Someone sending you a valuable gift would wrap it with love and special care, and then trust you to open it with equal love, care, and grateful anticipation. What's remarkable about the Bible is that its message is gift-wrapped in something that can only be described as light. Its message heals and regenerates. This message is nothing less than the Word of God itself—God's self-revelation. And its wrapping is not something to be tossed aside, but treasured.
One of the meanings of the Greek word logos is "Divine Expression." Strong's Greek Lexicon, www.eliyah.com/cgi-bin/strongs.cgi?file=greeklexicon&isindex=logos . It's translated in English in the opening verse of John's Gospel as "the Word": "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1. Another version continues, "What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out." John 1:4–5, The Message.
It's obvious to those who read and study the Bible that this is no ordinary collection of writings. A 20th century Bible translator, J.B. Phillips, said of it, "I found ... the material under my hands was strangely alive; ..." Ring of Truth: A Translator's Testimony, p. 18 . Dr. John Rainolds, the "father" of the King James Bible, who was the leading light of its original committee of 47 translators, drew this conclusion: "Divinity, the knowledge of God, is the water of life. ... God forbid that you should think that divinity consists of words, as a wood doth of trees. ... The knowledge of God must be learned of God." Gustavus S. Paine, The Learned Men, p. 183 . And in recent years, Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, advised Bible readers, "Let God take the reins—teaching you, knowing you, and changing you." The Message Remix, p. 11 . So opening ourselves up to the message of the Bible has consequences!
