Friday, August 1, 2008

The Word Became Flesh Part 1

John 1:1-5; 14: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 14 And the Word became 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.

What is the greatest miracle? It is an intriguing question. When Jesus lived on this earth, He performed many miracles. From healing the of the sick to creating wine from water, Christ displayed His power and substantiated His claim that he was the Messiah. But what is the greatest miracle? Surprisingly it is not any of those performed by Jesus while He was on earth. No it is not even the new birth that he causes in sinners dead in trespasses of sins, as great a miracle that is. No, the miracle which surpasses all others is contained in this in this one phrase from John 1:14, "And the Word became flesh".


When I study the Bible, I like to understand the context of the verse, and the first five verses of the book of John provide an excellent background to this amazing event. Verses 1 and 2 state who Jesus is. He is the eternal Word, who is coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The apsotle John states explicitly that Jesus Christ is God and has existed forever. But this also makes it very clear that Jesus is a separate and distinct member of the trinity, thus dispelling any arguments from modalists, who claim that there is one God with three manifestations, not persons. In verse three John clearly states that Jesus is the creator of all things. Many people have the misunderstanding that it was God the Father who created the earth. In reality, Jesus Christ, our savior, was also our creator. This becomes extremely powerful when we understand verse 14. Just as a side issue, it is also very interesting that when man was created, the Old Testament makes it clear that it was the work of all three members of the trinity, Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

"In him was life". I love this phrase, because it absolutely demolishes the idea of evolution, that life can come from non-life. Clearly Jesus alone can clearly give life to anything, life can not, "just happen".

Now let's take a close look at verse 14. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,". This phrase states the greatest miracle that was ever accomplished in the history of time. Nothing else can compare to what is stated in that phrase. Of all the miracles that are recoded in the Bible God, in the person of Jesus Christ, became flesh and dwelt among us. That Jesus Christ, the eternal Word became flesh without losing any of his divinity is undoubtedly the most awesome event recorded in the Bible. And to think John describes it in one phrase, "The Word became flesh."





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