In the previous segment we were instructed that truth was to be found in the “Word of God.” That being the case, it would certainly behoove us to get busy discovering and saturating ourselves with the Word. That is how we will discover truth.
We were invited and encouraged to passionately pursue that relationship by becoming involved in personally gaining knowledge and understanding of God’s truth, that would be found in the Word of God:
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” (Ps. 19:1-2)
The Holy Bible is referred to as the Written Word of God. It is the aggregate of the recorded messages made available to us for revelation.
The overall theme of the Holy Bible is the redemption and restoration of human individuals back to the state of affairs for which they were created in the first place. In later segments of this study, we will look closely at what that state looked like before; how and why the separation took place, and the procedures and requirements necessary for reconciliation throughout eternity.
The Holy Bible shows that God had a plan already set into motion, whereby He would reveal Himself to us on the instalment basis. It was a plan where, through the personal tutoring of the Holy Spirit, we would be guided back into an intimate relationship with Him. He would personally reveal to us who He is, His plan for redeeming us, and His plan to help us develop into the individuals He had created us to be.
For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Col. 2:2 TLB)
We have access not only to the Written Word of God, but God also provided us with the Living Word of God. He sent his only begotten son to this earth to live among us. Humans were allowed the incredible experience of personally seeing, and touching, and hearing, and eating with, and talking with, and personally learning from, Jesus the Christ. While here on earth, Jesus extended an invitation to each individual, both there and then, and also in the future, to receive Him into his or her heart to live forever. He would actually come to live inside that individual by the power of the Holy Spirit, in a beautiful experience of pardon, power, reconciliation, and beauty.
Through the personal revelation of God to individuals, they may come to know God, not as a mere force or law, but as a Supreme Personality who created individuals specifically for communication and intimate friendship with himself.
Since humans were created for personal and intimate relationship with God, it is reasonable to suppose that God would make disclosures of himself to human individuals.
The revelation of God to individuals by the Written Word, the Living Word of the life of Jesus, and the witness and affirming Word of the Holy Spirit within the heart of the believer, is directed expressly to the principle of faith in that individual person. The faculty and functions of faith and believing is the highest exercise of the individual, and calls into action the full range of powers and capacities of the mind, emotions and will.
When, by faith and believing, we invited Jesus Christ into our life and asked him to be our “Savior”, we became a child of God. We were born into the family of God by the Holy Spirit, and we embarked on a new adventure, and a new relationship with Jesus Christ.
It is almost overwhelming when we start to get our mind around the fact that the God of the universe and of all ages since “forever” past, and into the future ages of “forever” forward, would invite us personally to become intimate friends with Him, and be able to learn how much He loves us and what He has in mind for us in the future. All of that knowledge and understanding is now made available to us through His Word – His written Word, His living Word (Jesus the Christ), and the interpretation and tutoring of the Holy Spirit of God.
Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is – nothing exists that he didn’t make. Eternal life is in him, and this life gives light to all mankind. . . And Christ became a human being and lived here on earth among us and was full of loving forgiveness and truth. (Jn. 1:1-4, 14)
That’s absolutely amazing! The Word that God used to speak the worlds into existence, the Word that was written down and has come to us through history, and the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, is not something different in character and identity at all – in fact, all are one and the same.
Wow!
Next Week: Saturating Your Life with the Word of God