The Word of God (Part 4) – God’s Word is Creative

So far in this series I have made 3 main points.
1. God’s Word is personal. (John 1:1-4)
2. God’s Word is alive. (Heb 4:12)
3. God’s Word works powerfully within to transform me. (Heb 4:12-16)

But how does God’s personal, living, and powerful word accomplish this? What is the nature of God’s word?

God’s word is creative. Review the following verses and see the implications of each concerning the creative power of God’s word.

Gen 1:3
3 Then God said,”Let there be light”; and there was light.

John 1:1-4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Ps 33:6
6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Ps 33:9
9 For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.

Ps 148:1-5
Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
2 Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
3 Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all you stars of light!
4 Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!

5 Let them praise the name of the LORD,
For He commanded and they were created.

Col 1:16-18
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Heb 1:2-3
2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

So we see that all things have been created by God’s word, Jesus is God’s word, and at a point in history, God’s word became flesh and came to live among us. The key thing to observe here is that God’s word is creative in nature. When God speaks, stuff happens – things come into existence.

Rom 4:17-18
17(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

I think most believers don’t view God’s word as being creatively powerfully in this way. Many believers hear the term “God’s word” and immediately think of scripture. The Bible certainly is the word of God, but the term “God’s word” refers to more than scripture. But even if we narrowly speak of God’s word in terms of scripture, do we really think of God’s word expressed through scripture as having creative power? I don’t think so. Not usually.

The most common illustration I’ve heard all my life is that the Bible is a manual for life. “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” is the little acronym that serves to make this point. The concept is that we are like manufactured products and God (the manufacturer) has given us a manual. If we will learn the principles contained in the manual and apply them, then our lives will operate according to design. I believe this is how most of us regard God’s word expressed in scripture. The Bible is a repository of principles to live by.

But how much power does a manual have? What ever got created by a manual?

A manual would be the perfect solution if my problem was simply behavioral. If what I needed was mere instruction regarding what to do and what not to do, then a manual would do just fine. But I need more than that. I need a LOT more than that. I need Life. I need power. I need motives I don’t have. I need strength I don’t have. I need peace I don’t have. I need a lot of things I don’t have. A manual can’t give me what I don’t have; it can only tell me what to do with what I do have.

Even the things I do have positionally in Christ I need to enter into experientially, relationally. A manual cannot give me relational experience.

Thank God he has given us more than a manual. His word expressed through scripture is so much more than a manual. The very breath of God is on it and in it. Through scripture (the written word) I can come to Jesus (the living word). As I hear the living word speak by the Spirit through scripture and in scriptural ways (see my Hearing God series) things change within me. Stuff I didn’t have before appears. My motives get transformed. My identity gets formed. God’s word creates. If I’m a new creation (2Cor 5:17), then this is exactly what I should expect God’s word to do. It’s what I need. It’s what God does in me through his word.

The Word of God (Part 3) – A Priest, a Sword, and a Neck

I love the scene from Lewis’ Narnia where Lucy asks if Aslan is “safe”. The reply is wonderfully insightful.

‘If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than me or else just silly.’

‘Then he isn’t safe?’ asked Lucy.

‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver. ‘Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’

Jesus isn’t safe either. You may have a very safe idea of Jesus, but your ideas about Jesus may not always match the reality of Jesus. I hope you’ve come to realize that! I’m beginning (I hope) to learn that Jesus isn’t safe.

Jesus often seems intent on absolutely messing with my business. His agenda includes taking over every aspect of my life. My very natural inclination to be driven by what I think, feel, and want doesn’t have a chance of survival when in his presence. He is certainly not safe!

This reality is pictured so clearly in the fourth chapter of Hebrews. The chapter refers back in time to the story of God’s people Israel in the wilderness. Because of unbelief and disobedience (same thing) they did not enter into the land of promise. The writer of Hebrews says they didn’t enter into “rest”.

So which is it? Did they fail to enter the land or did they fail to enter into rest? Yes!

You see, to have entered the land they would have had to completely rely on God. To completely rely on God they would have had to let go of their fears. Their fears resulted from their evaluation of their own strength in comparison to the strength of the current occupants of the land, thus demonstrating that they were ultimately relying on their own strength rather than God’s. When I forsake all self reliance and trust completely in the strength of God, I enter into rest. When I cease from my works, I cease relying on my own strength and efforts.

Heb 4:10
10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
NKJV

It is in this context that the wonderful passage Hebrews 4:12-16 appears.

Heb 4:11-5:1
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
NKJV

How are we to enter into this place of rest? How are we to cease all reliance on self? The picture here is clear if you look closely.

You begin with a High Priest – Jesus. And he has a Sword – the Word of God. Where are you in this picture. The answer is in verse 13 – everything is “…naked and open…” before this Sword wielding High Priest. The word translated “open” is a powerful word picture in Greek. The word is tetracheelismena and literally means to bend back the neck and expose the throat.

Do you see the picture. There’s Jesus, the High Priest, wielding a sharp two-edged sword, the Word of God. There you are lying on the altar in front of him with your neck stretched back. Jesus isn’t very safe at all is he?

But it is from this position of surrender (rest), where I allow the High Priest to take his living and powerful word and perform surgery on my heart, that I have bold access to the throne room and the abundance of grace and mercy that only comes from him!

The Word of God (Part 2) – The Word is Alive

Heb 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

This is a passage I keep coming back to again and again. I meditate on it, study it, preach it, teach it…it’s been a consistent theme for me for more than twenty years. I’m still not sure I quite get it though.

Post-enlightenment westerners tend to think of words as tools to transmit data. That’s not how we experience them though, is it? Cruel words tear us down and wound us deeply. Encouraging words can build us up and cause hope to spring up in the deep places of our hearts. Words about data do in fact transmit data, but words about identity do much more.

God’s words do so much more than transmit correct information about doctrine (what we’re supposed to agree with) and morals (what we’re supposed to do). God’s word is living and powerful. God’s word is alive and it does stuff! A lot of the stuff it does is external to me. The entire universe has been formed and is being sustained by God’s word. But that’s not the focus of this verse.

God’s word divides soul and spirit. God’s word cuts to the deepest places within me. God’s word smells out every thought and motive within my heart. God’s word is living inside me! God’s word is doing stuff inside me! This is great news because inside me is where I need the most stuff done. How about you? We tend to think that if God would just fix our circumstances then everything would be ok. But that’s not really true. What’s wrong in my life is internal, not external, in the vast majority of instances.

One of the things I need to internally experience is the division of soul and spirit. My spirit is the deepest part of me. It’s the part of me that came to life when I accepted Christ. It’s the part of me that is one with him. It is from this spirit to Spirit connection that I receive the life that comes from his voice and presence.

My soul is my mind, emotions, and will – what I think, feel, and want. I’m very used to being ruled by my soul. It’s all I was ever ruled by before I became alive in Christ in my spirit. Now sometimes, quite often actually, it is necessary to distinguish between the strong force of what I think, feel, and want and the still small voice of the Spirit. God’s word is alive and powerful within me to help make this distinction.

The Word of God (Part 1) – God’s Word is Personal

Let’s face it. I’ve lived near the buckle of the Bible belt my whole life. This means I’m quite fluent in “Christianese“. You know what I mean – the language we use in church that is meaningful to us, but somewhat incomprehensible to those from the outside. Anybody want to be “washed in the blood” today? A rather icky picture, unless you’re familiar with it and understand what is being said through the phrase.

The difficulty here is that even though I’m an insider, and familiar with all the jargon, sometimes bible-belt-speak uses terminology in less that fully biblical ways. For instance, “worship” can come to refer merely to a congregational expression of worship through singing and music rather than the rich, varied, and nuanced concept of worship we find in the Bible. Being “born-again” can come to refer to repeating a sinner’s prayer, rather than the transformational experience of completely changing your source of life and identity.

One of the phrases that is most common for us is “the Word of God”. I have to admit that because of my upbringing, when I hear this phrase I immediately think of the Bible. While this phrase certainly includes that which is contained in scripture, to understand God’s Word simply as scripture doesn’t match what scripture itself says about God’s Word. If we allow the Bible to speak authoritatively into our definition of God’s Word, we will discover that our use and understanding of the phrase “the Word of God” needs to be broadened quite a bit.

During the next few posts I’m going to be talking about “the Word of God”, hoping to change the way I think about that phrase.

I will begin with these verses from John’s gospel which show us that more than being words in a book, God’s Word is ultimately God himself revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

John 1:1-4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

When scripture speaks of God’s Word, you will often discover that scripture isn’t talking about scripture. In this case, scripture is talking about Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God. God’s Word is a person, not just a book.

Worship: He is other; He is near.

“God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.”

That’s the first prayer I remember learning as a small child. It’s short (as prayers before meals should be). It rhymes. It’s really quite a good little prayer.

The thing I like best about it is that it communicates something about God which is foundational. Packed up in this little pre-meal prayer for children are the concepts both of God’s transcendence and His immanence.

Transcendence – “God is great. God is good.”
Immanence – “Let us thank Him for our food.”

The term transcendence refers to the reality that God is distinct from and above all Creation.

Distinct from: The universe is not God. The earth is not God. The trees are not God. I’m not God you’re not God. God is “other” than us.

Above all: God is the origin and sustenance of all Creation. He is the owner of all Creation. He has all authority over all Creation. He is superior to all Creation. His superiority includes every category of existence. He is eternal; Creation is finite. He is morally perfect; Creation is good, but broken, fallen. The list could go on.

The term immanence refers to God’s nearness and involvement with Creation day by day, moment by moment. God is not far away and uninvolved, but rather unimaginably close and deeply involved in the tiniest details of life.

If I minimize God’s transcendence but hold to His immanence, I wind up being a pantheist. For if God IS near and involved in our lives but is not distinct from us and not over us, then God is everything and everything is God.

If I minimize God’s immanence but hold to His transcendence, I wind up being a deist. For if God is distinct from us and over us but is not near to us and involved in our lives, then God is far away and inaccessible; the cosmos is simply a complex watch and the watch maker has moved on to other things.

When we respond to God in worship we humbly surrender before the transcendent One. We bow before His greatness. There is a biblical principle in place as we do this. He inhabits our praise. We enter His gates with thanksgiving.

Get this! As we exalt His transcendence, we experience His immanence. What an amazing privilege.

Hearing God (Part 17) – The Reward of Obedience

Gen 22:17-18
17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
NKJV (emphasis added)

I’m fascinated by Gen 22:18, specifically the phrase …because you have obeyed my voice. God doesn’t really promise anything new here. The content and themes referred to here have been part of God’s promises to Abraham all along. God initiated these promises from the beginning in Gen 12 when Abraham was a pagan, and then again in Gen 15. Abraham didn’t do anything to merit them or deserve them. Then at the end, God says that it’s “because” of Abraham’s obedience.

Earlier we see that righteousness is accounted to Abraham because he believed the promises, but the promises themselves and their fulfillment have nothing to do with Abraham’s performance. Now, after all that, Abraham somehow gets the credit based on performance, based on his obedience.

God initiates. God redeems. God fulfills. God brings us to a place of living faith worked out in obedience, God rewards us, and then God says it was because we obeyed. He rewards us for the obedience he produces in us.

This would be easier to swallow if I were a Calvinist, but it does give me some context for what Paul says in Romans 2…

Rom 2:6-7
6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds“: 7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
NKJV (emphasis added)

Rom 2:13
13(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;
NKJV (emphasis added)

In Romans 10:17 we see that faith comes from hearing His voice. In Genesis 22:18 we see that we are rewarded when we obey his voice. We hear, we believe, we obey. Through this process we enter into the purpose, promise, and reward of God.

Hearing God (Part 16) – God’s Word and the Miraculous

John 1:1-3
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Col 1:17-18
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Rev 4:11
11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”

Heb 1:3
3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power ,

In these verses we see that all things have their origin in and are presently sustained by the Word of God. All of Creation came into being through the Word. All of Creation is currently upheld by the Word.

God spoke and from nothing everthing came. This is miraculous don’t you think? All that appeared in that moment owes the continuance of its existences to the continuing reality of the Word. Is this any less miraculous? In fact, it is in the exact same category – existence resulting from the voice of God. Want to see more miracles? Consider that your very existence and the existence of the material world in which you live are both miracles.

We usually think of miracles as being those things God does which are outside the norm of nature. But what if nature itself is miraculous? If that is true (and it is), then there is no categorical difference between my observation that the sun came up this morning and my expectation that today God might speak to me about healing some sick people. No difference at all.

Ps 107:20
20 He sent forth his word and healed them;
he rescued them from the grave.

Matt 8:8
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word , and my servant will be healed .

Are you listening?

Hearing God (part 15) – Understanding Loaves

Mark 6:51-52
51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves ; their hearts were hardened.
NIV (emphasis added)

The disciples had just passed out five loaves of bread to 5,000 men plus women and children. Each disciple had a complete bag of leftovers when the job was done. Immediately after this, Jesus calms a storm and the disciples were “completely amazed.”

Evidently they should not have been amazed. If you reverse the logic of vs 52 you find that if their hearts had been soft they would have understood something about the loaves and therefore would not have been amazed when Jesus calmed the sea.

There was something they were supposed to understand about the loaves but they missed it. Their hearts were not tender enough to pick up on it. They thought the loaves were about the loaves. They didn’t recognize that God was saying something to them through the loaves.

The text doesn’t tell us what they were supposed to have understood about the loaves. But the passage is clear that if they had understood it, they would not have been amazed. Amazement happens when something occurs outside of our expectations, beyond our grid of understanding and anticipation. If they had understood about the loaves, it would have adjusted their expectations in such a way that Jesus calming the sea would have been expected instead of being a surprise.

Is it possible that God is constantly doing things in our lives and though we’re grateful, we mistakenly think that it was just about the “things”, not realizing that through these things God is revealing something to us about who He is? If we miss it, all we received was the “things”, with maybe a good story and some leftovers for tomorrow, but our view of God hasn’t really shifted. Our expectations haven’t expanded. Our faith hasn’t grown. The way we see reality hasn’t been modified. Our mind hasn’t really been changed.

May we have soft hearts today, not merely receiving what He gives, but hearing what He says in the giving.

Hearing God (Part 14) – 3 things to listen for today

Eph 1:15-23

In this prayer Paul prays that God will open the eyes of our heart to see three things:

1. the hope of His calling
In Paul’s writings, God’s “calling” is the powerful word of the gospel by which we are called out from the world and called into relationship with Him. Given that understanding, the “hope of His calling” would refer to the confident expectation (hope) we have that He who called us is able to complete the work He has begun in us. (see Phil 1:6)

2. the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints
Paul has already introduced the idea of inheritance earlier in the chapter. In vs 13-14 we discover that the Holy Spirit is given to us in the present as a down payment on our inheritance to be fully received in the future. So in this prayer we find Paul praying first that we would see the hope of our calling (this present reality of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing a future inheritance) and then praying that we would see in the present, by the same Spirit, the scope of that inheritance (the “riches”).

3. the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe
The final thing Paul wants us to see is that the transforming power of that future inheritance that has been guaranteed by the down payment of the Holy Spirit and revealed as God shows us the full scope of that inheritance, can be experienced in the present in anticipation of that future reality in response to faith.

God has called you and is committed to finish that work. The presence of the Holy Spirit in your life today is the guarantee of the completion of that work. God wants you to know in the present the scope of that future inheritance. God wants you to begin to receive in the present, the manifestation of that future inheritance by faith.

Ask Him to talk to you about that today!

Entering the Kingdom

This is something I previously posted back on April 29th.

John 3:5-8
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
NKJV

Birth must be quite an experience. What must that be like? We leave the only reality we have ever known, a warm and cozy space about the size of a volley ball and emerge into a vast world completely outside of our capacity to understand. We are born into a reality for which we have absolutely no point of reference. We enter a world in which we are completely dependent and within which we must now learn to grow and mature. But this is not a learning defined simply in terms of the accumulation of new and additional data. This is a qualitatively new way of seeing and experiencing reality.

Jesus describes our entrance into God’s Kingdom in these precise terms. What is it like to enter the Kingdom of God? First, we must leave behind the only reality we’ve ever experienced. By the Spirit we emerge into a bigger, deeper reality – one for which we have no reference point. Entrance into the Kingdom is best described in terms of birth.

Faith in Christ is so much more than mental ascent to doctrine. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is far more than a commitment to identifying and implementing Biblical principles. Christianity isn’t simply our identification with a group or organization, nor is it a new set of ideas, even good, right, and true religious ideas. Saving faith is in fact an entirely different way of perceiving reality. It is an awakening from darkness to light, emerging into a new reality where none of the old rules apply and everything is somehow strangely different and upside down.

Like the wind, this new life surprises us and is difficult to tame or predict. When asked to explain we find ourselves stretching for a vocabulary that doesn’t quite exist yet. All we are able to describe is that the trees are blowing. The wind itself is beyond description for we are so new to this larger, deeper reality called the Kingdom. We are born. Again.

God has provided a way through Jesus for us to enter a new reality called the Kingdom of Heaven. Many long to be free – free from addictions, free from destructive behavior patterns, free from demonic oppression, free from anything in our life that hinders us from becoming all Jesus created and died for us to be. Our first step to freedom is the new birth. This is not something we add on to our old life as an accessory. Being born radically alters our perception and definition of all we have every known to be true and real. You cannot be born and remain within the cozy reality you’ve occupied before. So the first thing God frees us from is all we have ever thought to be true and all the ways we have thought about truth.