Tuesday, November 29, 2011
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us ...
THE INCARNATION
A man by the name of Cerinthus was a heretic in the early church who taught that Christ was not God come into human flesh but that the spirit of Christ came upon Jesus at his baptism. Some think this false teaching began even while John was still alive. If this is true, it is possible that John's declaration here is partially due to this false teacher, but only partially. John makes it clear just how precious the doctrine of the incarnation is.
Although John makes it very clear that Christ is the "Son of God," it is a God who "dwelt among us." For John, the incarnation is not so much a fact to be proven as it is a wondrous picture to be painted with the stories of that God dwelling among men.
He shows us a God dwelling among men and interacting with those men. He records far fewer events in the ministry of Jesus but he records them in much greater detail, letting us get to know not only Christ but the people He interacted with and the details of those interactions. The Synoptic Gospels often record miracles with the focus on the miracle, but John gives us the whole picture showing us who these people were and how it is that Jesus touched and changed their lives (e.g. the wedding at Cana, the Samaritan woman, the man born blind, Lazarus).
In this way John is very similar to Genesis. Genesis and John do not attempt to teach us who God is and what He is like, but rather they set out to show the love of God in action. They give us picture after picture of how God changed the lives of those who are His.
