How can we identify Jesus Christ? He is one of the manifestations of the triune God (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – see 2 Corinthians 13:14, Matthew 28:19, and 1 Peter 1:2). But what is His relationship to human beings? In Matthew 1:20-23, the virgin (Mary) gave birth to a son, as the angel foretold, and Mary and Joseph were to give him the name of Jesus. So here we see that Jesus is both God and man. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he described Jesus in all His humility as an example of sacrifice to others: “In your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus . . .
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own
advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5-7)
How Jesus can be both God and human is a mystery to us. We do not have the intellectual capacity to determine how this occurred. We simply accept it by faith, since we have an inferior intellect and existence compared to God’s.
How can Jesus be both the written Word while He is both God and man? The final authority for this is God Himself. In Revelation 1:1, the apostle John recorded these words, “The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place . . .” The word revelation comes from the Greek word, apokalypsis, which means to reveal or uncover. We can take this on the basis that God intended for us to know about the events in the book of Revelation before they happen. In other words, God had something that he intentionally wanted to convey to all those who would listen. The author is clear (God) and his message was intentional (to reveal future events). This was not a second order of communication passed around among people, but rather, a first order – one that a particular author (God) communicated to a particular group of people (those who would listen). On this basis, we can take God’s Word as being authoritative and connected to Jesus, the Son of God.
This identification of Jesus as the Word of God is eternal. Psalm 119:89 speaks of the eternity of His Word: “Your word, LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” Most work that we are familiar with is temporal. That is, an author or artist created the work at a certain point in time. However, God’s Word has no beginning or a time at which it was created. It always existed. What we read in God’s Word is the Word that he impressed on the authors to write. But God’s Word itself had no beginning and it has no end as is the case for Jesus. This further ascribes to the fact that it is authoritative.
Jesus is both God and man as well as the Word of God. In John 1:1, the apostle John also noted that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That is, before creation, the Word of God existed. Then John expressed in verse 14 that “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This was accomplished when Jesus Christ was born as baby (Matthew 2:1). So the phrase, “the Word was God” clearly ties God’s Word to Himself. The phrase, “The Word became flesh” ties the Word of God to Jesus. Since Jesus is the Word and the Word is God and the Word became flesh, we now see the connection between Jesus, God, man, and the Word of God.