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The Mystery of the Incarnation
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word wasGod. He was with God in the beginning. Trough Him all things were made;without Him nothing was made that had been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. Te light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it...Te Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We haveseen His glory, the glory of the One and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-5,14).
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom Heappointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. Te Son is theradiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:1-3).
He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation...For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him (Colossians 1:15, 19).Tat which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen withour eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaimconcerning the Word of life. Te life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has now appeared to us(1 John 1:1-2).“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you knew Me, you would know the Father as well. Anyone who hasseen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:6, 7,9).
at’s mystical language: “e Word was with God. e Word was God. eWord became flesh and dwelt for a while among us.” But it’s really not justpoetry! Jesus is the Word.Oen we use the term, “Word of God,” to refer to the scriptures, “the Bible.” Butwhat do we mean when we call it the Word? We’re claiming that the Bible, thisGod-breathed thing, did not come from man’s conception, man’s hand, or man’smind applied to philosophical or religious matters, that instead it is a recordedmanifestation of the very breath of God.Jesus Christ, however, is so much greater than that! He is the incarnatemanifestation of the Word of God. If the Bible is the Word become words, Jesusis the Word become flesh. Remember that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost areone God. “e Lord thy God is one God”—not three Gods, but one. Jesus said,“No one comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus of Nazareth is the expressed heartand Word of God Himself. He is the manifested thought of God Almighty.I want to take this step back to help you to see that the qualities the Bible speaksabout—patience, humility, holiness—are not just noble character traits that wemust strive to imitate. Jesus Christ Himself is the Word of God. What we readabout in the written Word is simply a description of Jesus Christ in languagewe can understand. “He came and dwelt for a while among us.” He lived outGod’s character and life. He spoke it. He taught it. He was the breath of God.Again, “No man comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus was and is the road to theFather, expressing and manifesting and personifying the character and thoughtand mind of God. He was the “exact representation of the Father.”“Have you been with me so long and do not understand?” Jesus asked. “Whenyou see me, you have seen the Father.” You can see right through the incarnateWord of God into the heart and mind of God, into the very Person of GodHimself. at’s who Jesus is! And that’s why John spoke of Jesus as being “theeternal life.” at’s why John could say, “Our hands touched, our eyes saw, ourears heard the very eternal life of God.” He didn’t say that Jesus was a “really good man who told us all about God, a man who lived a perfect Christian lifeto show us how to live it, then gave us the Holy Spirit so we could live it, too.”Instead, John—reflecting back sixty years aer he saw Jesus ascend to heaven—said that he had touched the eternal life, not just a good man.Paul called the incarnation a “mystery”—something unfathomable by manyet revealed by God. Paul himself, the holy apostle, one of the most fruitfulmen ever to walk the face of the earth, admitted that it was a mystery to him.He could never have figured out how God could breathe and a baby be born.Yet God revealed that it had really happened. e very Word of God cried in amanger! e very thought, mind, heart, intent, purpose, visions—the very Spiritof the Living Godhead!“e Lord thy God is one God.” at’s why both John and Paul could write that“Jesus created all things,” that “all things were created by Him and for Him.”Wait. Didn’t the Father do that?Not without Jesus. ey are one!“No man comes to the Father but by Me.”“When you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.”
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