The Word Made Flesh

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

There are words that just don’t go together. Words like: a fine mess, good grief, act naturally, artificial intelligence, same difference, virtual reality, minor crisis, well you get the picture. The technical term is oxymoron.  

The Christmas story has two such words. They are flesh and glory. They come together by the pen of John when he wrote, And the Word became 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 [John 1:14]. 

The way John states it is rather a slap in the face. He could have said, And the Word became a man, or The Word took on a human body. But no, he chose the rather crude term flesh. A Christ follower knows that there is nothing that is less godlike than flesh. Paul agrees, and used the term flesh in order to show the stark contrast with the Spirit [Galatians 5:16-17]. 

Flesh. It almost sounds heretical to describe the very Son of God that way! But can you think of a better way to communicate the startling revelation that God had become just like His created beings so that He could be known intimately by them?

His wasn’t imitation humanity, neither did He just indwell a human body [as demons would later be described as doing]. On the contrary, the Son of God, the eternal Word, the “wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace” became a human being in order to show us what God was truly like. 

He became flesh. And with that, approachable, knowable, believable. Christmas is nearly here. Let’s behold His glory, the glory of the One and Only, full of grace and truth.