Subject Ninety-six

THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Scripture: John 1:1, 14, 16-18

1. The Word is God
   1. The Word is the spoken word. The spoken word expresses and defines.
   2. The Word in this universe is God. God is the meaning and the definition of the universe.
2. The Word became flesh
   1. In the beginning there was the Word, because the Word was God. In the beginning, that is, in eternity past, before the beginning of time, was the Word. The Word was there in eternity past.
   2. “The Word became flesh” means that the Word came into time.
   3. The flesh is man; for the Word to become flesh, God became man.
   4. This man, who was the Word becoming flesh, was Jesus, the Nazarene. Here, the emphasis is on the fact that Jesus has both the divine nature and the human nature. He was a man in His outward form, but God was embodied in Him. This Jesus was God becoming man, with the divine nature lived out in the human nature.
3. The purpose of the Word becoming flesh
   1. The Word became flesh in order to express God. No man has ever seen God; only Jesus, as the Word incarnated to become flesh, has declared Him.
   2. By becoming flesh the Word brought grace and reality to man. Grace is God enjoyed or gained by man; reality is God realized by man. All the things in this universe are as light as air and as contemptible as dung; only God is weighty and precious. Therefore, nothing really counts; only when God is enjoyed by man, that is the real grace. All the things in this universe are temporary, changeable, and subject to vanity. God never changes, so only God is reality. Reality is just truth. Everything that can be seen by man is vanity. Only God is reality. Therefore, to see God is to see the truth.
   3. The Word became flesh to enable man to receive grace and to see the truth; this means to enjoy God and to know God.
4. How to treat this Word
   1. Confess that He is God incarnated to become man.
   2. Receive Him.
   3. Believe in His word. He Himself is the Word. As the Word, He has spoken many words. If we receive Him, we must also believe in His word.
   4. When we receive His word, we receive His life. This means we receive Himself. The result is the Word becomes flesh in us and mingles with us.