The Wisdom and Power of God (continued)
We are looking at the Christmas story according to John. None of the historical details which we find in Matthew or Luke are found in John’s account. Instead, John steps out of time and into eternity. He introduces God’s Son to us in the familiar words of the creation account found in Genesis - “In the beginning,” says John, “was the Word (Logos) and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
And throughout the opening chapter of his gospel, John explains the advent of God’s Son in a way that both Jews and Greeks can understand using this very familiar term, Logos or Word.
Yesterday, we looked at the Logos from the perspective of Jews. Jews regarded the Logos of God as an expression of His power. God’s Word creates, heals, is like a hammer, never returns to Him empty. And John tells us that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That is, God’s power present among us - living in the neighborhood if you will - in the person of Jesus Messiah.
Today, I want us to see the Logos which John describes from the perspective of Greeks.
The Greek word, Logos, gives us our word, logic. That’s what Greeks heard when they heard John describing the Logos of God - logic, order, reason, as opposed to disorder and chaos.
Logic was the foundation of Greek wisdom. Greeks believed that it was the Logos of God that created and sustained the universe. Think about mathematics. It is orderly, precise, perfectly logical. I heard a sermon years ago on the mathematical precision woven throughout our universe. It was a testimony to the perfection and order of the Divine.
It’s an interesting aside, but this understanding of the Logos of God began through a Greek philosopher by the name of Heraclitus. Heraclitus lived in Ephesus, which is where John was when he wrote his gospel.
I read a book several years ago by Francis S. Collins, entitled “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.” Collins’s book argues for the compatibility between Christianity and science - friends, not foes.
We find an example of this compatibility in Albert Einstein’s thoughts regarding quantum mechanics.
Einstein didn’t believe in God. Yet, this brilliant scientist was really bothered by quantum mechanics. If you take the implications of the theory of quantum mechanics too far, said Einstein, you get what he called “quirks.” He was referring to information shared between sub-atomic particles traveling in completely opposite directions billions of miles apart. Somehow, these sub-atomic particles instantaneously shared information (data) with each other.
In other words, they communicated! The Logos or Word!
The reason Albert Einstein called this data sharing “quirks” (actually, he called them “crazy quirks”) was because information, according to Einstein, can’t travel faster than the speed of light. Today, scientists are rethinking this. Maybe there is something faster than the speed of light. This is called Entanglement Theory if you’re interested.
Back to what I was saying. Albert Einstein, in many ways, represents the Greek understanding of the Logos. You can’t do science, said Einstein, without a belief in the order, logic, precision, and harmony of the universe.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psalm 19:1)
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made. (Romans 1:20)
When the early Christian writers began to witness to the Greeks, they did exactly what Paul did in Athens; they quoted Greek philosophers. “For in him we live and move and have our being” was a direct quotation from the Greeks, and in it, we clearly see this idea of Logos. (See Acts 17:28)
The early Christian writers argued for the reality of Jesus as God’s Son, saying that Christ could be seen in the writings of the Greek philosophers. Through their reason, these Christian writers said, the Greek philosophers had caught a glimpse of God.
Here’s an example from the Church Father Tertullian -
God made this universe by his Word, reason, and power. Your philosophers also agree that the maker of the universe seems to be the Logos, that is Word and reason. This Word, we have learned, was produced by God and therefore is called the Son of God.
Notice that Tertullian incorporates both the Jewish understanding of Logos as power and Greek understanding of Logos as reason.
And as we noted in yesterday’s post, the climax of John’s opening chapter is found in the words of John 1:14 - “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
It is in this Word that we find life, John tells us. (1:4) That life is the light for mankind. It shines in the darkness of a world both ignorant of, and opposed to, God. But for all who come to the light, God receives them as His own children, children of God.
This is where we will pick up and conclude tomorrow. In the meantime, I encourage you to reread John, chapter one. And for those of you who want a preview of what’s to come, check out the words of Paul in I Corinthians 1:18-25.
In Christ,
Dan
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