The Word Became Flesh
Seven Beautiful Truths about the Incarnation of Christ
Some scriptures stand out as some of the most profound words ever written. That’s the case with the prologue to the gospel of John. It is a declaration of who Jesus Christ is and why He matters. These words are so weighty that they are worthy of being inscribed in gold.
John 1:1-5 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The English word “word” in John 1 is doing a lot of work. The Greek word for “word” is “logos.” For the ancient Greeks, “logos” was a loaded philosophical concept. It referred to an impersonal principle of reason—the rational force that gave order to the universe. The logos was what held the world together. It was the source of all that exists, even the logic behind the laws of nature themselves.
John takes that familiar, impersonal concept and does something shocking with it. He connects it directly to Old Testament teaching—and then he gives it a name. What the Greeks called the logos is actually the God of all reason, all nature, all creation, and all life. Even further, the logos is Jesus Christ—God wrapped in human flesh.
All of creation exists because a personal God chose to make a world within which he would make himself known. In Old Testament times, God revealed himself through miraculous works, supernatural signs, angels, and prophets. In New Testament times, God revealed himself by personally stepping into space and time and making himself known to us.
This leads me to seven observations about Christ, the incarnate Word, and what that means for us.
#1: The Word Is Eternal
The words “In the beginning” is a deliberate echo of the creation account in Genesis 1. But now Genesis is being interpreted in light of a fully developed doctrine of Christ. The eternal Word of God is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Just as God has always existed, the Word has always existed.
Jesus the human man was born in Bethlehem, to Mary and Joseph. He grew up in Nazareth. That story is familiar. But Jesus the Logos is the eternal Word—without beginning and without end. The Word had being before the world had a beginning.
#2: The Word Was with God, and the Word Was God
John creates tension immediately. The Old Testament is clear that God is one. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Since God is one, logically speaking, God alone can be eternal. And yet here John tells us there are two eternal realities. God is eternal. The Word is eternal. They are distinct, and yet both are God.
John is ratcheting up the tension and placing us in an uncomfortable position. This is the first thing we encounter when we read his Gospel. It sounds like a contradiction, but it is actually a paradox—one we cannot fully resolve or comprehend. John doesn’t hide the tension, he puts it front and center. This tension is a hard driving feature of his entire gospel.
#3: The Word Is a Person
The Greeks knew the logos as a subject to be studied. John introduces the logos as a person to be known. “He was in the beginning with God.” The Word is not an impersonal force. The Word is a person.
Jesus Christ, the man from Nazareth, whose earthly parents were Mary and Joseph, was no ordinary man. He is divine. He is God. In other words, before the world existed, Jesus Christ was there. He is equal with God. He is God himself, and yet distinct from God.
In Christian theology, this is called the “hypostatic union.” Jesus Christ is one man with two distinct natures. He has a human nature—born of the virgin Mary, raised by his earthly father Joseph, fully human. And he has a divine nature—he is the logos, the preexistent Son. Along with the Holy Spirit, this gives us the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This doctrine of the trinity is foundational for the Christian understanding of God’s love. Christians believe eternality and love are two essential attributes of God. First John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Love, by definition, is relational. Thus, for love to be an essential attribute of God, there would need to be an eternal object of love. An eternal being whose essence is defined by love demands an eternal object of love. Love cannot be an essential attribute of God unless there is an eternal object of love.
The doctrine of the Trinity provides the philosophical grounding for the Christian claim that “God is love.” God Love is not something God learned. Love is not something God acquired after creation. Love is eternal because God is eternal, and God has eternally existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—perfect, full, joyful fellowship of love within the godhead.
Jesus himself says this in his high priestly prayer: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:26, ESV).
Christianity alone gives us a God whose love is not dependent on creation. In fact, Islam cannot and does not claim that “Allah is love,” because Islam denies the trinity, which is necessary for an eternal being to also be loving. Islam may claim that Allah is merciful and just, but not loving. Only Christianity has the philosophical coherence, intellectual depth, and moral clarity that can satisfy the deepest questions of man.
#4: The Word Is the Creator
God did not create in order to become loving. God created because he already was loving. Creation is the overflow of the love that has always existed within the trinity. John says positively, “All things were made through him,” and then negatively, “without him was not anything made that was made.” In other words, creation was not a solo act of God the Father. Jesus Christ—the Son, the Word—was the active agent in creation.
Hebrews says the same thing plainly. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Hebrews 1:1–2).
Since God is Trinity, God did not need to create us in order to fulfill some divine emptiness or unmet need to love. God is never lonely. God is never bored. God never grows tired of delighting in himself within the eternal fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The triune God is the very definition of fullness, delight, and happiness—perfect and eternal communion.
Therefore, God did not create from a need to love. God created from the overflow of his love. Paul says it this way in Ephesians:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3–6).
Here, we see that God set his love on his people “before the foundation of the world.” This means, before God ever said “let there be light,” he knew you. He knew your name. He knew what you looked like. He even knew the sins you would commit and the price he would pay to save you from them. He also knew what you would become in glory, completely sanctified, “holy and blameless before him.” He did all this “according to the purpose of his will.” Why? So that we would be “blessed… in the Beloved.” Christ created us because he already loved us.
In other words, creation was not a divine hobby. God was not bored and decided to play a game with planets and people. The love shared eternally between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was so full, so rich, and so free that it pleased God to create a world upon which that love would be poured out.
As Matthew Henry said, “this proves the excellency of the Christian religion—that the author and founder of it is the same one who was the author and founder of the world.” Jesus created the world, and later he came into that world to save it.
#5: The Word Is Light and Life
John says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (v4). Before creation, God was all there was. Other than God, there was no light and there was no life. Again this echoes Genesis 1. God created the world by saying, “Let there be light.” Then he goes on to fill creation with life.
In Genesis 3, man fell into sin. The condition of sinful man is often described with two words: death and darkness. At the fall, death entered the world, and the light of man turned to darkness. There was no life and no light. Jesus Christ, the Creator, came to restore light and life.
Jesus does not merely have life. Jesus is life. He is the source of all life. Everything that lives does so because of him. As Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
God alone has life in himself. No created being has life apart from God. Every living thing exists because God wills its existence. This attribute of God is called aseity. God alone is self-existent; everything else is contingent.
You exist because God willed your existence. You are alive because God wills your life. Every breath you take and every heartbeat you have comes from him. That tells you something important: your life matters to God. You were created for a purpose. You can either fulfill that purpose by living for God, or you can reject that purpose and live for yourself.
Also, Jesus does not merely shine a light. Jesus is light. Only by the light of Christ can you know and fulfill your purpose. Apart from Christ, we have no light. We are in darkness. Apart from Christ, we have no life. We are dead. Jesus describes hell as “outer darkness.” The soul is spiritually dead, and yet it goes on forever.
Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Similarly, Paul says that the Lord Jesus Christ “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:15–16).
#6: The Word Became Flesh
This is John’s great reveal: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The eternal Word is Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches a clear Creator–creature distinction. God is not creation, and creation is not God. And yet the Creator entered into creation and wrapped himself in flesh. He took on a real human body.
The eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinitely holy Son of God stepped into space and time as a baby. He was truly human. He had to grow up. He had to eat and drink. He got tired and needed sleep. And he lived his entire life in the presence of corrupt human beings—the Holy One of God dwelling among sinners. And he experienced physical pain. And because he became like us in every way, God became killable.
From the moment of his conception, Jesus inhabited a human body, and he will continue to do so forever. Even now, Jesus is in the presence of the Father in a glorified human body, from which he will one day return bodily.
John has been setting this up all along. Christ is the light shining in the darkness of the world. Christ is life in the midst of death. Therefore, Jesus Christ is both Savior and Lord. He is the author of creation, and he is the author of salvation.
Paul writes, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus makes the invisible God visible. He is the fullest and clearest self-disclosure of who God is.
Jesus perfectly pleased God in every way. He was filled with the Holy Spirit without measure. He was sent to reconcile us to God. He possessed the fullness of the knowledge of God and perfectly taught us the way of God—the way of salvation. He had perfect compassion for his people, showing patience and grace in all our failings.
#7: The Word Was Full of Grace and Truth
This is where the identity of Christ matters for our sakes. John tells us that Jesus was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). It is hard to imagine anything the world needs more than those two things!
All of this matters because Jesus did all of this for our sake—to bring us home. How do we receive this grace? John tells us plainly in the verses just before: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13).
Grace is not an abstract substance God hands out. We receive grace by receiving Christ himself. “To all who did receive him.” When you become a Christian, you receive Christ. And the way you receive Christ is by believing in his name—that is, by faith.
Believing does not mean mere intellectual agreement with facts about Jesus—his life, his teaching, or his miracles. Believing means trusting his person. It means submitting to him in a personal relationship. To believe in his name means trusting all that is true about him and building your life around it. It is a faith commitment that says, “Lord Jesus, I believe your word is true. I believe what it says about you. I believe you are Savior and Lord. I have no hope apart from you. Forgive my sins. Make me your own.”
For everyone who does this, God gives the right to become his children. They belong to him as sons and daughters.
Conclusion
The Bible as the Word of God matters because it is the written testimony of Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God in human flesh. Jesus Christ matters because he is the eternal Word of God—the Word who was with God and who is God. All of these things matter because Jesus Christ was full of grace and truth, and he was incarnate for our sakes, so we can believe in him, be adopted into his family, and become sons of God. And because we are sons, we are full heirs with Christ of every spiritual blessing.
This is why we celebrate Jesus Christ as God’s gift to us. God came near. God made himself known. Jesus Christ is the greatest gift you could ever receive.