What does “Logos Made Flesh” Mean?
The name of this blog is taken from John 1:14 and I think accurately captures all that I want to do here.
John says, “And the Word (Greek: logos) became flesh… (1:14)” By this He means the infinite, invisible, intangible God became a person you and I could touch and see. “No one has ever seen God,” he says. A fact we know all too well. But he goes on to say that Jesus, “the only begotten God… has explained Him” or “made Him known” (1:18). Jesus physical presence revealed what we could not grasp with our senses. In Jesus we SEE God!
Such sight isn’t simply a neat experience. It’s transformative. Like the opened eyes of a blind man, IT CHANGES EVERYTHING. It shapes us into the image that we see!
Hear what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
By SEEING God we are refashioned into the perfect image of God – the image that was broken and marred in the fall.
The Word made flesh is the goal of all biblical interpretation. Priests, pastors, and preachers, throughout the ages, have attempted to explain the Word of God, to flesh it out and apply it to our daily lives. In the process of hearing the Word en-fleshed, we like Jesus become the living symbols of God’s presence in this world. Jesus has given us the Spirit so that world might see God in us.
Four Reasons I write
I write to teach.
In the movie Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell says, “God made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure.” Now replace the word “fast” with “teacher and “run” with “teach” you’ll know how I feel about teaching. There’s NOTHING I feel more delight in doing than communicating God’s word to people.
But teaching requires students and that’s where I have a problem. I don’t make a living teaching and I only occasionally get the opportunity to speak. Writing becomes my means to release the overwhelming compulsion building in me.
I write to learn.
Teaching and learning for me go hand in hand. The great Roman philosopher Seneca noted that “while we teach, we learn.” When I teach through writing I get to wrestle with a subject and in the process I become more intimately aquinted with it.
I write to clarify.
Writing allows for editing. Some ideas seem great inside my head but they lack clarity when expressed. I think Winnie-the-Pooh said it best,
When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.
Writing offers me the chance to see those confused thoughts and fix them before anyone has the chance to misunderstand.
I write to remember.
“The palest ink is stronger than the best memory” says a Chinese proverb. Spoken words are easily forgotten but the written word endures. I’ve said and thought many good things over the years but the ones I’m most likely to remember are the ones I’ve logged here in this blog.
Four Things I Aim to Do With Every Post
Surprise
We cease to be aware of things familiar to us. Routine, or what Samuel Coleridge called the “The film of familiarity,” constantly closes our eyes to things around us. Continued exposure to the same truths break down our senses to them. While we may know something in a cognitive sense we cease to be fully aware of it. Kind of like a routine drive to work. But surprise frees our senses from the power of routine and causes to once again look with fresh eyes at what we previously took for granted. Jesus understood this. Note for instance how he masterfully twists his audiences cliched stereotypes in the story of the Good Samaritan. Surprise is a true delight and I delight in offering true surprise.
Incite
Surprise is also essential to jokes. We laugh when we discover a twist from our expectation. “I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather.. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.” Ba dum chhhh. I love to laugh but the surprise I’m aiming for has a much higher purpose than laughter. It’s designed, like Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, to incite you to further reflection. Is it true? And if it is true what does it mean for me and what I believe?
Inform
I’m a busy person so I like blogs that have factual content and get right to the point. I love listening to stories but I don’t particularly enjoy reading them and so I typically don’t offer personal stories without a point. This story is of course a rare exception. I aim to offer overlooked information you can use in you’re study of God’s word and in you’re conversations with others.
Inspire
Bottom line: I want you to be inspired and motivated to study the Bible more deeply and pursue God more passionately. If I’ve turned you off to either one of these things I am truly sorry. For some my spice is too hot but for others its too mild. I want you to know that my deepest desire is to see you more fully equipped and delighting in the God who both created and saved us.