(from How To Enjoy The Bible, 1907)

   The first great and essential principle which must be ever present with us, when we study the Word of God, as a whole, is not to treat it as something which we have to interpret, but as being that which God has given in order to interpret Himself and His will to us.

    i. This applies to Christ; as the Living Word.

   When we speak of the “Word” we can never separate the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; and the written word, the Scriptures of Truth.

   Each of these is called the “Word,” because the Greek word Logos is used of both.

   Logos means the spoken or written word, because it makes manifest, and reveals to us the invisible thoughts.

   It is used of Christ, the Living Word, because He reveals the invisible God. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, He being in the bosom of the Father, This one [hath] declared [Him]” (John 1:18).

   It is not that we have to explain Christ, but that His mission is to explain God to us. He interprets the Father. And we have to believe Him.

   The word “declare” in John 1:18 is important in this connection, and deeply interesting. It is from ek (ek), out of, or forth, and hgeomai (hegeomai), to lead. Hence the whole compound verb means to lead forth, to make known, to guide, interpret, unfold, reveal, and expound (Luke 24:35).* It is from this verb that we have the cognate noun Exegesis which means Exposition. Wycliffe renders it “He hath told out.” The best Meaning is to make known.

* The word occurs only in Luke 24:35; John 1:18; Acts 10:8, 15:12,14, 21:19.

   This is why Christ is called “The Word of God,” because He makes known, reveals, and explains the Father.

   This is why the Scriptures are called “the Word of God,” because they make known the Father and the Son, by the Holy Spirit, the author of the Word.

   Christ is “the Way” to the Father (John 14). He makes God known to us in all His attributes, will, and words. “I have given them Thy Word.” It is always “THY Word” (John 17:8,14,17).  

  ii.  In like manner the Written Word, the Scripture, is given in order to interpret, and to testify of Christ; and this is why (as we shall see as our next essential principle) Christ is the one great subject of the Word.

   This is why the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of both. His mission is to glorify Christ (John 16:14). He receives and shows the “things of Christ” (John 14:15). But He shows them in the Written Word (1 Cor 2:9-14). And this is why it must be He and He alone who enables us to preach that Word.

   Thus we have the Word in three manifestations:—   

The Incarnate Word,
The Written Word,
The Preached Word.

   There is no other. Christ reveals the Father. The Scripture reveals Christ. The Spirit reveals both in the written and in the preached Word (1 Cor 12:7,8).

   How wonderfully does this magnify the preached Word; and show the solemnity of the charge in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word.”

   It shows how small and worthless are all the schemes, tricks and contrivances of present-day evangelists and mission preachers with their ever-new fashions and modern methods, when we see what a high and dignified place God has given to the Preached Word.

   How careful should we be that nothing in our manner or matter should lower that dignity, or imply in the slightest degree that the Written Word has lost any of its power; or needs any handmaids or helpmeets.

“I HAVE GIVEN THEM THY WORD“

   is the all-sufficient assurance of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to the Father. He did not say I have given them Aids to devotion. He did not say I have given them a Hymn-book, or I have given them thy Word AND something else.

   He did not give anything instead of, or in addition to, that Word.

   And that being so, we are assured that the Word which He gave is all-sufficient, in itself, to accomplish all the purposes of God.