(John 1:1-4, 14; 2 Peter 1:21)<\/em><\/p>\nDecember is the Month of the Nativity; but it is also for many the International Month of the Bible. So we celebrate in this same month the Word incarnate and the Word inscripturated.<\/p>\n
The words \u201cinscripturated\u201d and \u201cinscripturation\u201d are not in the dictionaries. They were coined after the words \u201cincarnate\u201d and \u201cincarnation\u201d (from ecclesiastical Latin incarnatus and incarnatio, two terms that refer to the coming in flesh of the Son of God). \u201cInscripturated\u201d and \u201cinscripturation\u201d are formed out of the Latin particle \u201cin\u201d (meaning \u201cinto\u201d) and \u201cScriptura\u201d (meaning \u201cScripture\u201d or \u201cthe Bible\u201d)<\/p>\n
The expression \u201cWord inscripturated\u201d is the counterpart of \u201cWord incarnate\u201d; for, as Jesus Christ is the Word of expressed in the life of a man, so is the Bible (or Scripture) the Word of God expressed in the pages of a book.<\/p>\n
That invites naturally to a parallel between these two Words: the \u201cWord incarnate\u201d and the \u201cWord inscripturated\u201d, Christ and Scripture. We will limit ourselves to three points of comparison:<\/p>\n
FIRSTLY, the same name is given to Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture; they both are called \u201cthe Word of God\u201d. This name is explicitly given to Jesus Christ in the Prologue of John\u2019s Gospel (1:1-4, 14), and the apostle Paul gives thanks to God in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 concerning the Christians in Thessalonica who received his preaching and teaching (which will become part of the New Testament books) not as \u201cthe word of men,\u201d but as the \u201cWord of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus himself established a close relationship between the \u201cWord incarnate\u201d and the \u201cWord inscripturated\u201d, when he says in John 12:48, \u201cHe who rejects me, and does not receive my words, has that which judges him\u2014the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.\u201d To reject the Word that is preached (the same that has become \u201cWord inscripturated\u201d today) is to reject the \u201cWord incarnate\u201d, and such a rejection will bring condemnation to those who will be found guilty of it.<\/p>\n
SECONDLY, the Holy Spirit is the Agent of both the conception of the \u201cWord incarnate\u201d and the inspiration of the \u201cWord inscripturated.\u201d When Mary asked the angel, \u201cHow will this be, since I am a virgin?\u201d, the angel answered, \u201cThe Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.\u201d (Luke 1:34-35)<\/p>\n
So Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, then a virgin. In the same way, the Holy Spirit has, as it were, \u201cconceived\u201d the Word of God in the mind of the authors of Scriptures. The apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16, \u201cAll Scripture is given by inspiration of God\u201d. The Greek word is \u03b8\u03ad\u03bf\u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u03c5\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2; it means literally \u201ccoming out of God\u2019s breath\u201d. (In Job 33:4, \u201cthe breath of the Almighty\u201d is another name for the \u201cHoly Spirit.\u201d) The apostle Peter gives a precision as to the fact that the Holy Spirit is the person in the Holy Trinity who is responsible for the inspiration of Scripture: \u201choly men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit.\u201d (2 Peter 1:21)<\/p>\n
So, in both cases, the Holy Spirit is the Agent of the incarnation and of the inscripturation of the Word of God.<\/p>\n
THIRDLY, the incarnation has resulted in the union of two natures in the same person, Jesus Christ. The inspiration has resulted in a similar union in the same book, the Bible. The union of the divine and the human has taken place in the conception of Jesus in Mary\u2019s womb as this is the case in the inspiration of the eternal Word of God in the mind of the authors of the bible. With respect to that union, Jesus Christ is at the same time God and man, and the Bible is at the same time the word of men and the Word of God.<\/p>\n
Jesus\u2019 humanity was a veil that concealed his divine glory to the eyes of men. The apostle Paul says, concerning the rulers of this world, that they did not know the wisdom of God, \u201cfor if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.\u201d (1 Cor. 2:8) By the same token, the obvious human character of the Bible has kept the unbelievers from acknowledging its divine inspiration. The unbelievers in Jesus\u2019 time used his humanity to deny his deity. They adopted this line of reasoning: \u201cIs this not the carpenter\u2019s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?\u201d (Mat. 13:55-56) People follow the same line of reasoning concerning the Bible: \u201cWe know the cousins of this book; they are called Koran, Veda, etc. Are not Moses and Isaiah, Paul and Peter its authors? Those are fallible and limited men as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union of the two natures made Jesus Christ a man like an ordinary man in every aspect (except for sin), but, at the same time, radically different from men, \u201cFor in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily\u201d (Col. 2:9) In the same way, the union of the divine and the human makes the Bible look like any other book (it is made like them with paper and ink), but it\u2019s so different from them, because in its page are expressed in human language the unfathomable thoughts of the Most High. The Bible\u2014we must concede\u2014is to be approached in the same way as an ordinary book: literary, grammatical analysis and else\u2026 But, beyond the letters, beyond the parchment, beyond the paper, beyond the ink, beyond the words that are part of the human vocabulary (and, by the way, they reflect the cultures from which they originated), the message of the Bible has an origin in none other than God.<\/p>\n
The union of the divine and the human is a stumbling block for the unbelievers. This is true for both Christ and the Scripture. Old Simeon (Luke 2:34) said concerning Jesus that he was \u201cthis child destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against. (The Greek word means \u201ccontradiction.\u201d) So many contradictions, indeed, about Jesus: \u201cSome say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.\u201d (Mat. 16: 14) \u201c…the people were divided because of Jesus.\u201d (John 7:43) So many contradictions also that some people claim they have found in the Bible!<\/p>\n
The person of Christ will always be a mystery for us, and rightly so! The incarnation of the Word of God is a mystery that we will never understand fully. Paul exclaimed: \u201cAnd without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory!\u201d (1 Tim. 3:16) Is there a greater mystery, indeed, than the Lord of glory becoming a man? All the heresies that have come down the pike concerning Jesus Christ (Arianism, Ebionis, Monophysism, etc.) are human efforts to grasp what is by its very nature a divine mystery.
\nIn the same way, the Bible will remain a book in which there are \u201csome things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.\u201d (2 Peter 3:16)<\/p>\n
But how should we deal with the contradictions we may find either in the person of Jesus Christ or in the Scripture? Take up the attitude of the author of Psalm 131 who says in verses 1 and 2: \u201cI do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.\u201d Or we could remind ourselves the word of Deut. 29:29: \u201cThe secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children, that we may follow them.\u201d<\/p>\n
We must do whatever is clearly revealed in the Scripture concerning Jesus Christ. Thankfully everything that is essential to our eternal salvation is crystal clear. The rest belongs to the Lord, and someday, we will know as we have been known. For the time being, let\u2019s walk in the light that we have been provided with, in the hope of the plain light of God\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n
Hubermann Larose
\nAssociate Pastor<\/p>\n
\nSi vous voulez lire ce texte en fran\u00e7ais cliquez ici<\/a>!<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\nFood For Your Soul
\nby Reverend Hubermann Larose<\/p>\n
Si vous voulez lire ce texte en fran\u00e7ais cliquez ici!<\/p>\n
The Word Incarnate and The Word Inscripturated
\n(John 1:1-4, 14; 2 Peter 1:21)
\nDecember is the Month of the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":23209,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27199","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27199"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27207,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27199\/revisions\/27207"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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