Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I will never forget having a professor in college. It was a theology class, and he got up and went over to the whiteboard, and he started writing a word on the board. When he got done, he said, "What is this?" He gestured to the word that he just wrote on the board. Of course, we all said the word, or we started describing the word, and some wanted to be a little bit more theological and started giving a little bit deeper description of the word that was on the board.
I love the point he made when we finished talking. He said, "Actually, that's just marker on a whiteboard." We all just looked at him, dumbfounded, and thought, what? What is that? You wrote a word! The point that he made was, yes, it's marker on a whiteboard, but it actually is written in a way that communicated to us.
Communication Through Expression
The perception of what he wrote on this board actually communicated a word and such a powerful message. Today in our Verse of the Day, with this lens, John chapter 1, verse 1, it says, "In the beginning the Word [which in the context is Jesus] already existed. The Word was with God and the Word was God."
There's a lot of debate nowadays about whether Jesus actually ever said that He was God. But here we have in John chapter 1, verse 1 the author, John the Apostle, actually saying, "In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God"—in the beginning, referring all the way back to Genesis chapter 1: "In the beginning, God created."
Why "The Word" Matters
Why is this important? Especially with the word that's used as "the Word," because we have the Word of God. So really, what is this saying? I love the context of what my professor was teaching in that moment. Because really, what it is, is an expression. Any kind of word—we have different languages, and I love the different languages and the different nuances. I wish I knew more languages—but what is it actually about language, about marker on a board? It's what's communicated. It's what's actually expressed.
That's what I love about Jesus being referred to in the power behind it as "the Word," because words are expression. Have you ever walked past somebody, especially someone you care about or know, and you say to them, "I know you're thinking something or something's going on. What's going on?" And they say, "Oh, nothing." Are you with me? Does that drive you up a wall where it's like, "No, just tell me. Just talk. Just express where you're at. I can tell something's going on"?
There's this relational side of an expression, through words, of actually what's being communicated or what you're thinking, what's going on with you.
His Undying Love
That's what's so amazing about the dynamic of Jesus, our Savior, our Lord being called "the Word." From the beginning of time, Jesus was the ultimate expression of God. He was the ultimate expression of unconditional love for you. He's the Word. He's the expression of everything God is about.
That's why when Hebrews talks about we have a High Priest that knows what we're going through and knows because He's experienced it, He is the ultimate advocate. It also says He's our mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He is the expression between us and God and God to us. He is the Word.
Let Him express His undying love for you today. Receive the Word in who He is, His presence, and know that from the beginning of time He is there for us. He loves you, and let Him express that to you in your heart and in your life today through His Word.