You have Bible verses, such as, “Thou shalt not steal”, that will tell you that. Obviously, I am giving a very simple example here, but I hope I am making a point. There are some things you just don’t need to pray about, in other words. You don’t need to pray about whether or not God is telling you to go out and commit adultery, or to go out and murder somebody. The Word is clear on these kinds of issues. But on other issues, sometimes we do need to know, and the only way to know is to know HIM. He’s THE Light. Therefore if you see Him and know Him, everything else will be illuminated and exposed.
This is really what we are being told here -- that as this Word of God, this Logos of God that God is speaking – as Christ begins to be revealed in us – we will begin to hear God, and to know Him. This is going to result in a cutting and a dividing asunder between soul and spirit -- and we will grow to know which is which. The presence of Jesus in us -- as the light -- will act as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
People talk about self-examination. You can examine yourself, and if you are honest, you may come up with some things that are correct. But in the final analysis, if you are examining yourself, you are using the same self to examine self. In the end, that will not get you very far. And I really believe that if you go too far with it, it can do damage and make you self-preoccupied. The only way for you and me to have our thoughts exposed is by a knowledge and realization of Jesus Christ. That is what the Bible calls the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God.
And so, the Word or the Logos of God is quick and powerful. How many know that the presence of Jesus Christ in us ought to act and have the impact in us of all which is described in Hebrews 4:12?
Jesus Christ is the Fullness of God for Us
There are a couple of other scriptures I want to read now, which show that Jesus Christ is the revelation of God to us -- and that this is why He is called the Logos. I read out of Colossians before, and now I want to read a couple of other verses from that same epistle. In Colossians 2:19, it says, ”For it pleased the Father, that in Christ should all the fullness dwell.” This is a very clear indication that everything that God has for humanity is given IN Jesus Christ -- and only IN Jesus Christ -- and He is given freely by His grace, as it says in Romans 8:32.
So all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus and this is what God has given to us in the form of a Person. How many understand that this is what God is SPEAKING? This is what it means that Jesus is the LOGOS? Now, what we see here is that God has spoken only ONE WORD. Can we see that? In the beginning was not, “A logos” – NO – “In the beginning was THE Logos.” There is only ONE WORD that God has to speak to us -- one Person who God has given; one revelation. It is Jesus Christ -- and of course, in Christ is everything else God has for man.
You cannot receive the things of God -- you can’t be in God’s purpose -- apart from the only Way and that Way is a Person, Jesus Christ. There are NOT two ways; there are NOT two words. Therefore, when Jesus is called, “The Logos of God” -- and we are told that Jesus is what God has always spoken to us -- we can see right there in that term itself -- along with so many others – that it simply excludes any other source of Life or Truth. It excludes any other person as the source of what God has for man. It is Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, Who IS the Logos -- the Word -- and God has given us all things freely in Him.
And so there does not need to be any conjecture, argument or debate about it: It is Christ or nothing. There is no other person whom you and I can receive in Whom we receive all the things of God. We cannot have a relationship with God, or worship God, or to plug into a belief system about God -- it is Jesus or nothing.
So, “It pleased the Father that in Christ should all the fullness dwell.” Now, in Colossians, chapters one and two, we find this verified a number of times in these chapters, where it says, “by Him,” “in Him,” “through Him.” It says over and over again, IN HIM -- meaning Christ. As I noted, not long ago in a message that I gave, Ephesians 1 has the same kind of phrasing. You cannot get away from the fact that Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone is the Word of God -- the Logos. He is the ONLY begotten Son, and that word, “only,” means the UNIQUELY begotten -- and there is none other like Him. It is all through Colossians 1 and 2 -- in Him, by Him, and through Him.
Over in Colossians 2, in verse 9: “For in Christ dwells all the fullness of Deity bodily.” What does that mean? King James says, “All the fullness of the godhead bodily” -- and that is a wrong translation. “Godhead,” is not what the Greek word is there. It isn’t, “godhead” -- but it is divinity, or if we want to get close to, “godhead,” we could have translated it, “Godhood.” In Christ dwells all the fullness of Godhood, or divinity, bodily. This means that in the Person of Jesus Christ dwells everything that God is, and everything that God has. It not only verifies John 1:1, where it says, “And the Word was God,” but it also shows that because He became a man, Jesus was God the Son become man -- DIVINE in every way.
Because of this -- being the only-begotten Son in that way -- He is the Word that God speaks. He is a full word: a complete word. He is a Word in which dwells all the fullness of God. In fact, Paul is not only able to say here that all the fullness or Deity of God dwells in Jesus Christ, but he is also able to say in verse 10, that because of that, “you are complete in Him.”
Again, you can’t get the things of God by coming to Jesus for salvation, only to then later seek the things of God through some other source. You can’t come into the fullness of God by saying, “Yeah, Christ is in me but now I am going to go out and get all of these other fillings of the spirit. I am going to get all of these other experiences and they are going to ADD to Christ.” I have said it before -- and it is a good question which we all need to answer – “If Jesus Christ is in you, and you are complete in Him, and in Him dwells all the fullness of God, do you lack anything that God has for you? Of course not, it could not be more clear and you have all those other verses such as Romans 8:32, where it says that God has given us ALL things freely IN HIS SON.
You don’t lack anything if you have Christ -- because in Him is everything. He is everything. He is THE LOGOS. And so the notion that you can be saved and have Christ in you and still lack something -- which will add to Christ -- even though people do this unwittingly and do not realize what they are doing -- nevertheless, the moment anyone says that they need to add to Christ to REALLY have what God wants them to have -- they are denying who Jesus is. They are betraying the fact that they don’t know Him, and are showing that they really don’t have a lot of faith in Him, because they are looking for another source.
We need to be clear about these things. We are complete IN HIM. Complete is complete -- there is NOTHING left to add. The Christian life, therefore, is not a matter of coming into other experiences that ADD to Christ. No. The Christian life is a matter of discovering the Christ who is ALREADY in us -- in Whom we are complete. How many understand that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ -- as it says in Colossians 2:3? They are all IN HIM.
All that God has is wrapped up in Jesus. The fact that we might not be experiencing all that God has in Jesus -- well that’s fair enough -- but the answer is not to go out for some other experience. The answer is to ask God to do whatever it takes to bring you into the discovery and the fullness of the Christ -- in Whom you are complete, and in Whom is hidden all that God has. It’s about Jesus. He is the Word God is speaking. Period.
Living Reality Not Shadow
Paul goes on in Colossians to describe many other things that were accomplished by Christ. But then in verse 17, he mentions other things, such as holy days, sabbaths, meat, drink, and all of these OT holidays which people today are trying to get back to keeping -- the Hebrew holidays -- which you see taught on Christian TV -- which is nothing more than an excuse to get people to send in an offering. We need to get it settled -- all the holy days in the Old Testament were a type and a shadow of Jesus Christ. Yes, they all not only spoke of Him, but they pointed toward Him -- and Paul is telling us that right here. But he is saying in verse 16, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day or of a new moon, or of the Sabbath days.” He is saying that those things were a SHADOW of things to come but the substance, the REALITY, in other words, is Christ. And so people need to get out of their lives these notions that if you keep the Hebrew holy days, you are somehow closer to God. You are not. In fact of you are doing it to get closer to God, you are in unbelief. Jesus is the only way to God and the only way to be in Him intimately.
All through the New Testament is the exhortation and warning to stop playing religion, to stop thinking that if you do this or that it will make you closer to God. You are in God -- complete in Christ. He is the only Word that God has for you and me, and if we are looking into these other things, we are not listening to the ONE WORD which God has spoken.
The Logos of LIFE
I want to wrap up for today by turning to 1 John again, and I want to read the first couple of verses in that epistle. John, the same one who wrote the gospel, says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have touched of the Word of LIFE.” There it is again. Jesus is not only the Word here, the Logos, but He is the Logos of LIFE. John goes on and he says, “For The Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us, even the Word of Life.” We might think this, “Word of Life,” is an IT -- because we tend to think that way. But it is not -- it is a Person. Jesus Christ is not only The Life but He is the Word of Life. So, John begins his epistle very much the same way in which he began the Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then later he says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
And so, we are talking about a Person here. Jesus Christ as the Logos is embodied in a Person -- the full thought and intent; the full revelation of God; in a Man. This is the Son of God, God incarnate, Jesus Christ.
Now, when I began this message, I noted that the purpose of the Gospel of John was to reveal the Person, Jesus Christ, and to bring us back to the One who said, “I AM the life.” Isn’t it amazing how in one verse, John gathers together the entire purpose of God in wanting to reveal Jesus Christ in us, to us, and through us? He simply does it by calling Jesus the Logos. Jesus IS what God is speaking. Jesus IS the revelation of God, yes, TO us -- but IN His people.