The Life-giving Word

The Word of God a Living Word

What is the nature of the Word of God?

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.  

How are the oracles of God described?

“He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, and he received living words to pass on to us.” Acts 7:38 

What was Peter’s testimony concerning Christ’s words?

“Simon Peter answered him, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68.

What did the Savior declare His Father’s commandment to be?

“I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” John 12:50.

The Word Compared to Food

What lesson was intended by feeding the children of Israel with the manna?

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  Deuteronomy 8:3.

What instance is recorded of one who fed upon the true manna?

“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.” Jeremiah 15:16.

What reference did Jesus make to this same manna of life?

Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4: 4. 

How did the Word of God become food to Jesus?

“My food,” said Jesus, Is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

John 4:34.

Jesus As the Living Word

What name is applied to Jesus as the revelation of the thought of God in the flesh?   

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1.

“And he was dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.”

Revelation 19:13.

What did this Word become?

”The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.

What was in the Word?

“In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Verse 4.

What was Jesus therefore also called?

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”  1 John 1:1.

Jesus As the Living Word

What did Jesus declare Himself to be?

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes on me will never go thirsty.” John 6:35.  

What did He suggest that men should do with Him, the Bread of Life?

“Just as the living Father has sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” John 6:57, 58.  

What did Jesus really mean by eating His flesh?

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” Verse 63.

Note – Thus we clearly understand that to eat the flesh of the Son of God is to live by His words. As one has said, “He who by faith receives the word is receiving the very life and character of God.”

The Table of the Lord

What grand privilege do we have?

“Who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age.”

Hebrews 6:5.

What glorious invitation is extended to all?

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”

Psalm 34:8.

How are we instructed to pray for both physical and spiritual nourishment?

“Give us today our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11. 

Note – When “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” the thought of God was revealed in human flesh. When holy men “spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit,” the thought of God was revealed in human language. The union of the divine and the human in the manifestation of God’s thought in the flesh is declared to be “the mystery of godliness,” and there is the same mystery in the union of the divine thought and human language. The two revelations of God, in human flesh and in human speech, are both called the Word of God, and are both are the Word of Life. He who fails to find Christ thus in the Scriptures will not be able to feed upon the Word as the life-giving Word. 

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