Wednesday, November 30, 2011
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us ...
THE INCARNATION (2)
This is the statement to which John has been building up. This is the ultimate most important event -- not just that there is God, not just that He is truth, not just that He is reason, not just that He is the Creator, but that this very God dwelt among us, the Incarnation.
Greek philosophy and many pagan religions recognized God as the ultimate source but who had ever heard that such a God would become man? Not just walk among us appearing as one of us, but becoming in truth one of us.
This "dwelling among us" was prefigured in the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 25:8), and again in Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 8:10) -- which temple God dwelt in not because of its glory but because of His mercy. In the original Greek John clearly refers to this with the verb He uses here (skaenow). For it does not simply mean "to live" but "to pitch a tent," to make your home, to dwell.
The doctrine of the incarnation is at the very core of Christianity, for here we can see that God is holy and absolutely good, man is completely sinful and wretched, and yet the two can meet because of God's love through the God-Man Christ Jesus.
