The Incarnation of Jesus (John 1:14)

John 1:14: ‘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.’ 

Imagine a firm of architects with a plan to build houses. They know every detail of the plan. Then something goes wrong, and the only remedy is for one of the architects to become the builder because no-one else has the competence to sort out the problem. He still remains one of the architects, but he is also the rescuer of the project. In a faint and inadequate way, the story illustrates the incarnation, its necessity and achievements. The Trinity are the architects, and the Son of God becomes the rescuer.

 

Three details from John 1:14

The first detail is the term ‘Word’, perhaps unclear to us, but it was a term common in the first century to describe the reason behind the universe. John was telling his readers that he knew not what the reason was, but who the reason was.

 

The second term to note is the word ‘became’. This word has more than one usage. Charles the Third became King of the United Kingdom, but when he did he ceased to be what he was before. Is that the kind of change that is meant here? Promotion to a higher level. A newly-married woman has a new identity, Mrs. Somebody, but in one sense she is still the same person. In the case of the Word, he became something without ceasing to be who he was. It was humbling by addition, not by subtraction.

 

The third term is the word ‘full’ in the phrase ‘full of grace and truth’. When John and others saw Jesus, this is what they always saw. On Day One, he was full of grace and truth and on Day One Hundred and One he was full of grace and truth. I think John is saying that those divine blessings were revealed in Jesus according to his capacity and in his roles as a man. If they had seen him, a year before his baptism, they would have seen One who was full of grace and truth. If they had seen him ten years before his baptism, they would have seen one who was full of grace and truth. On the cross, he was full of grace and truth. In the glory today, he is full of grace and truth.

 

Some questions

 

What does the word ‘incarnation’ mean?

The English word comes from the Latin word for flesh. It means ‘taking on flesh’. In the case of Jesus, it means to take on human nature, a reference to both soul and body.

 

Who was incarnated?

The answer is that it was the Son of God, one of the three persons in the Trinity. Each of the three persons is fully God, although there are not three Gods. What we can say about each of them is that they have the same attributes and perform the same actions. So God the Son is eternal, without beginning of existence. We get a glimpse into the divine relationship in the first chapter of the Gospel of John where we are told that the Son was face to face with the Father, which points to loving contemplation and appreciation. Moreover, he was the Creator of all things.

 

Where was he incarnated?

To answer this question, we go to the occasion when the incarnation commenced, back beyond his birth to his conception. His conception was a miracle performed by God. Each person of the Trinity was involved. The Father prepared a body for him, the Holy Spirit in some way worked in the womb of Mary to produce the human nature that the Son of God simultaneously took into union with himself. Of course, we approach this miracle with reverence. Yet the unborn John the Baptist somehow recognised the unborn Saviour.

 

Why was he incarnated?

The obvious answer was to become a man. Paul told the Philippians that although Jesus existed in the form of God he did not allow his high status to prevent him humbling himself and becoming a man; the sovereign God became a servant.

 

The Son of God became a real man, who went through all the stages that a human experiences – in the womb, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Although he is the omniscient God, he learned things. Although he is the omnipotent God, he had to depend on his mother to provide him with food. Although he is the Creator who spoke all things into existence, he had to use his mind and hands to make chairs and tables.

 

Jesus was incarnated to be a righteous man, but not in the sense or even degree in which devout humans are righteous. He was sinless, although in some ways that is to describe things negatively. To be righteous is to be holy. The law of God was in his heart, and he pleased his Father constantly. We see something of the Father’s delight when he spoke from heaven at the baptism of Jesus. He was conceived with a human nature, but with a sinless human nature.

 

Jesus was incarnated to be a representative man in the sense that he came to die for sinners. This was why he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary and then born. He is the last Adam, a title that both connects and disconnects him with the first Adam. The first Adam took us into the state of sin. Jesus came to take sinners out of the state of sin. He did so by offering himself on the cross, the perfect, flawless Lamb of God who died in the place of sinners. But the perfect life that he offered began with his incarnation.

 

Devotional response

One of the colleagues of Martin Luther, the German Reformer, was Philip Melanchthon. He once said that he was looking forward to considering two great mysteries in heaven. One of those mysteries was the relationship between the three persons of the Trinity. The other mystery was the relationship that commenced at the Incarnation when the Son of God became a man without ceasing to be God. No doubt, we can share something of Melanchthon’s desire.

 

A similar response was made by Simeon in the temple when Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus there. Simeon, whether he was an old man or not, took the incarnate God in his arms and told the Heavenly Father that he could depart in peace because his eyes had seen God’s salvation. And that is what people saw throughout his incarnate life, even when he was on the cross.

 

The self-humbling led to the lowest place a human could go. He was conceived in the womb of a poor woman, who with Joseph took him to the temple after his birth and offered a poor person’s sacrifice of a dove or pigeon. Because the Son of God went down from there to the depths of the cross as the sinbearer, he has now gone to the highest place a human could go, rewarded by God his Father. As a well-known Scottish theologian put it, ‘the dust of the earth is on the throne of God’, but in order for that to happen the Son of God had to become incarnate.

 

The conception of Jesus led to the birth of Jesus which led to the consecration of Jesus which led to the holy life of Jesus which led to the sacrifice of Jesus which led to the burial of Jesus which led to the resurrection of Jesus which led to the exaltation of Jesus – an incarnate life.