Jesus Christ, God Incarnate

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

John 1:1, 14

God Revealed

Who can describe God? Rabbi Ben-Sirah asked this question centuries ago, but could not supply an answer. Philosopher Plato also thought about it, telling his students that perhaps some day a word, a logos, would come forth from God who would reveal all mysteries and make everything plain.

In due time, the Bible disclosed the identity of the One who would reveal all things: he is the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate. John the Evangelist says, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18). Jesus Christ himself said, “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God” (John 6:46), and “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The apostle Paul told us, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). He is Immanuel, God with us. And because Jesus Christ has revealed God to us, we are blessed.

J. I. Packer correctly says that the greatest mystery of the Christian faith is not the resurrection of Christ or his miracles, but his blessed incarnation-“the plurality of persons in the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God [Downers Grove, IL: 1993, InterVarsity Press], 53). Packer further states, “But once the Incarnation is grasped as a reality . . . other difficulties will dissolve” (Knowing God, p. 54). Let us then examine this Word made flesh.

The Eternal Word

In the prologue of his gospel, John declares several truths about the Logos, the eternal Word:

1. “In the beginning was the Word” (v. 1). According to the Old Testament, the Word was God’s self-expression and the agent of creation, revelation, salvation, and judgment. The psalmist says, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry hosts by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6). Genesis 1:3 tells us, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” And in Psalm 107:20 we read, “He sent forth his word and healed them.”

   The Jewish people understood the Word as God’s personal agent, while the Greeks understood that the Logos, as defined by Heraclitus, was the mind of God, the controlling principle that gives order to this world and to all men. And John points out that the Word had no beginning, but existed from eternity.

   We reveal ourselves to others through our words. Even so, God reveals himself to his creation through the personal agency of his eternal Word. God is not aloof and indifferent; in fact, he takes great delight in revealing himself to us.

2. “The Word was with God” (v. 1). In this simple phrase, John describes the personality of the Word, the Word’s distinction from the Father, and the Word’s close association with the Father. The Word has existed from all eternity as a distinct person who partakes of the very essence of God and exists in eternal, intimate fellowship with him. Verse 18 says he is “at the Father’s side.” Thus, the incarnate Jesus prayed before he went to the cross, “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5).
3. “The Word was God” (v. 1). The Word was not just divine; John declares the Word was Deity. Many scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ is God himself. For instance, in verse 18 he is called “God the One and Only,” and in John 20:28 Thomas declared, “My Lord and my God!” In Colossians 2:9 Paul writes, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”

   The helpless infant born in a manger in Bethlehem is Deity wrapped in human flesh. Before John the Baptist, before Isaiah, before Abraham was, Jesus Christ existed eternally. He is not the mere creature that Arius of old and today’s Jehovah’s Witnesses say he is. John is saying that Jesus Christ is God himself. This was a staggering statement for John, a strong, monotheistic Jew, to make. Yet he boldly affirms the deity of Jesus Christ.

   The Word is God even as God the Father is God. Thus, the words and deeds of Jesus Christ are those of God himself, and to see Jesus is to see the invisible God. That is why we must repent, believe, love, and worship Jesus Christ, who is God with us.

4. “Through him all things were made” (v. 3). The Father created all things through the personal agency of the Word-all things visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth (cf. Colossians 1:16-17)-and without him nothing was made. He is not part of creation; rather, all things were created by and for him, and hold together because of him. He sustains all creation, including wicked beings, and is heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2).

   Romans 1:20 tells us that creation reveals God’s invisible qualities of omnipotence and divine nature. All creation is due to the direct action of the Word, not of some inferior divine emanation. The Word created the world ex nihilo. Thus, matter is not essentially evil, nor is creation eternal; all creation depends on Christ for its existence and sustenance.

5. “In him was life” (v. 5). The true origin of all physical life is not in chemicals, but in Christ. He is life, and he gives life to creation; therefore, we have DNA and RNA digital codes. There is intelligent design to the universe, and from this gospel we understand that the Designer is none other than Jesus Christ, the eternal Word.

   Not only is Christ the source of physical life, but he also is the source of eternal life. John 5:26 declares that he has life in himself even as the Father has life in himself. Jesus also declared, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Jesus came to give us abundant, eternal life; no one else can do so.

6. “That life was the light of men” (v. 5). The Word gives indirect light to every man through creation (Romans 1:18-20) and through conscience; he gives direct light through the sacred Scriptures; and he gives personal light to us through his incarnational life. What is that light? It is the revelation of who God is, who man is, what atonement, hell, and heaven are, and what is the way of salvation.

   There is no light apart from the eternal Word, for all truth radiates from Jesus Christ. All science-indeed, all knowledge-is possible only because of Christ. He is light and enlightens every man; therefore, every man is without excuse.

   John said this light shines continuously in the darkness of this morally wicked world, but the darkness has not overcome it (v. 5). In John 3:19 he gives the reason: “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” In Corinthians 4:4 Paul also explains, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” But then he adds, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (v. 6). The true light, the ultimate revelation of God, has come to us in Jesus Christ; we must either receive this light or reject it.

The Word Became Flesh

God finally revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ, God incarnate. Verse 14 tells us, “The Word became flesh.” Notice, John does not say, “He became man,” or “He took on a body.” He puts it crudely to deal with the Docetic heresy of that time. The Docetists believed that all matter was evil; thus, God could not come into contact with physical flesh. According to them, Jesus Christ only appeared to be human, but he was not, in reality, true man.

But John emphatically declares, “The Word became flesh.” The baby in the manger was God incarnate. The only begotten eternal Son of God became a helpless baby in Mary’s womb and was born in need of all loving care. And though he had to grow up and learn, he did not cease to be Deity. He took upon himself human nature and was subject to temptation, yet was without sin.

The Chalcedonian Creed describes him thus:

Begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], 1169-1170).

The enfleshed Jesus was born in Bethlehem for the sole purpose of going to Calvary to suffer and die. Why was this necessary? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), because the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and because no sinful man can pay the penalty for his sin and redeem himself. (PGM) Unregenerate man cannot perfectly obey God’s law, so God himself became man in Jesus Christ-our representative, substitute, and mediator-to fully obey the law by his life and death.

Hebrews 2:14-15 speaks about this enfleshment of the Word: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” By his death, Jesus destroyed death for us and granted us life everlasting. And he did so willingly. When he came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will, O God'” (Hebrews 10:5-7). It was the will of God that Jesus die the death of a criminal on the cross for our salvation, and he embraced that will.

What, then, was the purpose of Christ’s incarnation? The Word became flesh that he might offer himself as the only sufficient, acceptable, perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus Christ “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). John 3:16 tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And in 1 John 4:10 we read, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

We Received Grace

In the fullness of time, the Word became flesh. He came from heaven into the world that he created, but his world did not recognize him, love him, believe in him, submit to him, or worship him. Instead, it rejected him. Even his own people, the nation Israel, did not welcome him, but called him a Samaritan, drunkard, illegitimate son, Beelzebub, and blasphemer. They arrested him and handed him over to the Gentiles to be crucified.

Yet that was not the whole story. If it were, the incarnation would have been a defeat and God would have failed in his attempt to save his people. No, the incarnation was a success, for the moral darkness of the world did not overcome the light of Christ. Although the vast majority of people hated him, yet there were some who loved him and were saved by him. We read about such people in verse 12: “Yet to all who received him . . . .” These welcomed Jesus as the God-man, the Savior and Redeemer, the one in whom there is life, light, and atonement for sin. Hearing of him and believing in him, they repented of and confessed their sins, and entrusted themselves to him. They called him “Lord and God” and became his disciples and witnesses. Some even died for their faith, such as Stephen, James, Peter, Paul, and many others throughout the history of the church.

Verse 12 says that those who so believed were given the right to become children of God. As such, they enjoyed salvation and full fellowship with God. As God’s children and heirs, they were protected, provided for, guided, and kept. These people were “born of God” (v. 13). Natural descent, human decision, desire of the husband-all these mean nothing. What matters is whether we experience the miracle of new birth, in which God places his divine life in our soul. We must ask whether we ourselves have experienced this divine, supernatural, mysterious, unilateral work of God.

Those who beheld his glory as he tabernacled among men in human flesh (v. 14) were seeing with their physical eyes God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ-in his words and deeds, in his transfiguration, in his sufferings, in his resurrection, and in his ascension. Verse 18 says, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” The phrase “made him known” comes from the Greek verb from which we get our words exegesis andexegete.

How many people saw nothing unusual in Jesus! But the elect of God saw him as the explainer and revealer of the invisible God. He is uniquely qualified to do so because he was eternally with God. John tells us that the Word who was at the Father’s side has revealed the Father to us. So we know the Father through the Son. Through Jesus, these people realized that the Father loved them enough to send his one and only Son to die that he might give them life. Through Jesus they realized that the Father is compassionate, gracious, and eager to forgive our sins.

Verse 14 says Jesus Christ is “full of grace and truth,” and verse 16 tells us, “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” What is grace? Unmerited favor. We who believe in Jesus receive from him grace upon grace. We receive grace to believe and grace to live every moment of our lives, both now and forevermore.

We all need grace. Through grace we receive life, though we merited death. Through grace, we receive heaven, though we merited hell. Through grace, we receive justification, though we merited condemnation. Through grace, we receive reconciliation, though we merited being cast away. Because the Word became flesh, we receive what we really need. God himself tells us, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

In 2 Corinthians 8:9 Paul makes this profound statement: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich”-meaning he was eternally God-“yet for your sakes he became poor”-referring to his incarnational life-“so that you through his poverty might become rich.” We are made rich by the grace that flows to us abundantly through Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 9:8 we read, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” This is the purpose of grace.

In Revelation 3:14-22 the Laodicean church is described as “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked,” yet they pretended they had need of nothing. But the glorified Christ told them, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. You are poor, blind, and pitiable. But I have everything that you need: I offer you grace!” Of his fullness we have received one grace after another. Wave after wave of sufficient grace comes to us in Jesus Christ.

What about You?

God in Jesus Christ desires to be present in our lives to forgive our sins, bless us with eternal life, and guide us to heaven. We are poor sinners, but he became poor that we might become rich through his poverty. Yes, the world did not recognize him, and his own people did not believe in him. But that was not the whole story. Some did recognize him, believe in him, love him, and worship him.

What about you? Have you seen his glory? Have you believed in him and received him as your Lord and Savior? Have you received the grace that he brings? The word grace is related to the word joy, for grace causes us to rejoice, even in tribulations. I pray that you will believe in Jesus Christ, the Logos, the eternal Word, and receive him today, that he may bestow on you his all-sufficient grace and eternal life.