The Word of God Incarnate

The two traditional Christmas stories are recorded in Matthew and Luke. Matthew gives us Joseph’s perspective; Luke gives us Mary’s. But there is another record of the beginning of Jesus and his incarnation - and it goes back even farther, to the beginning of creation. I am speaking, of course, about the Gospel of John. Here we find a description of the One who became flesh, and his incarnation, and his purpose for coming.

The Identity of the Word

John first introduces Jesus, not with his name, but with the title “Word” (Logos in Greek). We don’t normally call people “word,” so what does that mean? The Word of the Lord has creative power - God Said, Let There be Light. The Word of the Lord is authoritative. Many times in the Old Testament prophets would say that “The Word of the Lord Came to Me,” and the message thus delivered had to be obeyed or suffer the consequences.

Who is “the Word?”

But John is unique in describing a person as the Word - meaning that this one is always present when God speaks

Hebrews 1:1–2 NKJV

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

So this “Word” that John talks about is the one who reveals God, who when God speaks, he is the one talking.

The Word is Eternal

But the surprising thing is that this Word is “in the beginning,” that means that this Word is Eternal. To be eternal here means to have no beginning. “In the Beginning” is the farthest back in time we can go - before the beginning it is not meaningful to speak about time because before creation nothing ever changed. So for someone to be “in the beginning” means that at the first moment in time, the first moment we can distinguish between one second and another at all, the Word already existed. Thus, the Word is not created, because there was never a time when he did not exist.

The Word was With God

The second claim that John makes about the Word is that the Word was “With God.” meaning that there is a distinction between God and the Word. Now at the beginning there are two persons - God is of course there, but there is another person as well - the Word. This is the foundational idea of the Trinity - that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, yet both are God. Of course, once you have accepted the reality of a distinction between the Father and the Son, it is not hard to recognize that the Scriptures add the Holy Spirit to the list of different persons in the Godhead.

This idea - that the Word and God are different - is what separates Christianity from Judaism. We agree with Jews that God is one, but we also affirm that there are three persons that share one essence.

The Word was God

The third claim that John makes about the Word is that the Word Was God. Now the order in Greek is actually reversed. It is “God was the Word.” It is translated “The Word Was God,” just because English order requires it that way, but John is intentionally emphasizing God, and that the Word is the One True God.

the Jehovah’s Witnesses translate this verse “the Word was a god,” because they argue that the Greek word for God does not have the article. But this is a clearly biased translation. God is a proper noun, and so does not need the article to be specific to the One True God.

Anyway, their translation ends up proving what even they don’t want it to say - John could not have been affirming polytheism - that there are many deities that existed from the beginning, and the God of the Jews is just one of them. Not only is that completely counter to John’s own adherence to monotheism, even the JW’s don’t want to go that far.

No, what John is actually saying is that the Word was God. So while there is a difference between God and the Word, they are also the same. Huh? That is why we usually name one person of the godhead ‘the Father’ and another ‘the Son’ and the third one ‘the Spirit.’ Often, though not always, when the Bible talks about “God,” it is referring to the Father. When John makes a distinction between God and the Word, by “God” he means God the Father. That is, both the Word and the Father share the same essence. Thus, there is only one God.

And so that we don’t miss that the Word and the father are different persons, he says again that the Word was in the beginning With God.

The Word Created All

Now only God is Eternal, so anyone who already existed “in the beginning,” is by definition God. But more than that, the Word is also Creator. And it is as Creator that we identify God. All things were made by the Word. In fact “without him was not anything made that was made.” Meaning that if it had a beginning, it was made by the Word.” The Word himself therefore could not be made, since no one can create themselves. But everything that has a beginning must have been made by someone. And the Word made it all. So when God said “Let there be Light” the Word did that. When God said, “let the earth bring forth plants,” The Word did that. When God said, “let the water bring forth sea creatures and the air bring forth birds,” the Word did that. When God made the stars, the Word did that.

The Word has life

Now to have life in yourself is different than being alive. I am alive, but I don’t control the source of life. Life was given to me, so I can’t distribute it as I wish. But the Word Has life. That is he is the source of life itself, so he can distribute life to whoever he wants to.

The Light of Men

“Light” is a metaphor that has been used in many different ways, so we need to carefully distinguish what John means by “Light.”

In v.9 John says that Jesus is the “true light.” Now physical light can’t really be true or false. Maybe “false light,” is a bit like a hallucination - you think you see something, but what you see is not really there. But “true light,” implies something about knowledge. Thus, I suggest that “Light” here means knowing something about reality, just like physical light shows you what the world looks like, the Light of Jesus shows you what God is like. And since God is by definition the ultimate reality, to know God is to know what is real.

But if Jesus reveals God, then “true light” means that what he tells us about God is true. There are many who falsely claim to tell you what God is like, but they are wrong. That’s false light.

So for the life to be the light of men means that source of life is also the source of revelation about God. And John says that the true light gives light to everyone. But wait, how does Jesus show everyone something true about God? Not everyone has even heard of Jesus, so how can everyone receive true knowledge about God? Because General Revelation

Romans 1:19–20 NKJV

because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

That is, everyone on earth has access to true knowledge about God. It’s not much knowledge, but it is something true about God - that is, that God is Divine and Powerful. And remember we said that whenever God speaks, it is the Word speaking? So what John is saying is that General revelation, the truth that can be known about God from nature, is the Word Speaking.

The Darkness does not overcome the light. So if light is true knowledge about God, then Darkness is humans suppressing knowledge about God.

Romans 1:18 NKJV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

So here, darkness isn’t just the absence of light, it is human’s active attempt to ignore what they can clearly see about God in nature. Yet despite all of humanities attempt to forget God, they can’t quite ever forget him. The Darkness cannot overcome the light, just as physical light always immediately overcomes the darkness.

John goes into more detail about the Darkness - the World did not know Jesus, even when he was in the world and despite the fact that the World was made by him. John clearly means the world of people. Rocks and Trees can’t know anything.

It’s worse - God came to his own people. His own is obviously the Jews. God came to them, and they did not accept him. This is culpable ignorance. They don’t know or accept him not because they are stupid, but because they don’t want to know.

And the ultimate expression of rejecting Jesus? The Cross. His own people so hated Jesus that they killed him.

The Word Made Flesh

John has used several metaphors for the incarnation - the True Light was coming into the world. The Light Shines in the Darkness. He was in the World. He Came to his Own. But at this point John drops the metaphor and just says that the Word became Flesh. God is a Spirit, so he does not have a body. Humans have bodies, so when it says that the Word became flesh, it does not mean that God put on some kind of flesh suit - the Flesh stands for a complete humanity, body, soul and spirit. But the most marvelous thing about God taking on full humanity, is that you could touch him.

More than that, he did not just visit, he dwelt among men. God has never dwelt among men because we cannot endure his purity.

Even when Solomon dedicated the Temple this was true. the whole point of a temple is that it represents where the deity lives, yet Solomon recognized that God’s real dwelling was in heaven.

1 Kings 8:30 NKJV

And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive.

We are too sinful to be able to tolerate the full vision of the Glory of God. God could only dwell in the midst of Israel with a lot of careful rules about how and when people could approach him in the Temple. And there had to be priests, because Israel was like all other people - sinful and therefore coming before God was too risky to allow everyone to do it.

Yet here is God himself living in the midst of sinful humanity - to be sure, his real glory was veiled most of the time. It could not be any other way. Humanity was not ready for the full revelation of the glory of God. Yet God always promised to dwell with his people. The Word dwelling with other humans wasn’t some new idea - it was the culmination of a very old idea. And it is still God’s ultimate purpose to dwell with humanity in a fuller way, now unveiled.

Revelation 21:3 NKJV

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

But while we still wait for the fullness of God’s purpose to dwell with men, yet with the coming of Jesus, John declares that he and his fellow disciples saw the glory of God. Is John thinking of the Transfiguration? When he and James and Peter saw Jesus as he would be when he returns? Yet there is another layer - only three disciples saw Jesus in his glory on that mountain, but everyone could see Jesus’ glory in a different way - he was full of grace and truth. That is, he revealed much about God, and he demonstrated grace to the repentant freely. This is the glory of God - not a visible glory, of course, but it is something that everyone could see.

This glory was not just a wonderful sight like a really impressive human, or like something beautiful you might see. This was a unique glory. Through the truth of his words and the grace he showed to sinful humanity Jesus demonstrated the unique beauty that belongs only to God.

Receiving Him or Not

Now this wonderful Word of God has come into the world. He has shown us the greatness of the unique glory of God. He has been the light of the world, showing us who God truly is. He is the source of all life, and therefore can dispense life to whoever and whenever he chooses. But the tragedy is that most people join his own people and do not receive him. There are some, however, who break the mold of what is normal. They do receive him, and those who do find the greatest blessing possible. To believe in someone’s name is to believe in the person, because the name is someone’s reputation; and since Jesus’ name is at least accurate to who he really is, to believe on his name is to believe on Him. To those who believe him he gives the right to become the children of God. God’s Children therefore enjoy all the blessings that being in God’s family bring. If God has the source of all life, then his children get to receive life. That is, they live forever.

But where does this power to become the child of God come from? It did not come from “blood” or the “will of the flesh,” meaning it does not come from natural reproduction. It does not come from the “will of man” meaning it doesn’t come just because you want it to be. It comes because God does a supernatural work in the person who believes. The Power of God descends on the new believer and forms a new relationship, so that they are now in a special familial relationship with God. And this special relationship guarantees God’s favor.

Conclusion

So in this Christmas Season, take some time to rejoice in the greatest gift of them all. On that first Christmas the Son of God took on flesh - he became someone that could be touched; someone that appeared normal and relatable. But the true light had come into the world. Those who receive Him may have eternal life from the source of all life; grace is freely available to sinful mankind. And while at present we only see the glory of God in grace and truth, someday we will also see him with our eyes. It is my prayer that you will join me that day in praising him.