Who is our God? Chapter 9

THE LOGOS OR WORD, Part 2

Our former chapter on this subject (Chapter 4) was only introductory and very elementary, dealing mainly with the views of Philo.

We must now probe a little more deeply into the meaning of the Greek term LOGOS, and enquire accurately into its precise and concordant significance. The Logos doctrine is one of the most weighty in the whole Bible. You cannot understand the doctrine of the Godhead apart from this. It is the keystone which holds other doctrines in place. Everyone knows what a word means in the English language. It is a single term or expression. The Greek word Logos, however, never signifies one single grammatical word. Even in 1. Cor. 14:19 where Paul writes about talking five "words" with his mind, rather than ten thousand "words" in a tongue, he does not mean individual words, as we are so apt to think. The Greek word always means a statement, a statement which explains something. In Modern Greek a single word is a lexis, from which we get the term lexicon. Paul meant five statements, or ten thousand statements. These might be long or short. Gal. 5:14 informs us that the entire law has been fulfilled in one word, that is, "Thou shalt love thine associate as thyself"—six words in the Greek. Whereas, the whole "book" of Acts is one word, because Luke calls his earlier Gospel "the former treatise" (C. V. The first account). Acts is his later treatise or "word". His Gospel contains 24 chapters, with 1,151 verses, and in Greek not far off one hundred thousand single letters. His two treatises or accounts are therefore explanatory statements.

Let us apply this rule to 2 Tim. 1:13. "Hold fast the form of sound words." Some have stumbled here through lack of strict concordance. The C.V. reads "Have a pattern of sound words," but it sublinear is more correct in shewing "sayings." Of course, sound statements must be couched in sound terms. But Paul does not state that only those terms used by him may be utilized.
While we believe strongly in being as concordant as possible when dealing with terms found in the Scriptures, it is sometimes the case that being too concordant may result in some of the meaning of a Greek or a Hebrew word being lost. If we confine the meaning of the Greek word logos to word, account and expression, we shall not arrive at the full truth, Let us then examine the wider scope of the term, as expressed in the British A.V. This will help to throw up or reveal the actual sense of the Greek term.

In 50 cases it is rendered by "saying." "This is a faithful saying" (1. Tim. 1:15; 4:9). "These are the true sayings of God" (Rev. 19:9). Yet we could not aver that He who became flesh was the Saying (John 1:1). Eight times the word is rendered as "account," and this comes close to the sense required. The Town Clerk of Ephesus was worried in case he had to " give an account" of the disturbance, for which there had never been any real cause (Acts 19:40). It was more than a word he might have to render; it was more than a saying; it was not only an account, but it was an explanation he might have to give, and that would not be easy.

The Lord asked the religious leaders in Israel "one question" (Mark 11:29). This also comes very near the sense. He wanted from them one statement, and a statement which explained something. Whence was the baptism of John? Anyone can see how inadequate it would be here to read saying or expression. In Luke 20:3 the A.V. has it "I will also ask you one thing."
The Pharisees sought how they might entangle the Lord "in (his) talk" (Matt. 22:15). Literally "in statement," or "in a statement." If only they could prove Him wrong in one statement!
Peter asked Cornelius "for what intent ye have sent for me?" (Acts 10:29). Peter wanted a reason, an explanation. Apparently he could not understand why a Gentile should approach him. Twice indeed in the A.V. logos is rendered by "reason." 1 Peter 3:15, "a reason of the hope that is in you." "Word" would not do here; neither would "expression," nor is "account" sufficient, as this might only mean a description. But we ought, one and all, to be able to give a very realistic explanation of the expectation which we hold.

At Luke 5:15 the A.V. tells us "But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him," and at ch. 7:17, "And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea." What rumour of Him? That "A great prophet is raised up among us," and that "God visits His people." That was how the throng exlained the Lord and the miracle He wrought.

But what are we to make of Romans 9:28, "a short work will the Lord make upon the earth"? Some of the more modern versions use here the word sentence. Dr. Wand, "God will execute a precise and summary sentence upon the earth." Moffatt, "The Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with rigour and despatch." Goodspeed, "The Lord will execute his sentence rigorously and swiftly on the earth." Cunnington, "for a sentence, accomplishing it and shortening it, the Lord will execute upon the earth."

In chapter 4 we sought to shew how the Hebrew term dabar (a word) meant both the statement made and its result. Is not that the true meaning in Rom. 9:28? Isaiah's prophecy means that the Lord's decree or statement once issued, will bring about its irresistible result, which will be self-explanatory. To the Hebrew, deber (pestilence) was God's utterance, which explained to him that something wrong had taken place.

A fine Welsh writer states that neither Latin nor any modern language supplies anything really satisfactory as the true meaning of the Greek word logos. Perhaps there is no single English word which can contain it. All we can seek to do is to supply the thought. At Rom. 9:28 the Concordant Version renders by "For the Lord will be doing a conclusive and concise accounting on the earth." But the Word of John 1:1 was not an accounting. The Scriptures are not an accounting, yet they are God's Word.

Christ Jesus is God's Statement concerning Himself, His explanation of God, of Mankind, and of the entire universe. He is the utterance of God, and the result of God's utterance shewn in action.
Lest any reader might be bored by the study of mere words, let it be stated that the power of accurate and sound terms is enormous to the believer. We cannot arrive at true thoughts apart from accurate terms. In Old Testament times God's Spirit fell on the prophets, apparently suddenly at times, and with great power. But since the written, revelation of God's mind and truth in the New Testament, and the Incarnation of God into the human race, God's Spirit can only fill a believer or influence an unbeliever, through His written revelation in words.

Any good English dictionary contains hundreds of words which incorporate the Greek word logos. A dialogue between two persons consists of questions and statements and answers, and might be quite a long talk. Biology means a statement and explanation of subsistence (not merely life, but subsistence). Ethnology is a statement and explanation of Nations and races.

It is not merely the preaching of the cross that is foolishness to those who are getting lost; nor is it the word or account of the cross that is stupidity. It is the explanation of the cross that seems totally meaningless to most people (1. Cor. 1:18). Yet it is exactly this explanation which to those who are getting saved is God's dynamic (dunamis Theou). That is why we are so eager to seek to explain Who it was who suffered on the Cross. Who but an all-wise Deity could have thought out such a scheme, weak, useless, and unmeaning to those outside the door, but vitally essential and full of interest and power to those within the room?

Let us briefly examine the other place where the Lord is called "The Word of God" (Rev. 19:13). Why should He be so called here? Because He is seen as coming opt of heaven to execute judgment upon the nations. His sudden coming will bring home to the nations that there is a God. In other words, the secret of God will no longer be any secret to the world. That secret will be finished (Rev. 10:7). God's long silence will be completely broken. Messiah will come in flaming fire, as God's executive, His all powerful Word, God's explanation of Himself. God's Word fulfilling itself and revealing God. All earth's long and weary history will suddenly find its explanation. Mankind will understand the mystery of its existence. The heavenly beings will look on in amazement and learn secrets they have long wished to understand. Christ's unveiling will be a manifestation and explanation of God affecting the utmost bounds of creation.

The doctrine of the Word or Logos appears to have been communicated to early mankind in some form. According to Brugsch, to the ancient Egyptians God was a Spirit dwelling in His cosmic house which He had furnished and built, and Thoth was His Word or Explanation, through whose voice all had been created.

The truth imparted by Noah, however, was soon corrupted, though it may have lingered with individuals. But from the time of Abraham and the nation of Israel, the stories of the theophanies became woven into the national history of Israel, and spread into the surrounding nations. As we have shewn, the name Jehovah signifies God as manifesting Himself, ever manifesting Himself historically under some new relation. "I shall become (everything) that I may (require to) become."

Yet even Israel appears to have lost the meaning of the Name. It was left to John to bring into light once more the ancient doctrine of the Logos. But soon the Church entered a very dark period, followed by the rise of the Roman Church, and the displacement of the Greek tongue by the Latin. This shift to Latin corrupted every important doctrine, and Protestantism groans under this blight to this day. Instead of the word Logos in John 1:1, appeared the Latin verbum, the precise meaning of which is very different.

Perhaps it is only within the past fifty years or so that the Logos doctrine has been partly recovered. Yet where do we hear much about it in meetings or churches? Assuredly it is one of the most important teachings in Scripture.

John sets forth the Lord Jesus as the key, the clue, the explanation of God and Man and Nature, and the Universe. And moreover, this key opens up the truth contained in many scriptures.
Most human beings go through life and hardly seem to ask themselves what they are doing here, why they are alive at all, whither they are going. The idea of a God is shunned. A very fine character said to me, "It is better not to think of death at all." Such souls cannot give a reason for their existence. Yet the Logos doctrine explains all these problems.

For far too long has Science sought to belittle mankind, by making man to be of no importance. The era of Darwin meant that the universe was really dead and without any true meaning. Mankind had no higher ancestry than the ape or the jelly-fish. This has led to. mankind losing confidence in itself, losing moral courage, abandoning moral standards, and yielding to evil. Luke traces the origin of mankind right back into God Himself (ch. 3:38). But Science would not have that—anything else rather.

More recently, however, Science has been giving attention to that most striking fact in nature-individuality. Within mankind, observe how the wonderful and beautiful sex principle divinely makes for endless variety. We cannot shut our eyes to that endless variety in all nature, variety that could only have been planned and produced by a God who desires and needs that vast variety. The value to God of the individual must be extraordinary.

Another thing which Science has at long last discovered is that anthropomorphism is no longer the frightful bogey it once was. Let us ponder the vast import of this. As an eminent writer puts it, "Is not the fear of anthropomorphism the greatest bluff of all time, negating not only the practice of prayer for the believer, but the validity of thought for the thinker?" ("Man and His Meaning" by J. Parton Milum, Ph.D.). Surely if God has come right into our human race, He has given it a dignity that it never possessed before. The Sacred Writings shew us Mankind eventually enthroned in Christ under God. Those who are continually harping upon: the present unworthiness and worthlessness of mankind, ought to concentrate upon the mighty words of Psalm 8:4 or Hebrews 2:6, "What is a human being, that Thou art mindful of him. . . .?" It is not that God is going to place Mankind over some of the works of His hands, but over the works of His hands, all His works. Nor do the prophets visualize only a fraction of mankind thus engaged. Christendom has grossly debased God's Truth by according to Him a peculiar preference for dealing in fractions. It is the creation (past and present, ktisis, still going on) which was subjected (Passive Voice) and is still being subjected to vanity or worthlessness, not of its own wish, but on account of Him who subjects it, in view of its complete deliverance (Romans 8:20, 21).

He around whom all the Scriptures revolve, who is the clue to all their secrets, the explanation of all problems concerning God and the world and history, envisaged humanity in its entirety, and identified Himself with the essential and universal human. And just as this unique and cosmic Son of Mankind came forth out from the Father, so He derives the race made in God's image from the same transcendent source.

Science has belittled and lowered mankind, because to ignore God is necessarily to belittle mankind. The old mechanical view of the universe ignored the individual and arrived at its laws by means of averages. This was a fatal blunder, because no real advance in knowledge was possible until the individual exceptions were weighed and considered. The same is very true of Bible concordance. Sometimes the English key fails to fit every lock of the Hebrew or Greek word. The single exception will oblige us to try another key.

The great message of the Incarnation is that the true human is also divine. The ancient fathers of the Church were quite unafraid to declare that God assumed our flesh as Man in order that mankind might partake of the divine nature. That is how they understood the Greek Scriptures.
Science would fain bridge the vast gulf between spirit and matter. But how? History reveals that this has already been done. For what seemed to be an impassable gulf was completely bridged when the Logos became flesh. Here is a wonderful story far more marvellous than the finest fairy tale. Here in a flash we find Mankind related to the entire universe, and very closely related to God. He assumes a body of clay just like our body of humiliation.

The scentist's conception of physical evolution must proceed from the simple to the complex, from the poorer to the richer. But John's view was infinitely more scientific: He visualizes the Creator bringing into being the universe through travail and privation. It was not out of nothing that God created all things, but out of Himself. Some would declare that the whole process of creation is a self-emptying like that of Phil. 2:7. Within the Deity there exists both an active and a passive mood. As the passive He could suffer and undergo privation.

Let us briefly take a look at a Hebrew term which is intensely scientific. In Gen. 14:18-22 we read that "Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine, and he was priest for El Elyon (God Most High). And he is blessing him and saying, blessed be Abram for EI Elyon, possessor of heavens and earth." But no Hebrew could possibly under stand the word "possessor" here, for qanah (which may be related to our words win and gain) invariably signifies to acquire, and to acquire through effort or sacrifice or labour of some kind.

El Elyon acquired His universe through sacrifice or effort? Why not? Were not the Incarnation and the Cross closely bound up in the Creation? But let us examine the very first occurrence of this word in the Bible, at Gen. 4:1. Here Eve exclaims "I acquire a man—Jehovah." It was something more than merely getting, obtaining or receiving a man-child. Very often the word is rendered by buy or purchase. But we may be sure that Jehovah never bought the universe, any more than Eve bought Cain. Where in Proverbs we read about getting wisdom or understanding, as in 4:5, 7; 19:8, we ought to read acquiring. And is it not generally the case that real wisdom and understanding have to be acquired, often through pain and sorrow and privation of some kind?

"Buy the truth and sell it not" is a commonly quoted statement (Prov. 23:23), which if acted upon strictly would greatly impoverish certain concerns. But the Hebrew tells us "Acquire truth and do not be selling." To acquire truth is a lifelong task. We must ever be disciples-learners. Often this may entail intense mental travail.

If, as Dr. Tennant writes, "The Cosmos is no logical geometrical scheme, but an adventure of divine love," it is an adventure which has brought upon God eonian travail. All genuine love must have its travail. Every mother who brings forth a child in travail experiences a little of the divine travail in creation, and learns more about the heart of God than all Science can tell us.
Paul had to travail with the Galatians until Christ was formed in them (Gal. 4:19). If that is not our attitude to one another, then we do not possess the Christ spirit.

We have stated that the primitive Gospel was deeply concerned with two outstanding themes, which centre round the ideas "The Son of Mankind" and "The Logos." What do we mean by that? We mean that both of these appellations are terms of universality, terms closely related to every creature. Just as every human being is a wonderful microcosm, a small world in himself or herself, so also solidaric humanity is one vast macrocosm, or big world in itself. But just as the destruction of a vital part of the microcosm terminates its existence, so also Mankind is no longer a unity before God if it becomes partly lost permanently. God-in Christ has assumed the closest link with solidaric humanity that was possible. But He cannot be the Son of Mankind or the Logos towards merely a part of the Race of Man. We humans possess all the faults that the very wickedest men and women possess, even if only latent and incipient or dormant. The knowledge of that fact ought to make us yearn for the deliverance of the entire Race from its thraldom. Did not the complete sinlessness of the Lord produce within Him an intense longing for the complete salvation of the whole Race of which He was a member?

In the present day, two of the most urgent problems among thinking people are concerned with the social and ethnic question, and the outcome of scientific discoveries or speculation. Can it be possible that an adventure of divine love should be the solution of both of these problems? Do we not have here the themes of The Son of Mankind and the Logos? The old question, "What think ye of Christ?" is no longer of mere historical interest alone. Some may attempt to believe that He has never existed or been here. But all thinking people recognize the dire necessity of One who will be well able to cope with seething and ceaseless international unrest and bitterness. If God does not somehow intervene, the nations must inevitably perish. Almost all the more civilized nations are living extravagantly or riotously. Before long, there will be no wealthy nations left on earth. "Whither Man?" has become a terrifying problem.

"Whither Earth?" is another urgent problem. Strange it is that men can view the energy of the physical universe as running down, until eventually the Earth is destined to meet its doom in collision with some other planet. What crass credulity, when such shallow thinkers never enquire how the universe came to be wound up. Could they but recognize that the mind which indwells man the wonderful microcosm is but the reflex of the much mightier Mind of the Creator, and that God is as much an individual and a Person as man is; and that the Mind and Heart, the Will and Love, which built the universe, has assumed flesh, our flesh, and become joined to our human race, with the corollary that He must in due time return to mankind.

Christ Jesus is the Divine explanation or Logos of mankind, and reveals why man exists. Man exists for God, and through the Logos is organically related to the whole cosmos of creation. But this basic unity has been completely obscured by the Scientists, who imagine that the Universe cannot contain any higher intelligence than man himself. Such is the stifling objectivity of a shallow and superficial age. One can partly understand the urge of puny man to create God somewhat after his own image, because, after all, the human mind can only be in. some ways the mirror or reflex of the Mind that created man. Otherwise the human mind cannot be accounted for.

The scientists grope blindly for contact with a Mind that is transcendent, but; do not know how or where to discover Him. Human society and governments grope for some form of authoritative power which will prevent mankind from destroying itself. The answer in both cases is Christ Jesus, the unique Son of Mankind, the unique explanation of God.

We cannot improve upon William Porcher Du Bose, in "The Gospel in the Gospels" (1907). "That Jesus Christ was a divine manifestation, revelation, or expression—of which there could be no doubt—could not but lead to the question, Of what is He the expression? He is the Logos or divine expression of humanity. He recapitulates in Himself not only the whole nature but the whole life and destiny of man. He is the Logos of creation, the revelation and anticipation of the end or final cause of all things. Consciously or unconsciously, by reason or by instinct, the New Testament anticipates in the most remarkable degree that sense of unity which is the first principle of modern science. The unity of the natural and the spiritual, that matter exists for mind, necessity for freedom, the earth for man, and finally man for Christ as Christ for God—that is all from beginning to end a drama of evolution as scientific as it is rational and religious. And Jesus Christ is the Logos of God, so far as God is in any way whatsoever revealed or expressed at all. Whatever be the historical source and origin of the logos-language of St. John, I think enough has been said to show that the truth which finds in it its final expression is one legitimately developed within the New Testament itself. Christianity has its own theology, cosmology, and anthropology, and the unity of all these is the truth expressed in its Christology. We state that truth when we say that Jesus Christ is the logos at once of God, of the Cosmos, and of Man. God, outside of Himself, is revealed only in the 'all things' which we call His creation. The creation, so far as there is any end or meaning in it,is interpreted only in man. The final cause or reason for being of man finds no adequate expression but in Jesus Christ. Let God, the cosmos, man, and Christ, be fully understood in the light and in terms of one another, and we have that complete science which will alone explain all, because nothing less will include all."

The old Logos doctrine of Philo and the Jews was an endeavour to correlate what were considered the discordant principles of the universe, to bridge the wide gap between the divine and the human, the infinite and the finite, the unknown and the known, so that somehow God might be brought nearer to man. We human beings can only think of facts or doings which are related in some way to things found in our own experience. Anything outside of that would be terrifying, say the sudden apparition of an angel. Human inventions and discoveries are reached by the same method whereby we climb a stair, one step at a time, or occasionally two steps at a time. That is why many theories of the Atonement have come short. It cannot be explained by the analogies of human experience and thought.

Even the limitations of scientists have been rather severely descanted upon by one of themselves, Sir Arthur Eddington, who staggered them by the following disclosure, "All the laws of nature that are usually classed as fundamental can be foreseen wholly from epistemological (i.e. expert, scientific)considerations. They correspond to a priori knowledge, and are, therefore, wholly subjective." Then he adds, "The fundamental laws and constants of physics are wholly subjective, being the mark of observers sensory and intellectual equipment on the knowledge attained through such equipment."

The Scriptures, however, present us with One who is not only very closely related to ourselves, but very closely related to God. He is the Explanation of God and we can see God in Him. But He is also the Explanation of Mankind, and in Him we behold Man as he will yet be. In other words, He brings God near to us and takes us close to God. In the Logos become flesh we find a whole complete Gospel. God's ways are past finding out. No human being could ever have thought out a plan so complete and so perfect.

The truth ought to be fearlessly faced that the "Gospel" as commonly preached is an extraordinarily unimpressive and flimsy message. Many years ago I listened to an open air effort to produce Good News in a town in the North of Scotland. The effort was most painful and dismal, and evidently the speakers knew they came very far short. It is not enough to tell sinners that "Christ died for us." Finally the leader asked whether anyone had a word to say. I stepped forward and endeavoured to state some facts which magnified God and His purposes, but ere long the leader angrily shouted me down as an emissary of the Devil.

Let it be faced that the "Gospel" as commonly presented to-day fails to awaken a true sense of Sin. Moreover, it usually fails to produce righteousness. "Jesus paid it all," therefore it matters little what one does, especially when one is told that God is ever ready and willing to lavish "Grace" upon him. When the Son of Mankind returns to earth, will He find the Faith anywhere? When He returns will He find a real Gospel anywhere?

It is all very well to stress the future reconciliation of all, and this ancient teaching has never since the days of the Apostles been wholly obscured. It might be vastly better, however, for the present to recover and proclaim the powerful primitive Good News, for which the world hungers. This cannot be done apart from the Logos doctrine, which underlies all the Good News from God. It explains many difficulties, clears up obscure passages of Scripture, and co-ordinates all the main doctrines of Scripture as nothing else can. It produces a boundless and unfailing satisfaction with God's grand scheme to bring back to His Fatherly heart the entire Race made in His own image, through His Son.

Understood in the light of God's Son as being the Explanatory Statement of all history, all humanity, and all creation, Romans 5 (all humanity declared righteous) takes on new lustre; so does 1. Cor. 15 (all humanity made alive in Christ's resurrection; God everything in everybody); Eph. 1 (the Universe recapitulated in Christ); Phil. 2 (the self-emptying and the exaltation); Col. 1 (His fulness reconciles the universe); Col. 2 (the Secret of God: Christ); Heb. 1 (The Son is the perfect representation of all that is substantially God).

Little wonder that many think the great mass of humanity will be lost and lost eternally.

They have never yet seen the Glory of God's Son.

End Chapter 9 (Alexander Thomson)