Logos & Rhema: John 1:1-2: In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
Logos (Word) is not just a name identifying the pre-incarnate Jesus. Logos identifies Jesus in His essence and function. He is the Wisdom, the Word, the Way, the Truth, and the Life that continually emanates from the Father. He is always in ontological union with the Father, in substance equal, and eternally co-existing with the Father. This is why He is the exact expression of the Father.
The sacred scriptures were God-breathed or inspired, which is why they are often referred to as the logos (word) of God (2 Timothy 3:16). Jesus is the logos or the visible Yahweh that emanates out of the bosom of the Father or invisible Yahweh.
When the prophets spoke words recorded as the canonical sacred text, it was the Spirit of Jesus speaking through them as the Logos or Word of God.
1 Peter 1:10-11 says, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.”
The Rhema is often used as the “spoken” word, or the word made personal and experiential to us through the Holy Spirit. Romans 10:17, “Now faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word (Rhema) of God.
The Rhema can also be interpreted as a specific word from God to a church or individual.
Scripture:
When referring to the written word, Jesus and the apostles used the term “Scripture,” not Bible (which means “book of books”) (See Luke 24-32, Luke 45, John 5:39, Acts 17:11, 1 Corinthians 15:3, 2 Peter 3:16).
The writers of the gospels and epistles never separated the Old and New Testaments. They looked at all of the writings as the Scriptures.
They knew that the new covenant was founded upon better promises as the unveiled fulfillment of the first testament, but they never separated the Scriptures into two parts.
In fact, when Paul said God inspired all scripture and stated that Christ died and rose from the dead according to the Scriptures, he was referring to what we would call the Old Testament (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; 2 Timothy 3:16).
Having a Christilogical hermeneutic
I once heard Father John Behr refer to the Luke 24 story of the “Road To Emmaus” as a depiction of what should happen every time we assemble in church. We understand who Jesus is through the Sacred Scriptures and the breaking of the bread.
Behr continues, “Even after His resurrection, the disciples still did not recognize Him until they experienced these two things.”
Consequently, the hermeneutic regarding how to understand and frame the Scriptures starts with the passion of Christ according to Luke 24:44-47:
“Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
This is why we see Moses and Elijah (who represented the law and the prophets) speaking about Christ’s passion in the mountain of transfiguration.
After the disciples fell on their faces when the glory cloud came down (which was reminiscent of God speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai), only Jesus was left. Moses and Elijah disappeared. Why? Their disappearance implied that all their writings and ministry pointed to and was fulfilled in Jesus.
Moses and Elijah were talking about Jesus’ exodus. They connected the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt to Jesus delivering the church out of the bondage of the world
Thus, hermeneutically, the life of Jesus framed the scriptures of the old testament. The preaching of the gospel, then expanded into the epistles of Paul, Peter and others.
The gospels largely came after the epistles. (The gospels recounted the ways the good news was preached by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.)
The first generation of Christian preachers in the apostolic age largely did not have the letters and writings of the New Testament.
It is obvious then that the apostles were able to come up with a full Christology and understanding of the role of Messiah through the Holy Spirit revelation of the Passion of the Messiah in the Old Testament narratives. This was even before the New Testament was written.
The only exception to this was when Paul, the apostle, received revelation and insight concerning what he identified as the mystery of the Old Testament regarding the church and its role.
Ephesians 3:1-10 “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel…to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places…”
The apostles understood by revelation the whole story of the Old Testament scriptures as pointing to Christ, not just the specific prophecies related to Jesus the Messiah. This is why Matthew 2:15 quoted Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt I called my Son,” which originally referred to Israel. Hereby, Matthew revealed that the ultimate journey of Israel was fulfilled in Messiah. Even though it wasn’t a specific Messianic prophecy, such as Isaiah 53, the New Testament apostles interpreted the whole story of Israel as being fulfilled in Messiah (except for their future restoration as a nation, according to Romans 11:26).
There was a recapitulation of Israel which constantly embodied the life of Jesus. The following examples attest to this:
In the same way that Israel was tested for 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus was tested by Satan for 40 days in the wilderness. Israel went through the Red Sea to escape Egypt’s bondage; in like manner, Jesus washed us in His blood so that we would be delivered from the bondage of sin. God instructed His people, through Moses, to put the blood of an unblemished lamb on the doorposts and lintel of each house to escape death; likewise, the blood of Jesus, the slain spotless Lamb of God, delivers as many as believe from the bondage and wages of sin. Also note, those
who looked to the image of a fiery serpent lifted by Moses were healed (Numbers 21:8), a type of those looking to the risen Son of God to receive eternal life.
Furthermore, God gave manna to feed Israel in the wilderness; much later, Jesus proclaimed that He was the true bread from heaven by saying, “I am the bread of life.” Also, Jesus stated that the only sign to be given to His generation was Jonah’s sign, which depicts His death, burial, and resurrection. We could even make a case about the story of Joseph (thrown into a pit, sold, imprisoned, then later elevated to be second in command to Pharaoh) as a type of Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation to the right hand of the Father. In addition, when we look at how Abraham offered up his only son of promise (Issac), we see a type of Jesus being sent by the Father as His only begotten Son of promise. We could go on and on to show how the artifacts and furniture of the tabernacle, the feasts, and the various Levitical sacrifices all point to and were fulfilled in Jesus.
The early church fathers applied all scripture as ultimately fulfilled in Christ. For example, Saint Irenaeus, of the second century, had a 50-page treatise called “the demonstration of the apostolic preaching,” in which he rarely once quote the New Testament. He used the Old Testament to demonstrate apostolic preaching and rarely quoted the New Testament. Some scholars believe that the gospels only recap the Old Testament scriptures. Along with this, the three synoptic gospels focus on the story of Christ before He was revealed as Messiah (as noted by patristic scholar, Orthodox theologian, Father John Behr). The gospel of John frames the narrative, from the start, that Jesus is the divine Son of God and Lord, who is in control of all things. The book of Revelation unveils the ascended Christ in all His radiant glory; whereas the gospel of John manifests His glory through His incarnation while He tabernacled among us (John is part 1; Revelation is part 2).
The Bible
When the Scriptures were printed in the 16th century, they became a profound blessing; however, some severe challenges resulted. The Bible eventually became a handbook where people picked and chose passages to back up whatever they believed and desired. Instead of viewing the Scriptures holistically, through the lens of Christ, people extracted world-view topics concerning politics, economics, biblical prosperity, and promises.
Over the years, the Bible has been reduced even more to systematic theological topics. From this perspective, the Scriptures’ overall intent and complete story have been overlooked. Consequently, it has produced pastors and believers who know only certain “parts of the Bible.” The full redemption story, the knowledge of God, and the Bible’s entire essence is not mused upon; instead, the Bible is used as a manual to affirm or prove preconceived ideas.
This is why in the current evangelical world, the Bible has often been reduced to writings that validate various ideologies and political affiliations; this is used to determine whether a person is
truly a believer. Rarely is orthodoxy judged by testing a person’s view regarding matters such as the divinity of Christ, the trinity, hell, heaven, or salvation. Many contemporary pastors are even ignorant of the historic theological views of these subjects.
In recent times, true Christianity has been judged based on whether a person voted for a Republican or Democrat. Considering these actions, the Church must be careful not to change the definition of heresy to mean a particular political affiliation. Sadly, we see many pastors who seem to be more aware of the stance of political candidates and parties than they are of the historical creeds and theological perspectives of the Church. If this doesn’t change, the Bible will continue to function merely as a handbook rather than the sacred God-breathed text in which God reveals His ways and actions to conform His bride (the Church) to the image of Christ.
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