II. THE ESSENCE OF THE WORD OF GOD— BEING LIFE TO THE BELIEVERS
[Most Christians know that the Bible is the Word of God. But many do not know the very essence of the holy word in the Bible. Anything that is solid always has an element and an essence. We need to consider what the essence of the word of the Lord is. The holy word that has been spoken by God through the generations is the very embodiment of the Triune God. This is based on John 1:1 and 14. Verse 1 tells us definitely that the Word, the holy Word, is God. The word that has been spoken through the generations is God Himself essentially. The Word is God Himself, not in person but in essence. This simply means that God is altogether embodied in the Word. God is Spirit, and a spirit is mysterious and invisible. But the Word is something in black and white. It is visible and solid. Thus, the Word is the embodiment of the mysterious and invisible God. Although God is invisible and mysterious, the Word is not. The solid and visible Word embodies God. The Word defines, explains, and expresses God.]
[In Chapter one of the gospel of John, we are told that the Word was God Himself embodied to be Jesus. When Jesus speaks the word, whatever He speaks is spirit and life. The Lord Jesus said in John 6:63, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.’’ The Word today is the Spirit and the life.] [If we contact the Bible only with our mind, the Bible will be only the letter to us. But whenever we contact any part of the Bible with our spirit, that part of the Bible becomes spirit and life to us.]
III. THE FUNCTION OF THE WORD OF GOD—GIVING LIFE TO THE BELIEVERS
A. Causing Men to be Regenerated
[The first practical function of the Bible in us is to cause us to be regenerated (1 Pet. 1:23). The Bible is the Word of the living God, and it contains the life of the living God. When we receive the word of the Scriptures into us by faith, it comes into us like a seed of life, sowing God’s life into us; thus, we have God’s life and are regenerated.]
B. Being the Believers’ Spiritual Milk
[When we first get saved, we do not have a strong enough comprehension concerning spiritual things. Some portions of the Scriptures are like milk that can nourish us and make us grow in our spiritual life (1 Pet. 2:2). Hence, a newly regenerated believer must long for the word of the Bible, like newborn babes longing for the guileless milk of the word. Otherwise, his spiritual life cannot grow, and he will continue to be one who is an infant in Christ (1 Cor. 3:1-2).]
C. Being the Believers’ Bread of Life
[The word of the Scriptures is also our spiritual bread of life (Matt. 4:4). Just as our physical life needs nourishment, so also our spiritual life needs nourishment. The nourishment of our spiritual life can only be supplied by the word of the Bible. In order to be living and strong before God, we cannot depend on bread alone, but on every word, that is, the word of the Bible, that proceeds out through the mouth of God. We must take the word of God as food and eat it (Jer. 15:16), even regarding the word of the Bible as more important than our food (Job 23:12b). Otherwise, our spiritual life cannot grow. We must practice to have our faculties exercised in apprehending the word of the Bible so that we may be able to understand the words that are hard to interpret; that is, like those who are mature, we can eat the solid food (Heb. 5:13-14). Otherwise, our spiritual life cannot be strong.]
(Lesson Book, Level 4: Life—Knowing and Experiencing Life, Chapter 21, by Witness Lee)
