1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

2. People who think like this, though, are not taking into account the fact that Jehovah himself, who is the God of heaven and earth, spoke the Word through Moses and the prophets, so the Word can be nothing but divine truth itself, because what Jehovah himself says is exactly that. They are also not taking into account the fact that the Lord (who is the same as Jehovah) spoke the Word with the authors of the Gospels - much of it with his own mouth and the rest by means of the spirit of his mouth, which is the Holy Spirit. That is why he said that there was life in his words [John 6:63], that he was the light that enlightens [John 1:9], and that he was the truth [John 14:6].

[2] It is shown in Teachings on the Lord 52-53 that Jehovah himself spoke the Word by means of the prophets.

See the Gospel of John for the fact that the words the Lord spoke with the authors of the Gospels are life:

The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63)

Again,

Jesus said to the woman at Jacob’s well, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me something to drink, ’ you would ask of him and he would give you living water. Those who drink of the water that I will give will not thirst to eternity; the water that I will give them will become a fountain of water within them, springing up into eternal life.” (John 4:7, 10, 13-14)

Jacob’s well means the Word here, as it does also in Deuteronomy 33:28, so that is why the Lord sat there and spoke with the woman; and its water means the truth of the Word.

[3] Again,

Jesus said, “If any are thirsty, they must come to me and drink. As the Scripture says, from the bellies of those who believe in me will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38)

Again,

Peter said to Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

So in Mark the Lord says,

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. (Mark 13:31)

The reason the Lord’s words are life is that he himself is life and truth, as he tells us in John:

I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)

And

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. (John 1:1-3)

In this passage “the Word” means the Lord as divine truth, in which alone there is life and light.

[4] That is why the Word, which comes from the Lord and which is the Lord, is called “a fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13; 31:9); “a fountain of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3); “a fountain” (Zechariah 13:1); and “a river of water of life” (Revelation 22:1). It is also why it says that “the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters” (Revelation 7:17).

There are passages as well where the Word is called a sanctuary and a tabernacle where the Lord dwells with us.