Body & SoulSample

Christ, Embodied

You may have never considered your body in light of Jesus or wondered why a study of our bodies would include Jesus, but there is no other way. For if we do not understand the embodied Christ, we cannot understand ourselves.

The apostle John held both the authority and understanding of a firsthand eyewitness of the events of Jesus’s earthly life.

So, when John wrote about the Word dwelling among us in John 1, people observing His glory, and being full of grace and truth, he was not assuming. He was speaking from personal experience. He was testifying to the fully embodied, perfect Son of God who came to earth in a human form. This was something John saw with his very own eyes.

While the words “In the beginning” in Genesis 1 in the Old Testament speak of the act of creation, “In the beginning” in John 1 in the New Testament goes even further back. It speaks of the pre-existence of Christ (Col. 1:17-18). This solidifies the evidence that nothing is accidental in the heart of an everlasting Creator, including you.

Jesus understood His assignment: to be the embodied Son of God on earth to save and redeem the world from sin and death. He was divinely prepared for this role and willingly submitted to the will of the Father. John 6:38 bears this truth: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

The language in John about “the Word” is very specific. He says in verse 14 that the Word “became flesh” (CSB). Though His primary purpose in coming to earth was to be our Lord and Savior, the thoroughness of such redemption was manifested in Christ’s physical embodiment in order to redeem humans by way of physical and emotional (think body and soul) relatability. (What a kind, thorough God!)

Are you seeing what I’m seeing? All three of these things show great purpose and intention in the heart of the Creator, which means that we cannot possibly see ourselves as afterthoughts and accidents.

I want you to grasp the understanding about how this God who always existed chose to create us as whole people—body and soul—on purpose. And then in His lovingkindness, He chose to embody flesh Himself in order to redeem and restore humanity and relate to us in our everyday lives.

Coming to earth as fully God and fully man, He can relate to us in our weakness, suffering, and pain. He knew what a struggle our lives would often be—yes, in our bodies—because our bodies are us.

Take a minute and soak that in. God did not leave us to fend and contend for ourselves in any way!

Jesus is embodied, fully human like us and also fully God. One hundred percent both. As we have celebrated the birth of Jesus and displayed nativity scenes in our homes through the years at Christmas, we have been celebrating the birth of Jesus in this supernatural event of the Son of God becoming human. This is called the incarnation.

If the eternal presence of the Word isn’t proof enough to show us God loves us, then the evidence of His incarnation in John 1:14 demonstrates it loudly: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (CSB).

Jesus is fully God and fully man at the same time. This sets Him apart from any other human. That distinction is crucial. While He relates to us in our humanity, He remains God and keeps His divine nature. He has never ceased to be the all-sufficient God of the ages. (And praise God for that!)

Read John 1:1-14, and reflect on the significance of Jesus willingly coming to dwell with humanity to save us from our sins and invite us into relationship with Him.