The Incarnation of the Son of God

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)

John does not cover the historical events of the birth of Christ but gives the theological perspective behind His coming into the world. The Gospel writers each have their own purpose and perspective. Matthew records the birth of Christ to show that all of those events were in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Luke seems to emphasize the humility of Christ and that the humble circumstances of His birth serve to undermine the world’s power structures.

The differing perspectives of the Gospel writers combine to give us a well-rounded understanding of Jesus and why He came into the world. John’s Gospel is unique in its perspective sometimes being called the spiritual Gospel. John is especially interested in showing us who Jesus really is and why He is absolutely unique.

So John does not begin with Jesus’ birth but goes back even further, to the beginning of the world. The prologue of John’s Gospel reminds us of the very beginning of the Bible and the words of Genesis in the creation account. John wants us to see the connection of Jesus to the God who created everything in the beginning. Jesus is the Word (logos) of God, who is Himself divine, and was there in the beginning alongside the One who created everything else. The relationship of Jesus to God the Father is crucial.

It is impossible to understand what John is saying without some understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. This particular doctrine of the Christian Faith is troublesome to many people. Many Christians themselves do not understand the doctrine. Many of the enemies of the Faith have rejected the doctrine of the Trinity while also failing to understand it, perhaps intentionally. Modern Jews as well as Muslims charge Christians with idolatry for worshiping more than one God.

Christians believe that there is only one God, but this God is actually three persons. These Divine persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All of these Divine personalities share the same nature or character and are in total harmony and unity.

When John speaks of the Word, who was God and was with God, there is clearly a distinction being made between two separate personalities who are both Divine and can be properly called “God.” John is showing us that the man we call Jesus is actually a Divine person – a member of the triune Godhead – who put on human flesh and came into the world. The Word was not a lesser Deity or a demigod but was actually equal with God. Jesus was not created by God but was God through whom all other things were created.

God the Word came in human flesh to make God known to the world.

The reason for the incarnation is so that God and His salvation could be revealed. We have to take the time to try to explain the doctrine of the Trinity, yet John’s purpose is to show us why God the Word had to be made flesh.

The purpose was for revelation. This revelation would be of God Himself – God’s glory being seen in Jesus Christ. The revelation of God would be personal and not just an abstract idea or philosophy. To make Himself known to the world, God Himself came into the world.

This was not the first time God’s glory had been seen by people in the world. God had revealed some of His glory when He gave the Law to Israel through Moses. There was a revelation of glory at Sinai, but no incarnation. And so the glory of God in Christ would be a greater glory and a greater revelation of God than what was revealed through the Law of Moses. Not only was the revelation of Christ greater than the revelation of the Law of Moses, but the content of that revelation was also fundamentally different. The revelation of the Law had mostly to do with God’s holiness and the subsequent alienation this created between God and man because of sin. The Law separated God and man.

But in Jesus this alienation is overcome and God and man are brought together. Furthermore, the revelation of God in Christ was not a message of sin, alienation and wrath, but a message of grace being offered to man. The great gulf between God and man had been successfully bridged in Jesus Christ!

The incarnation underscores the uniqueness of Christ and His revelation to the world. There is no one else like Jesus! He is the one and only Son who came from the bosom of the Father. There is no one else who has this close, intimate relationship to God.

Yet the Son of God came to bring us the intimate knowledge of God, which is the very essence of eternal life (See John 17.3).

Again we must see the comparison between the revelation of Christ and the revelation given to Moses. Until Christ came into the world, the Law of Moses, revealed and spoken by God at Mount Sinai, was the greatest revelation of God. Yet here was an even greater revelation of God – not another Law but God Himself in human form!

There have been many great moral and religious teachers in history. Yet none of them were believed to be God in human flesh. Yet this is exactly what John is claiming about Jesus. This is such an astounding claim because most religious people, especially the Jews, would consider such a claim to be blasphemy against God. Unless, of course, it was true! It would be blasphemy for any human being to claim to be God and also blasphemy for any human being to worship another human being as if he were God. But what if there was a human being who was actually God in the flesh? This is John’s claim about Jesus.

We can accept or reject this claim, but it is impossible not to understand that this is what John is saying about Jesus. Jesus is not just another moral teacher.  The human race already had been given a moral teacher in Moses. Jesus is God in human flesh.

God becoming flesh is the central event of history and of God’s purpose. It is amazing to think about the fact that the Creator became a part of creation. This may have been the main reason for the creation of the world in the first place – so that God could make Himself known in this way.

Almost every religion thinks of God as distant and detached. The Gospel says that God came near in Jesus Christ. He was not with us in a spiritual sense, but as a real, physical, historical person. Jesus really had a body! He was a real person and could eat, sleep, feel pain, and even suffer death. Here is a God who not only came near to us, but became one of us so as to experience everything humanity has experienced. He shares our humanity and has even experienced our suffering and death.

The ultimate purpose of incarnation was so that He could qualify to be our Savior and become the atoning sacrifice for our sins. God’s purpose was to reconcile the world through Christ. The only way for an alienated race to be reconciled was through a member of that race.

The race had fallen through Adam and would be redeemed through the Second Adam who is Jesus Christ.