Interpreting the Logos (Protestant/Evangelical Devotional)

Ligonier ^ | 7/20/2018

[Gamecock]

In Greek philosophy, the logos remains an impersonal force, a lifeless and abstract philosophical concept that is a necessary postulate for the cause of order and purpose in the universe. In Hebrew thought, the Logos is personal. He indeed has the power of unity, coherence, and purpose, but the distinctive point is that the biblical Logos is a He, not an it.

All attempts to translate the word Logos have suffered from some degree of inadequacy. No English word is able to capture the fullness of John’s Logos when he declared that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Attempts have been made by philosophers to translate Logos as logic, act, or deed—all of which are inadequate definitions.

God’s Logos does include action. The Logos is the eternal Word in action. But it is no irrational action or sheer expression of feeling. It is the divine Actor, acting in creation and redemption in a coherent way, who is announced in John’s Gospel.

That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us is the startling conclusion of John’s prologue. The cosmic Christ enters our humanity. It is the supreme moment of visitation of the eternal with the temporal, the infinite with the finite, the unconditioned with the conditioned.

Coram Deo

Reflect on this truth: God became flesh to accomplish your redemption. Have you accepted His gift of salvation?

Passages for Further Study

John 1:1 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.

John 1:15 John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.

[Gamecock]

Friday Hymn Sing

O Word of God incarnate
William Walsham How (1867)

1 O Word of God incarnate,
O Wisdom from on high,
O Truth, unchanged, unchanging,
O Light of our dark sky!
We praise Thee for the radiance
that from the hallowed page,
a lantern to our footsteps,
shines on from age to age.

2 The church from her dear Master received the gift divine,
and still that light she lifteth o'er all the earth to shine.
It is the golden casket where gems of truth are stored;
it is the heav'n-drawn picture Of Christ, the living Word.

3 It floateth like a banner before God's host unfurled;
it shineth like a beacon above the darkling world;
it is the chart and compass that o'er life's surging sea,
mid mists and rocks and quicksands,
still guides, O Christ, to Thee.

4 O make Thy Church, dear Savior,
a lamp of burnished gold,
to bear before the nations Thy true light as of old;
O teach Thy wand'ring pilgrims by this, their path to trace,
till, clouds and darkness ended, They see Thee face to face.

[Gamecock]

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