I hope these 24 devotions have helped your Advent journey somewhat. Thank you for taking the time to read and engage with them. Wherever you are near or far I pray that you will know the presence of Christ more than ever.
So here is our final devotion and my last blog of 2023.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” (John 1 v 1-4)
John’s gospel was written around 80-100 AD but it was the first fourteen verses that were venerated in the Middle Ages by the Roman Catholic Church where they were worn around the neck to ward off evil spirits. They would read it over the sick and newly baptised. Putting aside such veneration I do want to elevate these powerful verses as we approach and walk through Christmas into a new year. Here is the Prologue:
History tells us that in 500BC the Greeks were asking whether in a changing world there was an abiding principle, a reason for it all. Their conclusion was summed up in one word, ‘WORD’ which is the English translation of the actual word, ‘LOGOS’.
This was later developed by the Stoics who talked of the LOGOS as the world-soul and they began to shape their whole lives around the LOGOS.
At the time of Jesus there was an Alexandrian Jew named Philo who had a Hebrew and Greek background and he took hold of the LOGOS idea and developed it.
But what is LOGOS/WORD? Philo believed:-
- The LOGOS has no distinct personality, it is described as a rudder to shape man’s course or an instrument to fashion the world.
- The LOGOS is God’s first-born Son (but not as we know it) and implying a pre-existence.
- The LOGOS bridges the gap between God and the world.
This was the Greek thought regarding the meaning of life, the LOGOS. John knew this Greek thought when he wrote his gospel but he also knew the Jewish thought found in our Old Testament:-
- The WORD (LOGOS) had creative powers (Genesis 1; Psalm 33)
- God offers His care through His WORD (LOGOS) (Psalm 147, 148)
- God’s LOGOS will accomplish its purpose (Isaiah 55, Psalm 147).
- Judgment is executed by the LOGOS (Hosea 6).
- The LOGOS is the means of revelation in the prophets.
Further to this the Jews believe that Dabar, Hebrew for WORD, is the Torah, God’s way of communicating with us.
They believe:-
- The TORAH was created before the foundation of the world.
- The TORAH lay on God’s bosom.
- God created through the first-born and the first-born was the TORAH.
- The words of the TORAH are life for the world.
Sound familiar?!
WORD, LOGOS and the TORAH, Trying to answer the meaning of life.
John is fully aware of the Greek and Jewish position regarding this meaning of life, the reason for it all, why we are here and what our purpose is. This is how he starts his gospel:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
To the Greek, John says, “this rational principle of the universe that you hold to is a personal being and has become human.”
To the Jew, John says “your thought of pre-existent DABAR is kind of correct but there is so much more and He was never created. HE has personal attributes and HE has been here and I have seen HIM. The TORAH is JESUS CHRIST!
Jesus is not only the reason for the season, He is the reason for life.
Jesus is not only the true meaning behind Christmas, He is the true meaning to everything.
From the springboard of this LOGOS and TORAH, John would go on to record Jesus’ statements that he was the bread, the light, the door, the Shepherd, the Resurrection and Life, the Way, Truth and Life and the vine and he does so with 2 simple words, ‘I AM’ that not even Moses used for God they were so holy.
The Jews reject Jesus as WORD. Our world is indifferent to the WORD but still pursue their LOGOS.
But the WORD said it and John records it.
Jesus is the WORD, the LOGOS and the TORAH, the true meaning of life. There is none other.
This is the crux of the matter. This is the central truth of Christmas. This is why the major religions hate Christianity because of who we say the WORD is. Our LOGOS, our TORAH is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is God.
The cults of Christianity may hold the same beliefs yet it is verses like this that they twist to fit their deviances.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses for example have translated the verse:
“and the Word was with God and the Word was a god.”
They have inserted ‘a god’ signifying Christ’s exalted status but as a creature. This translation helps them argue against the deity of Christ and his equality with the Father. But the ‘a’ is not there to be translated.
But why didn’t John simply write ‘and the Word was the God.’? That would have solved everything, right? NO. If John had used ‘the’ he would have confused the person of the Trinity and supported a heresy at the time (and still exists today) that all of God (the whole Trinity) was Jesus.
John is writing his gospel so “that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (20:21). This first verse is crucial to John. He gets it right. He has to. Jesus is Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the SON, the TORAH, the LOGOS, the WORD and yet He is also God.
God of God, Light of Light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
Very God, Begotten not created.
Jesus was there before it all began. He has no beginning. He is outside of time.
Before all time there was the WORD. He is pre-existent before anything was existent.
He enters the beginning. Because of this He will be there at the end.
When the end ends, He will still be there. He has no end.
He has seen it all. He has seen all that you hold dear.
We cannot contain Him to a time and a nation; to a scene; to a manger. We cannot hold onto Him. He is beyond our grasp. We cannot understand all there is to know about Him. He is beyond our capability to think.
Jesus did not begin 2,000 years ago in a manger, no crying he makes. He is before anything ever happened.
We can invite Jesus into our existence. But there is a greater invitation than that. An invitation for us to live our lives in His pre-existence.
You might not know why some things have happened or why they haven’t. But He knows.
God has and will always know what, why, when, where, how things are going in your life.
We need to trust in His pre-existence. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
You may have many questions about your future. What does it hold? Will I cope?
Being outside of time He is already in your tomorrow, He is there waiting for you and He is here now with you.
This is enormous comfort. You will never be alone.
You will never have to wait for Him to catch you up. He is not following you.
Wherever you are, He is.
Thank you for journeying with me as I share my devotions each day.
I will begin again in 2024.
God bless you.
Paul.
Missions Paul 