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The Nature of the Word
John R GavazzoniMarch 22, 2003
Thousand Oaks, CA
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you" (II Cor. 13:14).
- What an awesome benediction,
- and it is indeed a "bene" (good) diction (speaking).
- We understand that grace, love and communion have their source in God,
- who extends them to us by a divine administration whereby the essence of divine Being
- (Love).
- flows to us freely
- (Grace),
- and is known by intimate relationship
- (Communion).
- But do we understand that they are,
- first, dynamic internal qualities within and among Deity?
- Do we understand that the dynamic that constitutes the Divine Family is Love,
- graciously given and received within the Members of the First Family in the embrace of communion,
- and that this truth reveals to us the nature of the Word of God?
It is of the essence of the Divine Nature that God communicates within and among Him/Her/Their Being not by words, as we think of them, but by the Divine Language, which is Love. The Love within God is so potently vital that it communicates by its very nature. Nothing is lost as Love is transmitted, as it is shared, as it freely flows within the Family which God is. It is received and enjoyed in the same power and purity by which it was given. No translation is necessary to be understood, and there is no need to crank up the power in order to bridge any distance. Love speaks by simply Being, and Being in union.
Now this will be a shocker to some of my readers but here goes: In this light, for us to say that "the Bible is the Word of God" is tantamount to such a minimizing and distortion of the meaning of the Word as to, in the least, be insulting to God. It borders on the same religious nonsense that claims that the body of Christ has been reduced to a wafer or cracker and His blood to wine or grape juice.
Get real Mr. and Mrs. Evangelical; the Word is Spirit, as God is Spirit. The Word of God did not become a book, as precious as the Book is to us, but the Word did become flesh. Please hold that thought.
The Word of God is present in all things, and if and when God deigns to so tune our hearing, we will hear His voice in all creation, and most certainly present quite uniquely in the Bible, but the Bible is not THE Word of God, any more than anyTHING is the Word. All scripture is "God-breathed," most certainly (2 Tim. 3:16), but the length, breadth, height and depth of what God has to say cannot be contained within the covers of a book.
His Word reveals the Love that He is, and to quote that marvelous verse from the gospel hymn,
"The Love of God:"
Verse
"Could we with ink the oceans fill, and were the skies of parchment made.
Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade.
To write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry,
nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky."
BUT: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son......" (Heb. 1:2).
- "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1).
- "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14).
- Only in and by the One who "is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature"
- (Heb. 1:3)
- has God fully and completely spoken.
- God is not in communion with a book,
- He communes with His Son,
- who goes forth from that communion, as the Word of God, to reveal the Father
If we were to ask God to tell us everything that is on His heart, to tell us everything that He knows, to reveal Himself to us completely (which is the purpose of the Word),
- He might encourage us to more diligent Bible study---maybe---,
- but finally, as the Bible itself does, He would point to His Son and say,
- "He is everything I know;
- He is summation of divine wisdom, the explanation, definition and revelation of all that Deity is;
- He is ALL I have to say. AND IN HIM, YOU HAVE BEEN MADE COMPLETE,
- AND IN UNION WITH HIM, YOU TOO ARE THE FLESH THAT THE WORD HAS BECOME."
Now some will say, " Oh, yes, of course, I agree, brother John, but leaving that thought for a moment, I'm interested in what is your interpretation of this particular verse of scripture." Oh dear; I fear that we are in relationship with God's book rather than with God Himself. I tell you, of late, rather than drawing from any exegetical expertise I might have to explain scripture to satisfy mere soulish curiosity, I feel more inclined to respond, "How 'bout if we more diligently seek to interpret the God-impulses and Godness within the pages of our being?" To be continued......
Stay tuned for future serious, seminal samplings.
John Gavazzoni
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