He was with God in the Beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John1:1-5).
The “Word” is the eternal name for the young Child of Bethlehem. He is so called because He is the revealer of the Father, the exponent of Godhead. He is so now; He was so in the days of his flesh; He has been so from eternity. The names Christ, Immanuel, Jesus, are His earthly ones; His names in time connected with His incarnate condition; but the names “Word” and “Son” are expressive of His eternal standing. His eternal relationship to the Father. What He was in time on earth, that same He has been in heaven and from eternity. The glory which He had “before the world was” (John 17:5) and of which He “emptied himself” (Phil.2:7), was the glory of the eternal Word, the everlasting Son. As the eternal revealer of Godhead, the “brightness of Jehovah’s glory, and the express image of His person”, His name ever was THE WORD; as the declarer of the mind of God to man. His name is no less THE WORD, with this edition, “the Word made flesh”.