The Word Became Flesh
"The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw His glory, such glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). This is the real meaning of Christmas. Not office parties, not presents, not Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, not Santa Claus: the real meaning of Christmas is that God the Word was clothed in human nature so that we may be clothed in the divine nature.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:1-4). The pre-eternal Word of God through Whom God created the cosmos has become a human baby boy. "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).
From the very start, this caused confusion and doubt: was Mary really a virgin? The Jewish leaders threw that accusation at Him: "They said to Him, 'We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.' Therefore Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven't come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why don't you understand My speech? Because you can't hear My word. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn't stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it" (8:41b-44). The devil is a liar, a deceiver – that's how he operates. People who have been deceived and taken in by a lie simply cannot understand the truth: their minds are set against it.
But Jesus, the Word of God, is truth: "Jesus said to him [Thomas], 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me" (John 14:6); also – "Sanctify them in Your truth. Your Word is truth" (John 17:17) – Jesus is both the Word and the Truth. And yet, people get tricked and deceived by those who want to "control the narrative" (deceive us) – "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who doesn't confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. ...Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God" (1 John 4:2-3 & 15).
Here we see three things: 1) Jesus is the Messiah (the Christ) come in human flesh; 2) Whoever doesn't confess that Jesus is the Messiah is not of God, instead he is of the Antichrist; 3) We must confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the flesh in order to be in God. The Apostle John reiterates this in his next letter – "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don't confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist" (2 John 1:7).
God has not only sent the Living Word into the world, He has also given us His written word, as the Apostle Paul writes – "All Scripture inspired by God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction which is in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16). But right after that, Paul writes - "For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables" (ch. 4:3-4). Deceivers are always "out there," teaching their distorted, lust-driven doctrines.
But how then can we tell the truth from error? The Apostle Peter writes – "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation, as no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21). The connecting word "as" is sometimes translated "for" or "because" – it tells us the explanation of the previous phrase "no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation" – Why? Because just as holy men of God (Moses and the prophets) spoke being move by the Holy Spirit, in the same way it takes holy men of God to interpret the Scriptures. Not any and every Christian is qualified to explain and teach the Scriptures!
In the very next verses, Peter warns us – "But there also arose false prophets among the people, as among you also there will be false teachers, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger, and their destruction will not slumber" (ch. 2:1-3). Notice again how destructive, deceptive heresies are often linked to immoral ways.
A little further, St. Peter warns us that understanding and interpreting Scripture is no easy task – "Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (ch. 3:15-16). BTW, here the Apostle Peter considers the Apostle Paul's letters as Scripture.
The Apostles John, Peter, and Paul all considered that their preaching and writing about the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah – Jesus the Christ – was the continuation and fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies. In Micah 4:1-3 we read – "But in the latter days, the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will go and say, 'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and He will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, Neither will they learn war any more." Just like the prophets of old, the Apostles were eagerly expecting the Messiah to come and rule the nations in righteousness and peace.
But when will this happen? Micah continues – "Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you will beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain to the Lord, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth. Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us; they will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you One will come forth to Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Therefore He will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the people of Israel." (ch. 4:13 - 5:1-3). Military invasion, siege of Jerusalem, then "she who is in labor gives birth" in Bethlehem.
Many, many other Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled with the coming of Yeshua, the Messiah – Jesus the Christ, the Annointed One – more prophecies than I have time to recount. Finally, "The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw His glory, such glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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