Question 9: How can Christ be both Word of God and Son of God?
Answer: Christ, as the full pouring forth of the life and Spirit of God, is the word of God, being the complete, perfect, and full expression of the Father’s heart. So also in this pouring forth we see him to be the Son of God, proceeding spiritually, as he does, from the Father. This we call Christ’s eternal generation as the only begotten Son of God.
When we think about words, we tend to think of them as inanimate things existing outside of us. At least, I do! I look at words on a page as I might look at a fork on my plate – they are both alike, or so it seems, inanimate and lifeless things. The spoken word seems somewhat more immediately and personally connected to us, because although the words are in one sense merely sounds, in another sense they clearly flow out of the heart. So the Lord Jesus said: “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Mt 12:24). In light of these more typical apprehensions of words and their nature, the idea that Jesus is the Word of God seems both odd and novel in one sense. How can a word spoken by God simultaneously be a person? Our words, and words as we generally understand them, it seems, are not their own entity. It seems mysterious and strange then that the Word of God should somehow live as a personal entity in itself (or, more accurately, in himself). How can we make sense of this conundrum?
To start with, that Christ is both Word of God (Jn 1:1; 14; 1 Jn 1:1; Rev 19:13) and Son of God cannot be disputed. Scripture clearly affirms both, as do our creeds and confessions. How then can Christ be both Word of God and Son of God? The answer, I think, lies in a deeper exploration of the spiritual nature of words. Allow me to explain (or, at the least, to attempt to explain!).
When we think about words, probably the first thing that comes to our mind is either words printed on a page, or perhaps the sound of words spoken by a friend. In other words, we have a tendency to think of words mainly in a physical kind of way (i.e. in terms of sound waves, or in terms of ink on paper). Words, however, are not primarily physical things. They certainly find physical expression through our voice-boxes and our pens, but they are fundamentally spiritual in nature. This is explicitly evident in passages like John 6:63, where Jesus said “the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life”, but it’s also clear from the fact that God is spirit (Jn 4:24). Let me open up that final thought a bit more.
God is not physical in nature, he does not have a voice-box, and he does not write with pens. And yet, as is abundantly clear from scripture, he speaks. In John 1, we have the very clearest of teachings on this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. It would not be until John 1:14 that “the Word became flesh”. If the word “was God” (Jn 1:1-3), and “God is spirit” (Jn 4:24), then the word must also be “spirit” or spiritual in nature. So then, certainly the Word, the Lord Jesus, is spirit (and took on flesh). His words as an incarnate man on earth were likewise spiritual in nature (Jn 6:63). Our words, too, are spiritual in nature. Proverbs 18:21 assures us that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”, so also Proverbs 15:4 says: “A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” There is an inseparable connection between the ideas of life and spirit, and both are bound up in the words of the tongue. Words are a spiritual expression, a pouring forth of the inner life of a person (Mt 12:24).
Christ is the full pouring forth, or expression of, the life and spirit of God the Father. For this reason, it is most fitting to call him the “Word of God”. God the Father, being infinite in his being, perfections, and excellencies, inevitably has a perfect, total, and constant awareness of himself. He holds in his own mind, as it were, a perfect reflective awareness of himself. It is this radiant and glorious spiritual reflection of the Father that Hebrews 1:3 describes as Christ the Son. In this we see both the unity of the Father and the Son, as well as their distinction as persons. The unity in the sense that the Son is an identical reflection of the Father, and is of the same spiritual essence of the Father (proceeding as he does from the mind of the Father, i.e. he is eternally begotten). The distinction can be seen in the sense that the Son, as the self-reflective image of the Father, is not the same person as the Father – for the Son clearly proceeds from the Father. Let me share with you John Piper’s expression of these things, it may be helpful to hear them in the words of another. Please read the following carefully, and perhaps read it through a few times:
“The Bible teaches that this eternal God has always had a perfect image of himself (Colossians 1:15), a perfect radiance of his essence (Hebrews 1:3), a perfect stamp or imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3), a perfect form or expression of his glory (Philippians 2:6). We are on the brink of the ineffable here, but perhaps we may dare to say this much: as long as God has been God (eternally) he has been conscious of himself; and the image that he has of himself is so perfect and so complete and so full as to be the living, personal reproduction (or begetting) of himself. And this living, personal image or radiance or form of God is God, namely God the Son. And therefore God the Son is coeternal with God the Father and equal in essence and glory”
(Piper, The Pleasures of God, p.37-38).
As God exercises his constant awareness of himself (and all things), his mind is – as it were – exercised in an eternal, infinite, and full pouring forth of self-contemplation. This eternal, infinite, and complete pouring forth of self-awareness has and always will subsist in and be God the Son, in whom the Father delights as a perfect reflection of his own glory and excellency. As a pouring forth, so to speak, it’s very fitting then to call Christ the “Word of God”. This word did not eternally exist in sound waves or on paper as our words do, it was a spiritual word. But then, as we’ve seen, all words truly are fundamentally spiritual anyway, it’s just that they find a physical expression in the created order. This same “pouring forth” also parallels with the idea of begetting – from which we learn of Christ’s sonship. It is not a physical begetting, because God is not physical by nature. It is an eternal, spiritual begetting, for which reason God reveals Christ to be the eternal Son of God. How then can Christ be both Son of God and Word of God? Both are different ways of expressing the same basic reality: that Christ comes forth eternally and fully from the Father.
What can we draw out from these things for our own lives? There are many implications we could explore, but most basically we might say this: don’t underestimate the power of words. Proverbs 18:21 says: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”. Words are not just ink on paper, nor are they mere sound waves moving through the air. There was a saying back when I was in school: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” There is a wise way of benefiting from that proverb, but there’s also a dangerous error as well. Words are not just hot air, they are powerful. They can be life-giving, or soul destroying (Prov 15:4).
We ought to become appreciators of words. Students of words. We all have different gifts and abilities, but none of us should neglect the privilege and duty of reading. Be a reader of books. Put the modern day gift of audiobooks to good use – you can read while you’re driving to work! Read good books. Learn how to read well.
Seek to become more aware of how powerful your words can be in the lives of the people around you. A timely word of kindness or encouragement can have a profound effect on others. Conversely, rash words can be deadly as the thrust of a knife, but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Prov 12:18).
Above all, let the word of Christ dwell richly within your heart (Col 3:16). The words of Christ to us are life (Jn 6:63). His words must be food to us, we cannot live without them (Mt 4:4). In John 8:31-32 Jesus said: “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” Christ is the Word of God. He is the complete, perfect, and full expression of the Father’s heart. He is the pouring forth of the Father. He comes to us, and we have intercourse with him, soul to soul, as he speaks to us. Words. Words are powerful. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. “And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth...” (Prov 5:7). SDG.
Q9. How can Christ be a "word"?