The Word of God

22. The Word of God John Uses it as a name for our Lord (1:1). There are three words in the Greek language for “word,” one referring to the mere articulate sound of the voice, another speaking of that sound as the manifestation of a mental state, and still another, the one used by John, and whose meaning will be discussed. The word is Logos (Λογος). It comes from the verb which means literally “to pick out or select,” thus “to pick words in order to express one’s thoughts,” thus “to speak.” It speaks of a word uttered by the human voice which embodies a conception or idea. It refers not merely to a part of speech but to a concept or idea. Greek philosophers, in attempting to understand the relationship between God and the universe, spoke of an unknown mediator between God and the universe, naming this mediator, “Logos (Λογος).” John tells them that this mediator unknown to them is our Lord, and he uses the same name “Logos (Λογος).” Our Lord is the Logos (Λογος) of God in the sense that He is the total concept of God, Deity speaking through the Son of God, not in parts of speech as in a sentence composed of words, but in the human life of a divine Person. Our Lord said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” Paul says that (Heb. 1:1–2) whereas in times past God spoke to Israel using the prophets as mouthpieces, He now has spoken in the Person of His Son. Our Lord is therefore the Word of God in that He is Deity told out. The definite article appears before “Word.” He is not merely a concept of God among many others, for the heathen have many concepts of God. He is THE concept of God, the only true one, the unique one. He was in existence when things started to come into being through the creative act of God. He existed before all created things. Therefore, He is uncreated, and therefore eternal in His being, and therefore God. The Word was with God. The word “with” is from a preposition meaning literally “facing.” Thus the Word is a Person facing God the Father. The article appears before the word “God” in the Greek, which indicates that the First Person of the Trinity is meant. Thus, John is speaking of the fellowship between the Word, Jesus Christ, and the Father, a fellowship that existed from all eternity and will exist to all eternity, and which was never broken except at that dark mysterious moment at Calvary when the Son cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The Word was God. Here the word “God” is without the article in the original. When it is used in that way, it refers to divine essence. Emphasis is upon quality or character. Thus, John teaches us here that our Lord is essentially Deity. He possesses the same essence as God the Father, is one with Him in nature and attributes. Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter, the teacher, is Very God. “In the beginning was the Word (total concept of God), and the Word was in constant fellowship with God (the Father), and the Word was (as to His essence or nature) God.”

Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 17 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 50–52.

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