Do You Know…

When I meet new people and they find out that I am an Architect practicing in Little Rock they often ask me if I know someone else who is an architect in Little Rock.  Many times I may have met the person they are asking about once or twice, or I’m familiar with their work, but if you asked me what kind of car they drove, their children’s names, how they take their coffee, etc., I usually have no idea.  I don’t really know them.  The only way to really get to know them would be to visit with them, which would include talking – words.  We can learn a lot about people from their actions, researching their history, from seeing them daily, etc.  But to really get to know them they have to tell us things about themselves that may not be evident any other way.  It takes words.

Similarly, to get to know God, we have to spend time in His word.  We can learn a lot from looking at nature, from going to church, from doing missions work, from volunteering at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter, from reading books about God, and so on.  But if we really want to know God, we have got to read His word, the Bible.  In His word, He reveals things to us that we would never learn any other way.  There are things we would probably never figure out about God without reading His word.

But even with the written word God realized that we were still having trouble understanding what He is telling us, so He sent us His Son, His “Word”, Jesus, to fully explain Himself to us.  In John chapter 1 we read that the “Word” “became flesh and dwelt among us”. John writes that “we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”.  He goes on to say that “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him”.  We also read in John 1 that the “Word” was in the beginning with God, and that the “Word” was God, and that all things were made by Him.

In God’s Son, The “Word”, we learn even more about God.  Jesus showed us the Father.  Then He became sin on our behalf on the cross, that through Him, through the “Word”, we can come to know God to the fullest extent possible this side of eternity.  He is the doorway to a relationship with God.  No one can really know the Father apart from Him.  He was here at creation, speaking the universe into existence, then He visited us in the incarnation, giving us new revelation while He was among us, and now He has gone to prepare a place for us and will return for us in the restoration of all things at the end of the age.  The word of God – do you know it?  The “Word” of God – do you know Him?

John 1:1-18

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. ⁵ The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

⁶ There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

⁹ There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ John *testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” ¹⁶ For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”