THE WORD MADE FLESH
The
thing that distinguishes the God of the Bible from every other so-called god
that this world has worshipped over the course of time is: He speaks. St.
John
The most significant
thing about speech is that it reveals the nature of the speaker. We can make any number of judgments about a
person if they never open their mouth; but once they begin to speak to us, it
reveals something of themselves. Their
personality, their beliefs, their likes and dislikes: they all begin to take
shape the more they speak. Of course, in
the case of a person, it is possible that they may lie about what they feel or
believe; but in the case of God, He cannot lie, but always speaks the
truth. We can, therefore, trust the
words that He speaks, knowing that they are based on truth. “Thy word is
true from the beginning: and
every one of thy righteous judgments endureth
for ever.” (Psalm 119:160).
We know
that this Word that was in the beginning was Christ. He was with the Father from the beginning
and, in the fullness of time, was manifested to the world in the form of flesh
and blood. “And the Word was made 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). Christ,
therefore, is the very expression of the Godhead. It is He Who declares the nature of the
Father to the world. In Christ dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead. If we
would know God, then it is through Christ, and His Spirit, that we will
discover Him. “All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who
the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” (Luke 10:22).
“God, who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in
these last days spoken unto us by His
Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the
worlds; Who being the brightness of His
glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the
word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews
1:1-3). Jesus was not just another
prophet who through his heightened spirituality declared God's purpose to
man. No, He existed with God in the
beginning and was, in fact, God. Just as
man is made up of flesh, soul, and spirit, and each of these parts of his
nature has its own unique function and yet make up the whole man; God also is
comprised of three distinct, yet unified, parts. Christ indeed became all man, but He never
ceased to be all God. One thing that set
Him apart from other men was that He was not conceived by human seed, but by
the Holy Spirit. He was truly born of
God, and created in His image.
What was
the purpose, then, of God revealing Himself to us through His beloved Son? It
is that we might be restored to fellowship with our Creator and, by His grace,
to be transformed into His image. Scripture
tells us that, in the beginning, man was made in the image of God. This refers more to man’s nature than it does
to physical appearance, for the LORD
doesn’t see as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but
the LORD looks on the heart. In the
beginning man walked with God because his heart was pure and childlike, and to
look on Him was to see the Father’s nature reflected in His creation. After the fall, sin came upon mankind, and
his image was tarnished by pride, greed, selfishness, and corruption. Now, however, through Jesus Christ our Lord
(Who is the image of the invisible God), we can be restored to that which we
have lost in Adam. We are told, “as many as received Him (Christ), to them gave He power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (John 1:12). Also, Peter tells us, “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust,” and, Paul, in another place says, “For whom He (God) did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to
be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren.” (2 Peter 1:3,
4; Romans 8:29).
This may
be a difficult concept for some to grasp.
We have been told for so long that we can’t be perfect, that we have
believed it. We have even used it as an
excuse not to overcome certain things in our lives that we hold dear but know
God is not pleased with. We often expect
perfection, however, in others; but make excuses ourselves. Let me make one distinction clear. We must always believe that we can be like Jesus and press for the mark of the
high calling, but we should never come to the place where we think we have achieved perfection. The Apostle Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been
made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took
hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider
myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is
behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win
the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14 NIV). This Christianity is a process, however. We are called to become like Jesus, not all
at once, but little by little. This is
accomplished in us by the “Word made
flesh.” Jesus said, “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye
shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31,
32). It is by faith that we receive His
Word. As we believe the Word that He
reveals to us, we are changed – transformed – into His image, and we proceed
from one glorious triumph to the next. (2 Corinthians 3:18). We find that our pride, our anger, our
bigotries, and all our sins, are not
only forgiven, but replaced with God’s righteousness, peace, and joy. Just like the worm that is changed within the
cocoon, and emerges a glorious moth or butterfly, even so we will put off the
corruption that we accepted and inherited in Adam, and put on the glory that is
in Christ Jesus. Truly, then, we will
find that the Word is becoming flesh once again. Our actions will begin to reflect the will of
God and we will begin to be His disciples, not in word only, but in deed. People will see the Word in what we do,
not only in what we say. We
cannot do this through an act of our will.
As children, we must be totally dependant on the mercy and power of God
to change us. The saying, “God helps
those who help themselves,” does not hold water scripturally. God, instead, will only help those of us who
have quit trying to do it on our own,
and have humbled ourselves before Him, and confessed our weaknesses. Anything that we can do on our own will only
breed pride, and it is our pride that often keeps us from the true life of
godliness. The trip from Egyptian
bondage to the Promised Land would have been a much shorter journey had the
Israelites believed that they could conquer their enemies with God's help and
guidance, but because they refused to believe and hardened their hearts against
what God wanted, they were sent back to the wilderness to wander for 40
years. Beloved, this may indeed be a
hard saying for some of you; but ask the Lord to make it very clear to you
through His Word, and He will be faithful to reveal Himself to you and make His
purposes plain. God has a plan and a
work for your life, and only He can reveal it, and only He can fulfill it in
you.
"And so it is written, The first man
Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The
first man is of the earth,
earthy: the second man is the
Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as
is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (1 Corinthians 15:47-50).
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