The Incarnation

(December 24)

Joh 1:1 NASB In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

From the very dawn of time, the Father planned it this way. 

• The Word - the message of the unimaginable God - existed when time did not. 

• That Word was with God from before the beginning - from eternity to eternity.

• The Word was God.

How?  Who can say.  It is the character of God the Father that He must bring His love to His children; as His character is eternal, so the Word is eternal.  Nor can the Word be apart from the Father; indeed, God is One, so the Word is one with God. 

It sounds so philosophical, as John writes it.  But the Father has a plan to make it clear and plain to His children:  the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. 

• Think of it:  the very essence of God in human flesh.  To meet Him is to meet the Father, for they are One.

• His disciples record his life; in particular they record the fact that they saw Him in the glory He has with the Father.  Their eyes saw this salvation.

• He is the only One - the unique, only begotten Son of God.

At Christmas we see His humanity in the manger and His divinity in the angel chorus.  It is a pleasant scene; it's a rare human being who does not love the sight of a baby.  But just as the Word was from the beginning, so the plan of God was also.  This baby grows to be a man, a man with a purpose:  He is the Lamb of God.  We see His humanity in the garden; his divinity on the Cross.  That sacrifice was planned before time was; its beginnings were in a manger at Bethlehem; its ending on the Cross.  Remember that; the baby in the manger came for a purpose - that you and I might be redeemed.