These essays are written in sequence and build on each other. Read the preceding essay here.
We have extensively discussed the concept of The Word as the revelation of Divine Truth, the revelation of the Nature of God.
Because our understanding of the Word is conditioned by our basic assumptions about the Nature of God, it is important that we clarify a number of concepts related to this word “God”1.
In this and subsequent essays we shall seek to humbly explore the Nature of God, insofar as it is possible for we human beings.
Can Man Understand God?
No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father;
— KJV, Luke 10:22
and who the Father is, but the Son,
and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
The Son knows the Father, directly.
Man knows the Father through the revelation given in and by the Son i.e. the Word of Truth.
To this end was I born,
— John 18:37
and for this cause came I into the world,
that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Because man’s knowing is a knowing-through-the-Word, we could also say that the Son knows the Father and man knows of the Father.
Knowing-of in this case is not a devalued version of knowing, because it is a natural outcome of our limited nature in relation to the unlimited nature of God.
A plant has life but no consciousness. The animal has consciousness.
It is impossible for the plant to “understand” the nature of the animal, because the plant lacks the capacity for this.
The animal has consciousness but not self-awareness. The human being has self-awareness.
It is impossible for the animal to “understand” the nature of the human being, because the animal lacks the capacity for this.
Humanity in its true sense is incomprehensible to the animal, but the animal can adapt itself to humanity in its own way.
Because the animal has consciousness, the animal can be made to understand specific instructions from the human being that are adapted to the nature of the animal.
It is only within the limits of the instructions given to the animal, and within the limited expectations that the human owner has of the animal, that the animal can be said to “understand” its owner.
God is above all human conceptions. We can get an idea of what this means by considering how man is above animal conceptions.
We can come to an “image of understanding” of Him, just as we are a sort of “image” of the Divine. We have a God-given spirit, which can arrive at this image of understanding, this knowing-of, through The Word.
In the process of understanding, we also come to “know” the Son, because Truth is in The Word and The Word is in The Son.
If ye continue in my word,
— John 8:31
then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free.
We “understand” God, and are born anew, through gradual experiencing and application of the Word.
In the beginning was the Word,
— John 1:1-2
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God
We are able to receive The Word because the Son incarnated on earth and transmitted the Word in human words.
God exists far above the human level, and The Word is One with God.
Therefore The Word existed before human words and human concepts were created.
Therefore The Word in Its true and unveiled nature would be incomprehensible to human beings.
Naturally, it would be impossible for a human being to directly transmit the Word. What a blessed or spiritually-gifted human being can transmit would be a human-level image of The Word, as the human being is a sort of image of the Creator.
Only Christ, being a Part of God, could transmit The Word Itself. Therefore the words of Christ must be placed on a higher level than the various prophets and other biblical writings, however good these teachings may be.
Thus The Word is in God and also in the Son, and the human-level understanding of It is achieved by accepting and living the human words which the Son used to transmit It.
Today’s Resolution
- We shall hold strongly to humility in all our considerations of God and of His Word.
- We shall remind ourselves of the great gulf between our nature and that of the Son and the Father, and only seek to bridge the gap through application of The Word.
- For the curious reader the book “Thinking About God” by Stephen Lampe provides an extensive overview of some of the issues raised here. ↩︎
The Word, (Re)Discovered 