The Gospel of John -- The Word became flesh

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us." (John 1:14)

the fact of the incarnation--that Jesus the eternal Son of God, the One through whom all things were made, actually became flesh and made His dwelling among us, is something i have a hard time grasping, no matter how many times i think about it.

every year, christmas presents an opportunity to reflect on such wonderful truths, but it seems like the older i get in my christian faith, the more amazing is the wonder of it all.

and as unbelievable as the incarnation was, i used to wonder about the following question just as much: what happened to jesus's humanity when He died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected by the Father, and taken up into heaven?

i used to think that Jesus became a man for just the duration of His earthly life, in order to complete the work God gave Him to do. when Jesus was resurrected and taken up into glory, i thought that He would assume the divinity that He had before He ever came into the world.

in other words, i thought that Jesus would fully assume His divinity

without the humanity.

but i have come to realize that this is just not true.

Jesus will never, ever be again what He was before He was incarnated on earth.

when Jesus the Son of God left His eternal glory, and took upon Himself our human nature, He did so for all eternity . . .

for all eternity He will bear our human nature.

even now, as Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father, He is as fully in His essence man as He is God. He is the Son of God, but also the Son of Man; conceived by the Holy Spirit but born of the Virgin Mary.

now we can understand why theologians describe the incarnation as the humiliation of Jesus.

there is no other word adequate to describe how much Jesus lowered Himself for us.

Glory be to God in the highest that Christ ever came into the world to save sinners such as us.

as we reflect upon these glorious truths, may we be moved to worship and adoration and gratitude for Jesus who left His eternal glory, and walked among us, forever taking upon Himself our wretched human nature.

and as we grow in our knowledge of Him, may we be able to testify along with the Apostle John that "we have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth".

Full of grace and truth.