To Us a Son Is GivenParaugs

The Word Made Flesh

Yesterday we considered the extraordinary fact that Jesus was referred to as Lord while in His mother’s womb (Luke 1:43). The idea that Jesus was fully divine has never been easy for the world to accept, yet it’s this truth that makes Christmas Christmas. God has come, in the person of His Son, to save His people. Perhaps nowhere is Christ’s deity more clearly stated than in today’s reading.

John speaks of “the Word,” the One who was in the beginning “with God.” And lest we miss John’s point, he also says the Word “was God” (emphasis added). We know the Word is a reference to Jesus because later in the passage we’re told that this same Word “became flesh and dwelt among us.” He was fully man and fully God.

How humbling to think that the Son of God, the One who was with the Father from all eternity, the One through whom all things were made, stooped to enter our mess. He felt our sorrows and, though He had no sin of His own (Hebrews 4:15), suffered on our behalf. This was God, in the flesh, giving Himself for us. This is what we celebrate during the Advent season. How fitting, then, that John, who walked around with Jesus for the better part of three years, would say, “ . . . we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Simple Summary

The baby born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago was no ordinary child. He was fully human, just like us, and fully God. John calls Jesus the “Word,” the One through whom God spoke the world into existence. And this Word “became flesh.” That’s what Christmas is about—God coming to dwell with us and give His life for us. We should continually give thanks that God is so gracious.

Pray

Thank God for His grace and mercy in sending His own Son for your salvation.