The Word Became Flesh

My, Devotion to Him #291

VERSE PASSAGE: John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – NIV

This is absolutely one of my favorite bible verses. I don’t have one verse that is the favorite one. Instead, I have several. Growing up I have heard this passage in Sunday school, youth group, morning and evening church services. I remember having to memorize this passage in Awana’s class.

This verse from the Bible has stuck with me. I just want to spend a little time going over this wonderful verse.

“In the beginning” 

This is a tie to the beginning of all things. Not just the start of a film that ends within two hours, or one book where a certain character is tied into every chapter. Instead it is the start of everything. Even more that that it is the start of the beginning before the start of everything that we know. Before the world, before the stars, before the galaxy, before the universe.

VERSE PASSAGE: Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” – NIV

Now John 1:1 is placing itself right before the second half of Genesis 1:1. We are in the beginning before God created the heavens and the earth.

“was the Word” 

So we know that we are talking about the beginning of creation and even before that. Now we see that in the beginning was the Word.

“and the Word was with God”

Now if the Word was in the beginning and now the Word was with God. This places the Word before creation. How? Because in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. Genesis 1:1 does not account for the Word being created. Thus the Word was before creation and the Word was with God in the beginning. The beginning before all things began.

“and the Word was God”

Okay, now things have went from mild to medium to hot. Now the Word was God. Not only was the Word in the beginning, but it was with God before creation. That’s already pretty huge. But then it reveals that the Word is God. 

John does an amazing job at asserting Jesus’ deity. 

1. Jesus was in the beginning. Thus asserting His importance. 

2. Jesus was with God. Thus asserting His coexistence with God. 

3. Jesus was God. Thus asserting His place in the trinity and revealing His deity. 

VERSE PASSAGE: Hebrews 1:1- 3 “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” – NIV

Notice in here where it talks about in the last days God spoke to them by His Son. Which that would be Jesus and through whom also He made the universe. How did He use Jesus to create the universe? We see how in John 1:1. Because Jesus was in the beginning, He was with God, and He was God. Jesus is the Word of God and is God in human form. As stated in Hebrews that Jesus is the exact representation of His being. When you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. Which the Bible backs this claim up again in John 14:9.

This is the most important statement of the New Testament. On this truth hangs all other truths. If Jesus was only a man, then regardless of how good He was, His life could only provide a substitute for one other man. As such was the sacrificial offerings of animals to cover man’s sins for a period of one year in the Old Testament. But since He was God, His life was worth more than every human life since creation. Indeed it was worth more than the sum total of the universe that He created.

There can not be any compromise on this point. Because it will totally nullify the work of Christ in our lives and the importance of Jesus Christ. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. Not only because Hebrews 1:1-3 states it. But also these two. 

VERSE PASSAGE: John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – NIV

VERSE PASSAGE: Philippines 2:7-10 “rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” – NIV 

This Almighty God came to dwell in a human body. He humbled Himself and became us. Jesus’ humanity truly made Him one of us. He suffered the same temptations and pressures that we suffer or have suffered. It was His divinity, however, that gave Him the power to save us. We must never let His deity blind us to the fact that He is also our friend.

VERSE PASSAGE: John 15:13-14 “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” – NIV

And we must never let His deity blind us to the fact that He knows exactly how we feel and cares for us because He loves us and died for us. We must never forget that Jesus is deity. Jesus was the Word in the beginning and is God in the flesh. 

God Bless!

Copyright © 2022 by Jacob Olinger