The Eternal Word Tabernacled among Us
Notes
Transcript
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The Word was made flesh. These are some of the most memorable words in the whole Bible. They’re remarkable all by themselves. To think that God the Son, the second person of Trinity, took up our nature is too amazing to comprehend. But our text says even more. The Word also dwelt among us. That is, he willingly and freely associated with men — not just human beings who, as creatures, are nothing but dust and ashes, as both Abraham and Job confessed (Gen. 18:27; Job 30:19), but sinful and fallen creatures, who deserve nothing but wrath and judgment. The Word also let us see his glory, a glory that he’s had from all eternity. And finally, the Word comes to us as one full of grace and truth to give us all that we need to enjoy sweet fellowship with the triune God.
The fact of the Word became incarnate, dwelt among us, and revealed his glory, grace and truth to us is beyond imagination. It’s no wonder that Paul called it the mystery of godliness (1 Tim. 3:16). John even made it the test of orthodoxy when he wrote,
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
But what’s the point of it all? Did the Word become flesh merely to teach us how to live, so that we can find our own way to the Father? Was his life of humility just an example for us to follow? Or was there something more?
True God and True Man
True God and True Man
John’s gospel answers all of these questions for us. The apostle began his gospel by takiing us all the way back to the beginning of the world. He wrote,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This means that the gospel isn’t a product of Jewish imagination or pagan mythology. It’s not something that any one man or even a group of men dreamed up. Rather, it originated in the eternal counsel of God’s mind. Before God made the world, he planned the birth of his Son. He ordained that Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, would die for the sins of his people (Rev. 13:8; 1 Pet. 1:19–20). He who is himself very God of very God chose to become the life and light of his people.
John 1:1 clearly identifies Jesus — the Word — as God. Hewas in the beginning. He didn’t come into being in the beginning, but simply was. He’s eternal. Hebrews 13:8 puts it this way:
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
The Word was also with God. He was equal to the Father and Spirit in every way. And we’re confident of this because the Word also was God. His deity is not a conclusion that we come to through a long and arduous reasoning process. It’s what the Bible, God’s written Word, plainly says. The Bible also gives us all kinds of evidence to support this claim. For example, Jesus has divine names and titles (like Savior and Lord). He has divine attributes (like omniscience). He does things that only God can do: he saves us and forgives our sins. He also receives worship and honor, which should be given to God alone. Therefore, we can say with absolute confidence that Jesus Christ is true and eternal God.
But today’s text confronts us with another equally important truth, viz., that our Lord Jesus Christ also assumed something that he was not previously. But what was it that he assumed? Our text says, The Word was made flesh. Here the word flesh doesn’t mean just skin, muscles, blood and bones. It’s more basic than that. Flesh is human nature — a body with skin and blood and bones, along with a rational human soul. We see this, for example, in Romans 3:20, where flesh simply means men. Paul wrote,
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The same idea occurs in the verse immediately preceding our text. John wrote that Christians
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Regeneration is not something that arises naturally out of human nature. No one is born a Christian; we become Christians only by the supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit.
So, when John wrote that the Word was made flesh, he meant that the Son of God assumed our complete nature — body and soul. He was as complete in his humanity as he had always been in his deity. Each nature retained its essential characteristics. Augustine explained it like this: he took up our flesh “not by changing what he was, but by taking what he was not.”
Further, Jesus’ human nature was morally perfect. When he was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, he was made like us in every way, except that he had no sin. Romans 8:3 says that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh, not that he came ‘in sinful flesh.’ And Hebrews 4:15 adds that he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
The Incarnation
The Incarnation
Now, there’s a lot about the incarnation of Jesus that we don’t understand. How can we? It’s too stupendous. That’s why Paul called it a mystery or secret. But what we do know, we must embrace with all our might.
Just to be clear: the incarnation involves one person who is eternally God — the one John calls the Word and we call Jesus — assuming a second nature — a true and sinless human nature. One person (the second person of the Trinity) with two distinct natures (divine and human). Jesus is therefore our God-man Mediator.
Sadly, this doctrine has been object of men’s hatred and venom since the beginning. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean:
One of the earliest denials of the Biblical doctrine came from a group known as the Docetists, who said that Jesus’ human nature was only an illusion. He looked like a man, he acted like a man, but his body was just a phantom. But there’s a huge problem with this: if Jesus’ body wasn’t real, he couldn’t have died for our sins.
Later, another group arose known as Apollinarians. Unlike the Docetists, Apollinarians believed that Jesus’ human nature was real, but they claimed it was incomplete: he didn’t have a human spirit. His divine nature took the place of a human spirit, which means that he was only what some have described as “God in a body.” The early church identified several problems with this error, the main one being that, if Jesus didn’t have a human spirit, he couldn’t have redeemed our spirits. He cannot redeem what he was not.
Another early error is called Nestorianism It teaches that Jesus was actually two persons instead of one. He was a divine person, and he was also a human person who was heavily influenced by the divine person. This compromises the unity of our salvation by offering us two Saviors instead of one.
A fourth error is Eutychianism. Eutyches taught that Jesus’ human nature was absorbed into his divine nature, thus modifying both. He turned Jesus into a hybrid that in the end was neither fully God nor fully man.
And in the twentieth century, liberal theologians put their own spin on some of these old errors. Some, for example, denied Jesus’ deity, claiming that he was only divine in the sense that he had a greater ‘spark of divinity’ than the rest of us. He wasn’t sinless in their view, just better than most.
There are other errors and variations of errors that could be mentioned, but I think you get the point. Every fundamental error in the doctrine of Christ compromises our salvation in one way or another.
The writers of our catechism understood this very well, and guarded against it in Questions 12 through 18. Question 12 says that God’s perfect justice, because it cannot overlook sin, must be satisfied. Someone must pay. But who? According to Question 13, we cannot make our own satisfaction because we’re constantly adding to our guilt. But what about another creature — maybe a bull or a goat or an angel? Well, no, that won’t work either according to Question 14, because it would mock God’s justice. Man sinned; man therefore must pay the penalty for his own disobedience. And further, no mere creature would be able to bear the tremendous burden of God’s eternal wrath and redeem others from it. So, what kind of Mediator and Redeemer must we seek? The answer, as Question 15 says, is, “One who is a true and righteous man, and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.” Questions 16 through 18 identify Jesus Christ, who is true and righteous man as well as true God, as the only one who meets all the qualifications.
The Tabernacling
The Tabernacling
John brought all of this together for us in an unusual and unexpected way in our text. He said that the Word not only became flesh, but also that he dwelt among us. Literally, he pitched his tent in our midst (ἐσκήνωσεν). John used a verb from the same root as the noun tabernacle. The Word tabernacled among us.
This suggests several things.
To begin with, it suggests brevity. People don’t normally live in tents for long periods of time, although I went to college with a guy who lived in a teepee in a state park. Jesus’ time in earth was brief — roughly thirty-three years. He came into the world to do a particular work and then he ascended back into heaven.
But even more important than the brevity of his life is the work that the word tabernacle suggests. The tabernacle in the Old Testament was where God meet with his people. It’s where he revealed his glory. It was always in the center of the camp, even when the people moved, to remind them that their Captain was always with them. The tabernacle was where God often demonstrated his judgments. And it was also there that he showed grace and mercy to his people, especially in the sacrifices that were offered on its altar. In other words, it was part of that great system of object lessons that God used to prepare his people for the coming of Jesus Christ. More than anything else, it showed them that God himself would open the way of salvation through blood atonement of the Messiah.
But there’s a big difference between the Old Testament tabernacle and Jesus’ tabernacling with his people. The tabernacle of the Old Testament was only a representation, a model, a shadow. It didn’t have the power to do what it represented. Hebrews 9:8-9 says,
The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
But Jesus, being the reality, did it all. He tabernacled among us, so that he might present his blood for us in the heavenly tabernacle. Hebrews continues:
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
and again,
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
So, when John wrote that we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, he meant not only that he and the other apostles had the privilege of beholding the incarnate God in the flesh, which in itself would have been more wonderful than words could express, but also that they beheld the fulness of grace and truth in the Savior’s redeeming love. Jesus was full of grace in that he gave himself even unto death so that we might have life. And he was full of truth in that he represented things exactly as they are, including the fact that we need a Savior, that no other Savior can satisfy our longings, and that he saved us to the uttermost.
The Word became flesh. Here is our Savior and our salvation. John wrote,
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
May we all celebrate Christmas by believing in, rejoicing in and loving the incarnate Word! Amen.