The Word became 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).

Approaching the Christmas season I am reminded again of the miracle of the incarnation. In fact, I’m in awe of the truth that God acquired flesh and became man! John revealed the wonder when he established, first that the Word is God, and then proceeded to explain that that same Word became flesh and lived among us. It was deity in diapers, majesty in a manger. No wonder the angels hung out with shepherds and wise men trekked from a distant land. The celestial realm got involved by providing a bright star and history was altered forever.

The prophets predicted the event, prophesied the place, and told the time of this momentous occasion. Isaiah said, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Literally, He is “God with us!”Micah prophesied, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel" (Micah 5:2). So the scribes in Jerusalem looked at this verse and directed the foreign emissaries to the town of Bethlehem while they remained in scholarly seclusion, unconvinced and unconcerned that the Savior was born.

The prophet Daniel predicted the time of the arrival of “Messiah, the Prince” in the cryptic construction of “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks,” which has been calculated to culminate at the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem on a young donkey. God’s calendar carefully coincided with the prophesied events. “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4).

The Word was that indefinable, indiscernible entity of God that was wrapped in the womb of the Virgin Mary. On that first Christmas at the birth of the baby, humanity looked upon the first glimpse of the Divine. Before the incarnation, any view of God was fearful and temporary: a cloud, a pillar of fire, the burning bush, the appearance of an angel, a voice, a presence. All of these were symbolic signs of the existence of deity. The invisible God was without image. In fact, the commandment was that there should be no making of an image for God. Only one image would be needed – the incarnation, God revealed in flesh. Jesus is the only image of God! “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15).

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us! Good news, Christ has come!