Lay Bible Institute

10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Sieck Hall 202
Registration: $20 ($15 boxed lunch)
Registration deadline: Jan. 24, 2025

Dr. Bruce Schuchard

“In the beginning [!] … The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:1–2 ESV). And God spoke. And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light (1:3). God spoke, so that He might, by His all-powerful word, summon into existence the world. He spoke. And the result of His speaking was good, “very good” (“And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day,” 1:31). By His word this world was made, made by Him who is speaking, whose word, is everything. Therefore, the Gospel of John names Him “the Word” (ὁ λόγος). In John, that Jesus is the incarnate Word of God is, it seems, of utmost importance. For, in its very first verse, the Gospel states that “In the beginning [!] was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 ESV). The book of Revelation concurs, when it too states that “the name by which (Jesus) is called is the Word of God” (Rev. 19:13 ESV).

And in 1 John, the same is said again. And again it is said in the letter’s very first verse. “That which was from the beginning [!],” declares John, “which we have seen with our (very own) eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands,” concerns him who they came to know as “the Word of Life” (1 John 1:1). So all of John’s works are in agreement. They all steadfastly affirm that “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” (Ps. 33:6 ESV). They see that with Jesus –– with who He is, with what He says and with what He otherwise does –– a foundationally precious, almighty and necessary Word came, comes and will come again, a Word that must be heard. For who Jesus is (“the Word”) is what Jesus does. Because He is the Word of God, He speaks God’s word. Not only is His word solely sufficient to create. His word is solely sufficient to inform. By His word this world was made. Therefore, by His word must and will this world will be remade. By His word, and by His word alone, will the one who hears Him see what it means to belong to Him, to Him and to what it is that He has done.