Jesus is the Living Word of God

God has spoken to us by His Son.

The matter of God speaking is the matter of God’s Word. What God says to mankind is the most important thing that man can know. It is also the most elusive thing man can receive. For unless God condescends to our level of thinking and relates to us in a way that we can understand, we will know nothing about Him. In the way an insect in your hand can never rise to understand you, you can never condescend to relate to it. But, this is exactly what God did for us.

[blockquote class=”scripture”]“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Heb. 1:1-2).[/blockquote]

In the Old Testament times, God spoke “at many times and in many ways” through His prophets using visions, parables, types, and symbols. These prophets used narrative and poetry. They spoke of law and prophecy. They taught doctrine. They encouraged. They warned. There were various ways, but it was always the single God speaking. It was always God’s Word.

The prophet’s job was to be a kind of divine waiter who carried the message of God untouched to the people of God. He was a spiritual middleman. “But now,” continues the writer of Hebrews, “he has spoken to us by his Son.” Jesus was not a new middleman. He was no mere prophet. He was more. Jesus did not take revelation to God’s people. Rather, He was the revelation to God’s people.

This was shocking to the Jewish readers. God always had middlemen. But never had He been the middleman. The writer of Hebrews qualifies the Son as the appointed “heir of all things.” There was something unique about Jesus’ incarnation in addition to Him being the Word. He was predestined to possess all things as the heir of the Father. Equality with God was His birthright. But, by His life, death, and resurrection, He attained His inheritance. He became Messianic Lord. His life and work on the cross was a kind of triumphant rise to power as the Son of God and Son of Man.

Additionally, God “created the world through Jesus.” Heirship goes with creation. Christ is heir to all that was made because He made it. “For by him all things were created” and “all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16).

Jesus is the superior One. He is God. And now, because of His incarnation, He is God’s appointed middleman to all creation. He inherited all things and rules as the supreme leader, God’s representative. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” said Jesus (Matt. 28:18).

God spoke and created all things (Gen. 1:3). When Jesus came, He spoke through Him and created life in the spiritually dead. “The word became flesh,” according John 1:19. The connection was obvious to Jewish readers. In creation, God spoke and began all things. In Jesus, God spoke and finished all things.

To get to God, you go to Jesus. He is the unique, final, and living Word of God.

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