A crowning diamond in the Christian treasury is the gracious ease with which God’s self-revelation to humankind occurs, and the beauty of its flow from Word to words and back again to Word, until every rift between God and humans is removed and relationship is fully restored. The cycle of redemption is thus completed: the fullness of God becomes human and, through dying and being raised from death, brings the fullness of humanity into the glory of its intended destiny in sharing the divine nature (Heb. 2:5-9; 2 Pet. 1:3-4).
The cycle of revelation begins in the eternal beauty of God’s divine character, a beauty which–being alive–yearns for expression in words. These words, and all other words that reflect the grace and truth of God’s character, became flesh and lived among us in the person of the particular man Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:1-18).The identity and achievements of Jesus while living as a man among men and for men, quickly found expression in a story constructed of words–gospel words both spoken and written–words that invited others to come and feast on grace and truth, to digest the written words from past relationship as spiritual food and to absorb it into one’s self (2 Pet. 1:19-21).
Whenever we speak the Word in words, others will receive or will reject our words based on whether or not they see the Word living in us. Before they know the Word they already know instinctively whether our words truly reflect that Word, for they watch and see whether the Word is transforming us. As the Word becomes flesh in us, we will find that we speak the words with authority. Then the Word empowers the words and the words communicate the Word and the cycle is complete (John 6:41-58; Col. 4:2-6; Titus 2;5, 10).
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