God in the Flesh

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.

John 1:14

And now we're back to the Word, the Word who was in the beginning, who was with God, who was God, and through whom all things were made--the living, moving, being, breathing, spoken, written, everlasting Word of God. The fourth evangelist who called Him the Word also called him life and light, the Light of men. He has not yet named Him, though we already know Who He is. And now the evangelist gives us something else to think about. The Word became flesh.

In the old mythologies, the gods sometimes assumed human form, not becoming human but pretending to be human in order to deceive humanity. In some world religions, God was first a man then became a god. In others, God could never be a man. And in some ways of thinking, there is no God except man. But the One True God is unique above all in that He was always God; He became a man, yet still remained God. The Divine took on flesh, Himself becoming what He wanted to save. The Creator became the creation. The Word of God became flesh, the very flesh, body and blood of God.

God singled off a portion of Himself, a portion that was completely Him, completely Divine, all knowing, all powerful, all present, and that portion of Himself He made the fullness of the Godhead bodily--the physical manifestation and representation of God to humanity in a manner they could understand. He became like them. One of the apostles would say of this apportionment, "He who knew no sin became sin for us," for we in our fleshly state are fallen and sinful by nature. He became like us. He took on flesh, though His flesh was perfect and unsoiled by the sin nature, because it was flesh that needed to suffer for sin's sake. It was flesh that needed to be tried and punished for the sins of all humankind. It was flesh that needed to die so that we would not have to. And the only One worthy to die as a sinless sacrifice had to be God in the flesh. The apostle would also write that though He shared the glory of God, he exchanged that glory for the inglorious form of man, and a servant at that, humbling himself in obedience even to the point of death on the cross. The apostle also wrote that He was tempted and tested in every way that we are, and yet did not sin, not even once. He was God in the flesh.

He dwelt among us, was John's testimony, and we saw His glory, His excellence, His Divine nature manifested in the flesh. It was a glory no man could share, for God the Word, the Flesh, was unique in being the only begotten of the Father. Believing in Him, as we have discussed with previous verses, brings us into the family as adopted sons and daughters, but the only begotten of the Father, the only natural Son if you must think of it that way, shared a glory with God that none other can have. Through His supernatural birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His messages, His manner, through His sacrificial death on the cross He revealed the glorious existence of the One True God, and He did so as God in the flesh who dwelt among men.

God wants to be known. He wants His people to see Him and know Him, to hear Him and to smell Him, to sense and perceive Him, to handle Him and understand Him as He reveals Himself to them. He revealed Himself through the Word, and then He revealed Himself in person, that we might behold His glory, which is full of grace and truth.

Grace is the only thing we will ever truly need to have, and truth is the only thing we will ever really need to know. And both of these wonderful gifts were given to us when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.