Jesus is The Word of God, but He Is Not the Only Word of God

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God. But He is not the only (lower case) word of God that the Bible speaks of.

Sometimes it is asserted that the Bible is not the “word of God,” but rather, that term is reserved for Jesus alone.

This comes up in conversation with some who are under the broad umbrella of progressive Christianity, those who not only deny the doctrine of inerrancy, but who will even dismiss considerable portions of the Bible because, in their minds, they contradict what Jesus taught. Jesus is the special and unique “word of God,” and rather than seeing if what He says in the Gospels can be harmonized with the rest of scripture, it is believed that Jesus simply takes precedence and anything that seems to disagree with Him does disagree and therefore can be rejected. The rest of scripture is not of the same divine origin as what Jesus says in the Gospels.

Of course, this idea of Jesus alone being “the word of God” is not the only basis for progressive interpretations of the Bible. There is much more to it. But this idea of Jesus uniquely being "the word of God" is sometimes appealed to as something of a first rung on a ladder, an early step for those of conservative theological traditions on a journey to rethink the Bible and its authority.

However, although the Bible does not explicitly refer to the whole Bible as “the word of God” the way that more conservative, traditional Christians tend to, the Bible does use that description for a lot of things traditionally believed to be part of scripture, and it definitely does not reserve the term for Jesus alone. This is not hard to demonstrate.

Summary:

For the short of it, Jesus Himself, as well as New Testament authors, use the term “word of God” to describe all sorts of things besides Jesus Himself. This includes commands of Moses, prophetic messages, the teachings of God, and even the gospel message.

Examples of The Word (Logos) of God

The idea that Jesus is called “the word of God” comes from two main passages. The first is John 1:1 (also 1:14), where Jesus is famously referred to as “the word” (logos in Greek). The second is Hebrews 1:2, where we are told “in these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son.”

But while Jesus can be called the Word, and is functionally described as such, nevertheless there are some other pretty noteworthy examples of “the word of God” elsewhere in scripture as well ("3056").

Matthew 15:6 (and Mark 7:13)

I would argue that the most significant example of this is Matthew 15:6, where Jesus declares two commands of Moses (each repeated), which the Pharisees were violating, to be “the word of God.”

And He [Jesus] answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition" (Matthew 15:3-6).

In context, the Pharisees were telling their followers to give away their disposable income to the temple and not use it to help their aging parents (Exell et. al). God did not command this practice. However, He did command that people honor their fathers and mothers, which this practice prevented. It is in that context that Jesus said that their tradition invalidated the word of God, which were the commandments given by God through Moses (Exodus 20:12, Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 20:9, Deuteronomy 5:16).

While this does not in and of itself necessarily prove that Jesus considered the entire Old Testament to be God-breathed, inerrant scripture, it is telling that Jesus Himself, who is often used as a weapon against the Old Testament by progressive Christians, cites two of its commands as “the word of God.” The fact that one of them is also a command to use the death penalty (at least at face value) is all the more problematic if one wants to argue that Jesus taught against the harsher teachings of the Old Testament.

Other Examples of the Logos of God

We also see Jesus talk about "the word of God" in other places in the Gospels. For example, it comes up in Luke 8:11, usually believed to specifically be the gospel message or perhaps God's teachings in general.

One noteworthy use is in John 10:35. Jesus, alluding to Psalm 82:6, reminds the Pharisees that the ones in view called and "gods" in that passage had themselves received the "word of God." Whatever one makes of that passage (as there is controversy over who is in view), the word of God was a message spread in ages past, not just in the incarnation of Jesus.

Outside of the Gospels, we see “the [logos] word of God” used to describe God’s teachings and the gospel message. This comes up frequently in Acts, where repeatedly the “word of God” is proclaimed (e.g. Acts 4:31, 6:2, 13:46). In some cases it is the gospel (e.g. Acts 8:14), in other cases it refers to additional teachings (e.g. Acts 18:11), and in many cases it could be either or both. Hebrews 13:7 uses it this way as well, regarding those who “spoke the word of God to you.”

Similarly, we see Paul use “the word of God” to refer to prophetic messages given to those with the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14:36. He also uses it to describe the gospel message received by the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, among numerous other uses in his letters.

A Note About the Greek Logos

Contrary to popular belief, the Greek word logos is not in and of itself some supernatural, holy title. I have heard the idea that John 1:1 calling Jesus “the word” might have had some relationship to Greek philosophy, but regardless, the word itself is used in all sorts of normal, every day contexts. 

For example, in Matthew 5:37, Jesus says “But let your statement [logos] be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.” Similarly, the “empty words” that Paul asserts he did not bring to the Ephesians were logos in Greek (Ephesians 5:6). It even is translated differently in some passages based on context. For example, in Matthew 5:32 we see it translated as “reason” in the context of divorce occurring for the reason of sexual immortality.

As is often the case in the Bible, it is not a specific word that makes something special, but rather, the divine nature of the object or idea. What makes something that is called “the word of God” special is not the meaning of the word “word” but the fact that it is “of God.”

The Word (Rhéma) of God

Now, for good measure, there is also another word that is translated as “word” that comes into play here. The word is the Greek rhéma. There can be some nuanced differences, but in practice it largely has the same general meaning as logos. It can refer to the “words of God” in John 8:47. It can refer to a prophetic message, like when “the word of God” came to John the Baptist in Luke 3:2. It can also refer to ungodly words, like the “blasphemous words” supposedly spoken against Moses by Stephen in Acts 6:11 ("4487.")

Matthew 4:4/Deuteronomy 8:3

One noteworthy instance where Jesus Himself speaks of the words (rhéma) of God is in Matthew 4:4, when He cites Deuteronomy 8:3 as a counter to the devil:

But He [Jesus] answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’"

What makes Jesus’s use of Deuteronomy 8:3 here significant is the fact that, as before with Matthew 15:6, Jesus is citing Old Testament scripture as authority. Jesus did not merely quote the passage but began by stating "it is written," alluding to the fact that what He was saying was from the scriptures.

Jesus, at the very least, considered Deuteronomy 8:3 to be of God and not to be rejected. Otherwise, why would He have used it as a counter to the devil telling Him to turn rocks into bread? If Jesus thought that this declaration of Moses was just the product of ancient goat herders trying to figure out what God was like (and therefore falsely attributing words Him), what use would it have been? And why appeal to it having been written if it was written solely by men and not, as traditionally believed, by the movement of the Holy Spirit?

The fact that Jesus would cite this passage approvingly also gives us reason to believe that He understood that He was not the only “word of God.” After all, Jesus would not come until many centuries after Moses and after the Law was written into the books of the Pentateuch. Anyone who would have originally received Deuteronomy 8:3 would have died before Jesus came, as would their descendants for many generations after. They would not have had words from the mouth of God to live on, if that passage was referring only to the incarnate Jesus Christ.

Now, it is true that Deuteronomy 8:3 itself does not specify “word of God” per se. Rather, it reads “everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” However, if it wasn’t already implied that the things that preceded out of God’s mouth were His words (as opposed to divine spirit saliva or something), Jesus’s slight re-wording of the passage here clarifies what was meant.

So with that said, the Israelites must have had words from God to live on. While this need not have been limited to the scriptures – I'm sure that God spoke to prophets beyond just what was ultimately recorded in the Old Testament – the commands and other prophetic messages attributed to God in the Old Testament at least make sense as being part of “everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD” that men live by.

Is this an ironclad case that Jesus was definitely saying that the whole Old Testament is God’s word? No. But is it one more reason to consider that Jesus affirmed the Old Testament (like we do when we call it “the word of God”)? Absolutely.

Conclusion

None of this is to detract from how special Jesus is. Jesus is in His very nature God. And the God who speaks the word is greater than the word itself, just as the one who builds a house is greater than the house (cf. Hebrews 3:3), and just as one who creates is greater than the creation.

There are many ways that God has spoken and does speak to us. But by sending Jesus and, as a result, the Holy Spirit, God has revealed things to us as believers in the gospel that angels had longed to look upon (1 Peter 1:12).

The best way I could put it is this: any number of things – including the Bible – can be called the word of God. But all of these things bow down at the feet of the Word of God, Jesus Christ.

Works Cited

“3056. λόγος (logos).” Bible Hub. N.p., n.d. 8 Jul 2020 <https://biblehub.com/greek/strongs_4487.htm>

“4487. ῥῆμα (rhéma).” Bible Hub. N.p., n.d. 8 Jul 2020 <https://biblehub.com/greek/strongs_3056.htm>

Exell, Joseph S, Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice. "Commentary on Matthew 15:5,” The Pulpit Commentary. n.p., 1897., studylight.org, Web 8 Jul 2020. <https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tpc/matthew-15.html>

Additional Notes

- Unless otherwise noted, all scripture is quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

- Biblehub.com is especially useful for broad, relatively non-technical word studies like were done in the writing of this article.