The Word Remains Flesh :: John 1:1-18
Will God truly dwell upon the earth?
Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain [him];
Indeed, how much less can this house that I built? (1 Ki 8:27).
That’s what Solomon said when he dedicated the first temple. You can read about it in 1 Kings 8. Solomon’s question is one we still ask today: Would God truly dwell in a place conceived in the mind of an architect and drawn up on blueprints ... in a building constructed with carpenters’ squares and plumb lines ... in a temple as grand as Solomon’s, a temple made by human hands?
The answer came in a cloud ... the visible manifestation of the glory of the Lord ... a cloud so thick that the priests couldn’t even minister in the temple. Yes, God would dwell on earth ... for a time ... in his time ... in the fullness of time. Solomon’s temple was only a prelude. Solomon’s temple would be destroyed and God would not return in the way he once did.
Instead, the Word that was in the beginning, the word that was with God and the Word that was God ... the Word by whom God made all things ... this Word came into the world. It came into the world through the womb of a virgin.
God came into the world! And we have seen him!
The Word became flesh (Jn 1:14) ... a temple made without hands. The Word became flesh ... conceived in Mary’s womb. God became man ... a real historical human person. God became man and showed himself with body and soul, complete with a human nature, personality, will, intellect. He had a birthday and a name. Just like you.
Will God really dwell on earth? Today the Church answers with a resounding yes. God with Us, our Immanuel has taken up residence on earth in the Word made flesh.
IN JESUS CHRIST, GOD HAS COME TO STAY
I.
This is what it means to say that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (v 14). God has chosen to share himself permanently in our humanity. God became one with us. And He has promised that He will not abandon this dwelling place. You cannot destroy this temple, his temple. God will not un-become man.
What God had intended from the beginning ... that we would live in perfect harmony with him and with each other ... has finally and permanently been fulfilled in the man Jesus Christ. We can’t chase him away. There is not enough mockery, beatings, crucifixion, or even death in the world that will cause God to abandon us. The incarnation will not cease. As Jesus said, Destroy this temple ... that is, the temple of his body ... and in three days I will raise it up (Jn 2:19). Two natures of Christ, divine and human, have been united in the person of Jesus Christ. They will never be separated ... Christ is fully man and fully God, God out of God, light out of light, very God out of very God, begotten not made.
The apostles beheld, heard, and handled the eternal God in the person of Jesus Christ. The one who has life in himself ... who is in fact life ... was in the beginning. We have heard him. We have seen him with our eyes. We have looked upon him and have touched him with our hands (1 Jn 1:1). Our God, who died on a cross, is alive. He has united himself with us. The Word remains flesh.
Even in Bethlehem, the eternal God could be heard, seen, and touched: wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. The human nature was permeated by the divine nature. It was not replaced by ... or swallowed up by the divine. Jesus wasn’t just a man who was given a special task. He wasn’t just a good man. He is God with us. From conception, Jesus Christ was the all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent God. How many other adjectives can I add to that? The glory of God that once dwelt in Solomon’s temple has returned to Zion in a permanent dwelling ... as a man, our Lord Jesus Christ.
II.
God did not come to earth merely to look around. He didn’t come for some sightseeing or tourism or “experience,” in the way that we might travel. The human nature that he assumed wasn’t a mask or disguise. He came with a human nature like ours. God in the flesh did this precisely to bear your sins and burdens and sorrows. He who knew no sin became sin for you so that you could receive his righteousness. God became flesh, proving that he is just. He punished our sin, just as he promised. But he did it in the way we couldn’t do. He gave himself as the all-atoning sacrifice, shedding his own perfect, innocent, righteous blood ... a Lamb so to speak without spot or blemish. This is why the Word became flesh.
The Word became flesh because we are flesh, subject to pain and misery like us, able to suffer the effects of human depravity and sin ... even hell itself and the abandonment of God the Father. He assumed sinful human existence, with all its frailties and failings and consequences, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
This was no joy ride. God’s Love ... that is divine love ... not man’s love ... moved God to become one with sinners. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born in human flesh because God’s will is that we should be saved in this way. The eternal God dwells with man as man not for God’s own sake but for our sake. It is an act of generosity, undeserved by us.
If you want to know who God is, then look at Jesus Christ. Look to the cross. And recognize that God loved in this way ... he gave himself to death on that cross for you. In him you truly see God: not a tyrant or judge or boss, but the God who gives, who loves, who dies for you without condition. And then publish this good news: God who came to us as an infant, has suffered for you, was crucified for you, died for you, and has risen from the grave for you.
The Word became flesh is full of grace and truth (v 14).
III.
God has not ceased to be man in Jesus Christ, so God has not ceased to be your advocate and Savior. Wherever Jesus is present, he is present as true God and true man, divine and human natures inseparably united. We know this as fact and truth because as Saint John said, We have seen his glory (v 14).
God’s glory was seen and continues to be seen in the person of Jesus Christ. And today we continue to see that grace and truth. We believe that the Holy Sacrament ... given by God to be received by us ... is truly the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is because he says it is ... and therefore the glory of God himself is here ... to be seen and touched and tasted. God is still in the flesh.
In this sacrament, Christ gives us his true body and true blood for you. And because it is the body and blood of God, it is able to nourish your faith in Christ. It is able to save you, to cleanse you of all sin, to conquer death, hell, and the devil. It saves you because in it he delivers to you the forgiveness of sins. And where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation. In him is life ... therefore, you have life, eternal life, through this Sacrament.
This is the reason God gave us this sacrament. He gave it to you so that you can have the forgiveness of sins, so that God in the flesh would still be with you.
Now, through this Son of God, you also are God’s children. The birth of Jesus Christ is your birth ... born not in the regular way of dad and mom but born of God through water and the Spirit. You have all the rights that belong to God’s children, because God became flesh in the infant Jesus. You can even call God your Father, just as Jesus himself said, I am ascending to my Father and your Father (Jn 20:17).
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I ask again: Will God really dwell on earth? Can the creation really contain the Creator? Is the finite capable of the infinite? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (v 14). Therefore, the answer is yes, finally and decisively yes in Jesus Christ.
Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God (Rev 21:3). God dwells with man as a man in order that he might remove and atone for our sin. The incarnation will never cease. Neither will God’s love for you, a love enfleshed in Jesus Christ.
Christmas, then, is not only a celebration of what God once did, but it also celebrates what God has continued to do and will one day bring to completion. The infant Jesus is God’s permanent investment in humanity, even in you.
In Jesus Christ, God has come to stay.