The word of God is the word of life. By it, in the person of Jesus, was all life given; and by the same means is all life sustained. It speaks of those things which are not as though they were, and thus causes them to be.
This word was incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. He was the Word. Contact with him as such meant sight to the blind, leaping to the lame, shouting to the dumb, health to the sick. That Word walked upon the foaming Sea of Galilee; it abode in the storm-tossed bark; but when it spoke, suddenly the waves were stilled. It was heard at the grave of Lazarus, and, lo! the dead came to life. Its kindly, cheering tones reached the ear of the sin-burdened soul, and a new life went coursing through the veins, and new hopes crowded thick upon the brain, finding expression in an animated face.
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” John 8:12. And this “light of men” was also the life. John 1:4. But God did not design that this light, which in Jesus flashed like a brilliant meteor across the darkness of this world, should like a meteor be suddenly eclipsed. Ah, no! He intended that the same glorious rays of light and life manifested in him should abide in the world in the persons of his followers. “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill can not be hid. . . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 5:14-16. “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” Phil. 2:15.
But this light, or life, is in the word. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63. “The entrance of Thy words giveth light.” Ps. 119:130. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you; ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Col. 3:16.
This word applied to the sinner is as a “fire, saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.” Jer. 23:29. This word received will awaken those who are dead in trespasses and sins to a new life. This word believed becomes the exceeding great and precious promises whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:1, 4. This word going with us becomes a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Ps. 119:105. It is a detector of all sin, a revealer of all the snares of the enemy. Heb. 4:12; Ps. 17:4. By this word of truth we are sanctified. “Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” John 15:3. Keeping this word of his patience, we shall be kept “from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Rev. 3:10.
But, that these things may be accomplished, the word must be received in faith as the word of God. “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing; because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” 1 Thess. 2:13. It is effectual because when thus received Christ is found in it. “If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we [the Father and Son] will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 4:23. “His name is called The Word of God.” Rev. 19:13. “And the Word was made 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.” John 1:14. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness [by the word], hath shined in our hearts [by the same word], to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” 2 Cor. 4:6, 7. We are “changed into the same image from glory to glory.” 2 Cor. 3:18. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” 1 Peter 1:23. By feeding on that word we grow. 1 Peter 2:1, 2. “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Eph. 3:16, 17.
Yes, dear reader, God hath called us by his grace that he might reveal his Son in us (Gal. 1:15, 16), and we are to put “on the Lord Jesus Christ [so that others will see him, when they see us], and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:14). Then are we crucified with Christ; nevertheless we live; yet not we, but it is Christ who liveth in us, and the life we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. Gal. 2:20. O, what a privilege to have the Majesty of heaven, the One to whom all power in heaven and earth is given, abiding in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure! In this condition we show forth the praises of Him who hath called us to glory and virtue. This is lifting up Christ so as to draw all men unto him. Then are we living epistles known and read of all men, reproducing the life of Christ, walking in harmony with the word, delighting to do the will of God. Dear reader, is the living Word in you? Is Christ manifest in your flesh?
