And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, cand we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:14-18 ESV).
The Apostle John is writing this book from which our reading has been taken to clarify who Jesus is. In the years soon after Jesus’ ministry, some people doubted that Jesus was actually God. They argued that he was merely a prophet, or a teacher, or perhaps even a person who was out of his mind. So here John spells out some important things. Jesus, the one and only Son of God, is fully God, and he came to live among us and with us.
In the typical church jargon, we call this the incarnation: God came to live among us in human flesh. The God of the universe came to be born as a helpless human baby, and he was raised by relatively unknown, ordinary people in a small town in first-century Galilee (cf. Luke 2). This child, Jesus, came to suffer, die, and rise to life again for our sake. If the Christian story is a new story to you, you might wonder why the almighty, all-powerful God would do this. Why leave heaven and go to so much trouble for us? We might have expected God just to create the world and then step back, leaving people to figure things out for themselves. Instead, God became one of us because he loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Because he is God, Jesus could take our sins upon himself. And because he became human, Jesus could redeem every aspect of our humanity. By his sacrifice for us, Jesus cleansed us and made a relationship with God possible for us again.
If this is a new thought for you, I urge you to take it to heart and believe it. That becomes your only hope of eternal life. However, if this is “old news” to you, please spend some time today and celebrate this great good news. We certainly ought not wait until Christmas to celebrate the coming of God in human form for the sole purpose of redeeming His creation.