The Word Became Flesh
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Key Verse: “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.” Selected Scripture: |
THROUGH HIS WONDERFUL wisdom, the Heavenly Father created his son, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” (John 1:1) This scripture points out the prehuman existence of Jesus, and reveals to us that Jesus was the first and only being directly created by God. In the beginning of God’s creation, Jesus was there in heaven with him, before anything was created, and when none existed except God. At this time, the Logos, or “Word” existed with God; he was first created and the first, or highest, in rank. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” (Rev. 22:13) The Greek word Logos would be properly translated by the words “intention, plan, purpose, or expression.” It also signifies mouthpiece or special messenger. As the mouthpiece of his father, the beloved Son would come to exemplify all of the attributes that pertained to the “only begotten of the Father”—John 1:14
God continued to create through his Son as co-creator, but Jesus was “the firstborn of every creature.” (Col. 1:15), and “the beginning of the creation of God.” (Rev. 3:14) As we continue reading in the first chapter of John, we find the words, “All things were made by him [Logos]; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3) The power was of the Father, but it was exercised through the Son.
These verses are in full harmony with the statement made by the Apostle Paul: “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.” (I Cor. 8:6) The Father is the life-giver, and existed first, and Jesus refers to this, when he says, “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28); “I can of mine own self do nothing, … but the will of the Father which sent me” (chap. 5:30); “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God” (chap. 20:17); and “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (chap. 17:3) Jesus himself declared, “Before Abraham was, I am.” (chap. 8:58) This statement serves to identify the man Jesus with his previous condition before he “was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
As we recall from the scriptural account, Jesus would be born of Mary, and was begotten by the Holy Spirit; therefore, the life principle by which Jesus was conceived came directly from the Heavenly Father. (Heb. 1:5) It was because of this that he was then able to be born as a perfect man—“and the Word was made flesh.” The Revised Standard Version renders it, “The Word became flesh.” He was born perfect, and as a result he was free from the Adamic curse of sin and death. He knew no sin, while all other men are sinners by nature. (II Cor. 5:21) Our Key Verse tells us that he was “full of grace and truth.” In him dwelt all of the fullness of the Father, so that he was designed in all things to have pre-eminence above all others, for “in him was life.”—John 1:4