The Voice

“In the beginning was the Word^G3056, and the Word^G3056 was with God, and the Word^G3056 was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.

In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.…

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.

He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:1-5,9-14).

G3056 logos From G3004; something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (that is, Christ): - account, cause, communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame X have to do, intent, matter, mouth preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say (-ing), shew, X speaker, speech talk, thing, + none of these tings move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, Voice, work.

Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries

Just recently I have understood “the Word” as a concept, a thought, or a written/chiseled communication. But, now I see that the Word rather as the spoken Word, a Voice. How wonderful! Why? Because a voice contains more information about the speaker than a concept or thought, and a written or chiseled word. The vocal Voice contains the intonation of the communication and the poetry of melody. The voice makes the word living. The voice brings to the word power to obey!

So, John 1:1-4, 14 should read like thus:

“In the beginning was the Voice, and the Voice was with God, and the Voice was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.… And the Voice was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-4,14).

Wonderful! Jesus’ voice spoken since the beginning! The voice of God’s blessed Son! The voice that so many faithful souls had heard throughout the Old Testament times was the voice of Jesus, calling them to repentance. “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:12,13).

The voice gives life to the word. Jesus, the Voice, is the One all of His sheep have heard and followed.

“But He that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To Him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear His voice: and He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” (John 10:2-5).

 “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.” (Prov. 6:20-22).

“And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” (Isa. 30:20,21).

“I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the LORD always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (Ps. 16:7,8).

For the redeemed, the Lord’s presence has always been their great delight. His counsel in their thoughts comes coupled with peace. Their heart and nerves rest in His Spirit, His very presence. Not concepts empty of love, but lessons from His very mouth, His voice. Like the memory upon which Matthew loved to reminisce, “And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him: and He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying,….” (Matt. 5:1-3).

The Voice has been His voice, “with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1Pet. 1:12). To those, all through the ages, who had surrendered to His call and guidance, the living word of God came. It was the Voice, filled with instruction in righteousness, comfort, and leadership; the Voice had been their mainstay. Not stale, not leaden, not boring, not just dull letters and words, that give no evidence that God accepts the reader, but the Voice came with pathos and personality, gentleness and lovingkindness, winning their hearts to the righteousness of His Father’s Law. The Voice, quickening the truth, gave faith something to respond to, the mind something to alertly grapple with, and the body to act on with all its strength. This is what David daily experienced.

“My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16:9-11).

In the days of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph and Judah their relationship with the Lord kept them open to the Voice. But later, their descendants involved themselves in heathen worship, and their spiritual senses grew so blunted that the people of God could no longer hear the voice of Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus kept working with them so they could regain their spiritual ears, and hear the fatherly love for them in His oral Law from heaven. Eventually, the wine of Babylonian idolatry caused them spiritual deafness. But before He left them, the Voice moved the prophets to write down everything He was trying to teach the deafened nation.

His instruction for them was still available, but only for those who sought out His written words. Yet, as much a blessing those precious writings were, they lacked the special keys to fully understand the messages from heaven. The written words lacked the fullness of intonation of His gentleness, of faithfulness, of caring selflessness. A veil was upon their ears, and thus upon their minds. Heaven ceased to speak to them directly. But, to those who would search for Him with all their heart, they would find Him in His voice again. They would suck the honey of His sound from the lifeless, chiseled stone.

“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.” (2Cor. 3:6-10).

The glory was not seen by the eye. Half of the work of sight happens in the brain, in the mind. Half of what we see comes through only the brain. It’s the brain that takes the normally upside down images from the eye and turns them right side up for the true reality. But, glory uses none of the eye. It is all spiritual. It is the Spirit of God moving upon the mind, the conscience, the human spirit, which allows us to recognize glory. And that recognition comes through the faculty of faith. Our spirit comes from our faith reacting on a promise that we know comes from God. therefore. Therefore, because physiological, mechanical sight is not part of receiving glory, then glory that “lighteth every man that cometh into the world” can come in more forms than those that mimic “sight” in order to brighten the mind/the spirit/faith. Glory can also come through the form that mimics sound—His Voice.

The old covenant glory came from both sight and sound. But they were not open to the glory.

“But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.” (2Cor. 3:14,15).

What they needed to revive from their spiritual dearth was to hear the Voice again. They needed to hear the Voice of Christ, His Spirit, His oral doctrine, the Spirit of truth.

“Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2Cor. 3:16,17).

From His presence would come life and liberty.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live…. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:24,25,28,29).

“Neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor. 2:9-16).

Do we love the words of Jesus? Do we love His voice in our spirit that comes from the whole Bible? Does our faculty of faith hear His voice in every line? The voice makes all the difference in the Law.

“More about Jesus; in His Word,

Holding communion with my Lord;

Hearing His voice in every line,

Making each faithful saying mine.”

Eliza E. Hewitt, More about Jesus

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17).

The Spirit of the new covenant didn’t take away the letter or destroy the Law of the old covenant; it didn’t destroy the letter of the Law. Jesus didn’t destroy the Old Testament scriptures. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Mat 5:17,18).

Neither did the apostles destroy the Hebrew scriptures. “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2-4). Even the thirteenth apostle didn’t destroy the word of God in his day, the Jewish scrolls. “All [Old Testament] scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2Tim. 3:16,17).

“In [the scriptures] ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39,40). Israel had been missing something. In the scrolls they thought they had all that Jehovah gave them to know His will. But, in their scrolls they had been holding only half of what Jesus had been wanting to give them. He had wanted to give them Himself, through His verbal instructions, with which Moses had been privileged. “When Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with Him, then he heard the voice of One speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto Him.” (Num. 7:89). And Abraham, “And the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: And he said, Here am I.” (Gen. 22:11). 

But, like Cain refusing the drawing of Jesus through the sacrificed lambs, many Jews chose to keep at arm’s length the Person speaking from their Bible.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God.” (Rev. 19:11-13).

“Who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 3:2-5).

The Voice, Him who is Faithful and True, was full of not only grace, but also truth; and truth can cause discomfort. Therefore, many will not submit to the truth. But, for the desperate, longing, humbled, surrendered soul truth is perfectly fair. To them God can have His say concerning their character. And therefore, with the new heart by which He rewards them for their surrender, the Bible isn’t only for a one-way conversation from the Son of God to us. For them, Bible study is for two-way conversation, “of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Rom. 2:29), “the voice of One speaking unto him [the meekest man in the earth] from off the mercy seat… and he spake unto Him”.

The Spirit (the voice of Jesus in the soul) and the letter of the Law are not antithetical. They agree perfectly, working together to the same end—the salvation of our soul. “But now we are delivered from the Law[, without the Spirit], that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter [alone]. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the Law: for I had not known lust, except the Law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” (Rom. 7:6,7).

“For I through the Law am dead to the Law[, which was without the Spirit of Jesus], that I might live unto God [through the Spirit of Jesus].” (Gal. 2:19).

The new addition of Christ’s Spirit has restored voice to the letter; it added the wonderful voice of Jesus back into lifeless letters and words and abstract concepts, all of which aligned exactly with atheistic heathen religion, and led to dead works. But, the dead letters of the Law came to life through the personal presence of Jesus. By the resurrected Spirit of Christ, “sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6) scripture became the living word of grace and truth again, and brought life to a dying humanity.

But, watch out! The new, living voice of Christ is powerful. “Beware of Him, and obey His voice, provoke Him not; for He will not pardon your [presumptuous] transgressions.” (Ex. 23:21). His voice will make you or break you. He will make us humbled and poor in spirit, so that the soul falls before the Voice and is needfully broken for his salvation. Or, the soul will resent the conviction of His truth, as the scribes and Pharisees did, and stumble into rebellion so that the Voice will fall on the hardened soul and “grind him to powder” (Matt. 21:44). They were as Stephen declared, “stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,” “always resist[ing] the Holy Ghost....” And when they heart these things, “they were cut to the heart.... Then they cried with a loud voice and stopped their ears, and an upon him with one accord....” (Acts 7: 51,54,57). 

“For the word of God is quick [like a dentist needle, ‘lively’], and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:12-16).

Will we, or will we not, surrender to the Law as Paul did and eventually be led to surrender to the Spirit of the Son? “The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death…. Wherefore the Law [and the entire word of God] is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Rom. 7:10,12).

“For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?” (Heb. 12:6,7). “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.” (Ps. 103:13).

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” (1Pet. 1:23).