What is the Logos?

Logos is broadly defined as the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and
creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the
Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.” John 1:1
The concept of the Logos has had a crucial and far-reaching influence upon
philosophical and Christian thought. The term has a long history, and the
development of the idea it embodies is really the unfolding of man's conception of
God. To understand the relationship of the Deity to the world has been the goal of
all religious philosophy. While diverging views as to the Divine manifestation have
been conceived, the Greek word logos has been used with a certain degree of
agreement by a series of thinkers to express and define the nature and form of
God's revelation.
Logos means in classical Greek both "reason" and "word." The translation
"thought" is probably the best equivalent for the Greek term, since it indicates, on
the one hand, the faculty of reason, or the thought inwardly conceived in the mind;
and, on the other hand, the thought outwardly expressed through the vehicle of
language. The two ideas thought and speech, are indubitably blended in the term
logos; and in every employment of the word, in philosophy and Scripture, both
concepts of thought and its outward expression are closely connected.
Logos in the Bible
According to gotquestions.org, In the New Testament, the Gospel of John begins,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was at the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and
without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). Here it is clear that the “Word” or Logos is a
reference to Jesus Christ.
John argues that Jesus, the Word or Logos, is eternal and is God. Further, all
creation came about by and through Jesus, who is presented as the source of life.
Amazingly, this Logos came and lived among us: “And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the
Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
John’s Gospel begins by using the Greek idea of a “divine reason” or “the mind of
God” as a way to connect with the readers of his day, who mostly spoke Greek,
and introduce Jesus to them as God. Greek philosophy may have used the word in
reference to divine reason, but John used it to note many of the attributes of Jesus.
In John’s use of the Logos concept, we find that
-Jesus is eternal (“In the beginning was the Word”) Jesus was with God prior to
coming to earth (“the Word was with God”)
-Jesus is God (“the Word was God.”) Jesus is Creator (“All things were made
through him”)
-Jesus is the Giver of Life (“In him was life”) Jesus became human to live among
us (“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”)
The Meaning and Significance of Logos
In reference to the history and development of Logos, the Gospel of John mentions
two phases: creation and revelation. The Word reveals Himself through the
mediation of objects of sense and also manifests Himself directly. Therefore, in this
part of the prologue (John 1:3-5), a threefold distinction also occurs.
(i) He is the Creator of the visible universe. "All things were made through him"--a
phrase which describes the Logos as the origin of the entire creative activity of
God and excludes the idea favored by Plato and Philo that God was only the
architect who formed the cosmos from previously existing matter.
(ii) The Logos is also the source of the intellectual, moral and spiritual life of man.
"In him was life, and the life was the light of men." He is the light as well as the
life--the fountain of all the various forms of being and thought in and by whom all
created things live, and from whom all obtain understanding.
(iii) The climax of Divine revelation is expressed in the statement, The Word
became flesh," which implies, on the one hand, the reality of Christ's humanity,
and, on the other, the voluntariness of His incarnation, but excludes the notion that
in becoming a man the Logos ceased to be God. Though clothed in flesh, the
Logos continues to be the self-manifesting God, and retains, even in human form,
the character of the Eternal One. In physical creation, the power of God is
revealed. In the bestowal of light to mankind, His wisdom is chiefly manifested.
But in the third especially is His love unveiled. All the perfections of the Deity are
focused and made visible in Christ--the "glory as of the only begotten from the
Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
How Is Jesus the Logos (the Word)?
In Greek philosophy, the logos remains an impersonal force, a lifeless and abstract
philosophical concept that is a necessary postulate for the cause of order and
purpose in the universe. In Hebrew thought, the Logos is personal. He indeed has
the power of unity, coherence, and purpose, but the distinctive point is that the
biblical Logos is a He, not an it.
All attempts to translate the word Logos have suffered from some degree of
inadequacy. No English word is able to capture the fullness of John's Logoswhen
he declared that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Attempts have been
made by philosophers to translate Logos as logic, act, or deed—all of which are
inadequate definitions.
God's Logos does include action. The Logos is the eternal Word in action. But it is
no irrational action or sheer expression of feeling. It is the divine Actor, acting in
creation and redemption in a coherent way, who is announced in John's Gospel.
That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us is the startling conclusion of
John's prologue. The cosmic Christ enters our humanity. It is the supreme moment
of visitation of the eternal with the temporal, the infinite with the finite, the
unconditioned with the conditioned.