WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY? Volume 1

I hope that this brief Bible study on a regular basis will help us all to have a better

understanding of what God is trying to teach us through God’s Word which we have seen revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. 

When I start studying the scriptures, I always like to begin with the gospel of  John. The writer of the gospel is addressing new Christians in the late first century and rather than spending a lot of time on the human part of Jesus, which the other three gospels tend to do, this writer is more interested in the divinity of Jesus.  So rather than the traditional birth stories which we read in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, or Jesus’ baptismal story as in Mark’s gospel,  John begins his narrative with words that are reminiscent of the Creation story in Genesis, “In the Beginning….”  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  The Word was in the beginning with God.”  John almost makes it sound as if the Word is alive, doesn’t he?  Which is exactly what he wants to say.  He wants us to understand (in his understanding, and mine, incidentally!) that the Word he is referring to is the part of God that become flesh in Jesus.  In fact, later in verse 14, he says it.  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

The Word is the part of God that took on human form and even more than that, became completely human in Jesus, so that we might have an up close and personal view of who God is and even have a personal relationship with God ourselves through Jesus Christ. What do you think of when you hear the word, “Word”?  Don’t we think of speaking and listening, communicating, interacting, reflecting, relating?  All of those things and more, probably.  Jesus reveals the part of God that is most intimate to us, the part that cares and loves deeply about us, the part that has been active with God’s people since the time of creation, the part that intervenes, hears prayers, answers prayers, directs our lives, seeks us out when we are lost, the part we see most completely revealed in the stories and lessons in the Word of scripture.  That is the part of God that we can come to know and connect with through Jesus the Christ.  The Christ part indicates that Jesus, while fully human here on earth, is also fully divine.  It is that Christ part of God, the saving, redeeming part of God, that has been active in the lives of all of God’s people. 

Want to Know More?

Read the stories in the Book of Genesis, and think about how that Christ part of God is interacting with Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and their families.  These stories are at the very heart of our faith, as well as the Jewish and Muslim faiths.

Have questions?  I’d be happy to visit with you and encourage you to become part of one of our ongoing Bible classes.

                                                                Nancy Gammill