"Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light."
Famous first words.
Can you imagine what it was like from God's perspective in that first moment of creation? Here is God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--standing in eternity and nothing else exists. There is no universe, no lights, no substance...nada, zip, zero, nil. Just God and all His infinite bigness.
Out of the silence of that moment God speaks 4 words that set off the most impressive fireworks display ever imagined. Instantaneously from the pitch black of nothingness light burst forth in a dazzling eruption of blinding brightness. Those 4 simple words carried the authority and creative power of God, bringing forth something where there was previously absolutely nothing. That is a power that as a parent I wish I had, the ability to speak and have my son obey instantaneously without thought or rebuttal. Alas, and thankfully, I am not God and don't have that awesome power.
But imagine with me for a second what it must have been like to watch all of creation unfold with just the words coming forth from God's mouth. The words he spoke created light, water, earth, suns, moons, planets, stars, elements, compounds, gases, solids, liquids, comets, black holes, gravity, flora, and fauna. All of those things, the billions and billions of variety in matter that exists in our universe, the majority of which we have yet to discover and likely never will. All brought forth by the word of God.
It's funny because after creation we don't think about the creative, life-giving power of the word of God, but it maintains that same efficacy and authority. Just because creation has ended doesn't mean that God's authoritative, creative voice has lost it's power.
Fast forward to the coming of Jesus. I have read the words in red countless times. I've preached and heard them preached repetitively, but never before have I had this realization. In hearing someone from our church give a personal testimony of God's work in their life in a recent service, they quoted scripture, promises in scripture that they stood upon and saw God's faithfulness in keeping those promises. Suddenly, in the midst of that testimony, something hit my spirit. The words of Christ carry the same authoritative, creative, life-giving, universe creating power.
"I don't speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know His commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say." John 12:49-50 (NLT)
Jesus (God the Son) only spoke in line with what God the Father told Him. He spoke with divine authority because He spoke in accordance with the will and direction of the Father. Just a few chapters earlier we read that Jesus admitted to His inability to do anything on His own, but that He only did what He saw the Father doing. His entire human life was consumed with doing and saying what the Father showed Him. He did nothing out of His humanity but worked and spoke out of divine authority and power. That brings new perspective to the red letters in scripture.
When Jesus spoke, He always spoke what the Father led Him to say, how He was led to say it, and when He was led to say it, all with the same creative divine authority and power. So, everything that Jesus spoke carries that same weight, which to me was a revolutionary thought. I have always believed in and stood upon the promises of God, but never thought of it in this same manner before. Each promise isn't just guaranteed because God promised it, but also it carries the creative power of God because His words bring life and bring something from nothing. Those red letters carry that same divine authority and can literally cause nothing from something when we believe and stand upon the Word of God.
Brings back to memory the lyrics of a DC Talk song:
Heed the words divinely spoken
May your restless heart be broken
Let the supernatural take hold
There is love in the red letters
There is truth in the red letters
There is hope for the hopeless
Peace and forgiveness
There is life in the red letters
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