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Christian Clarity
Article
Incarnation and Life of the Word of God: Jesus Christ
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth;
I. That the Word of God is the source of all life, that the Word of God is Jesus Christ and that not the power of God or the love of God or any other attribute of God became flesh but the Word of God in particular became flesh revealing all else:
A. The Word of God is the source of all life and that which exists:
Psa 33:6 By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
John 1:1-3 In [the] beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him, and without him not one [thing] received being which has received being.
B. This same Word is that Word of God which became flesh, whose name is Jesus Christ and also the Word of God; that is, Jesus Christ and the Word of God are one and the same Person and is God:
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth
John 1:1 In [the] beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Mat 1:18-23 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was thus: His mother, Mary, that is, having been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of [the] Holy Spirit. But Joseph, her husband, being [a] righteous [man], and unwilling to expose her publicly, purposed to have put her away secretly; but while he pondered on these things, behold, an angel of [the] Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take to [thee] Mary, thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of [the] Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this came to pass that that might be fulfilled which was spoken by [the] Lord, through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, 'God with us.'
Luke 1:30 And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God;
and behold, thou shalt conceive in the womb and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called Son of [the] Highest; and [the] Lord God shall give him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for the ages, and of his kingdom there shall not be an end.
But Mary said to the angel, How shall this be, since I know not a man? And the angel answering said to her, [The] Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of [the] Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God.
John 1:10-17 He was in the world, and the world had [its] being through him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not;
but as many as received him, to them gave he [the] right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh's will, nor of man's will, but of God.And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth; (John bears witness of him, and he has cried, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me;) for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ.
Acts 4:10 be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom ye have crucified, whom God has raised from among [the] dead, by him this [man] stands here before you sound [in body]. He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders, which is become the corner stone. And salvation is in none other, for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved.
It is then plain and unambiguous that Jesus Christ is both the Word of God and the Son of God that was manifested in the flesh as God-with-us, Immanuel and which lived in the flesh, was crucified in the flesh and rose as no longer of the flesh of this earth. For God having said: "..the Word was God" and then, "..the Word became flesh" and"..but as many as receive Him, to them gave He the right to be children of God to those who believe on His name..." and then having said "..Jesus Christ...salvation is in none other for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved"... and "...thou shalt call His name Jesus.." and "...the holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called Son of God.." God has made undeniably plain the truth that He has manifested Himself to us in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Rev 19:11-13 And I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and one sitting on it, [called] Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war in righteousness. And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head many diadems, having a name written which no one knows but himself; and [he is] clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God.
C. The Son of God, Jesus Christ was made flesh as the Word of God in particular even as the fulness of the God-head dwelt in Him. That is, the power of God, the love of God, the Spirit of God and all reality of God dwelt in Jesus Christ yet He was manifested to us in the same flesh as we were once particularly as the Word of God.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth;
Col 1:12-19 giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated [us] into the kingdom of the Son of his love: in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins; who is image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation; because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities: all things have been created by him and for him. And he is before all, and all things subsist together by him. And he is the head of the body, the assembly; who is [the] beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things: for in him all the fulness [of the Godhead] was pleased to dwell,
II. Why the Word in particular was made flesh
A. Words are spirit; God's Word is spirit and life
1. Physical/visible manifestation/proof of the
invisible
He came both spiritually in Word and physically in the flesh, simultaneously seen and unseen and heard when formerly what He spoke through the flesh He had provided for Himself and did were hidden from sight and hearing of the creation. He had not been silent formerly but revealed hidden things which to those of old were hidden and shrouded in mystery. For He says of old through the Psalmist:
Prov 30:4 Who hath ascended up into the heavens, and descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a mantle? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou knowest?
But now He has said:
Mat 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
and
Eph 4:8-10 Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men. But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things;
and
Psa 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old,
Mat 13:34,35 All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them, so that that should be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from [the] world's foundation.
Those to whom He was sent that were not his own knew Him not as their eyes had been darkened so that they could see no other thing than what is visible to the naked eye of men and could hear no other than the speech of sin in which they were experts. But God says in His Word that the visible things have their being from the unseen:
Heb 11:3 By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by [the] word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear.
So then, the Word of God was formerly unseen and became as unavoidable to be seen and heard only by His own. For He says to those who are not his own:
John 8:43 Why do ye not know my speech? Because ye cannot hear my word.
Yet not knowing His speech they expressly knew His Person:
Mark 1:23 And there was in their synagogue a man [possessed] by an unclean spirit, and he cried out saying, Eh! what have we to do with thee, Jesus, Nazarene? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace and come out of him.
Mat 21:38 But the husbandmen, seeing the son, said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him and possess his inheritance. And they took him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him.
His coming as Word in the flesh was expressly to demonstrate that the visible has its being from the invisible. His Word was not visible to the eye of men but none-the-less was Him:..(the physical form of the speech of sin which is spirit but not the Spirit of God has not yet been made visible in the form of the anti-Christ, the anti-Word of God but will be at the end of days...)
John 14:8-10 Philip says to him, Lord, shew us the Father and it suffices us. Jesus says to him, Am I so long a time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father; and how sayest thou, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I [am] in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words which I speak to you I do not speak from myself; but the Father who abides in me, he does the works.
Note that God does not say "..WHY sayest thou.."
but "..HOW sayest thou...". It was only in the speech of sin that dwells in the flesh that anyone can doubt or be uncertain. God is demonstrating through Philip that the unseen is only spiritually discerned in His Word, Jesus Christ and is God, unable by His own to be missed after He has revealed Himself to them.
B. The Seed of the Woman
The woman, having been deceived and that deception specifically by the speech of sin through the serpent,
God placed enmity by His Word between the seed of the woman and the seed of the speech of sin. The seed of the woman was Jesus Christ, the Word of God having been born of a woman and that woman, Mary, a virgin. The seed of the serpent was the Speech of sin, Satan. Such enmity as God placed between them
had its fulfillment in the sufferings of Christ, the Word of God in the flesh at the hands of those deceived in every way by the speech of sin through Satan and is having its fulfillment between them to
this very hour. Such enmity will not cease until the end of days when the speech of sin in the flesh will be silenced forever.
2 Th 2:3-8 Let not any one deceive you in any manner, because [it will not be] unless the apostasy have first come, and the man of sin have been revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God, or object of veneration; so that he himself sits down in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Do ye not remember that, being yet with you, I said these things to you? And now ye know that which restrains, that he should be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness already works; only [there is] he who restrains now until he be gone, and then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming;
Zec 2:13 Let all flesh be silent before Jehovah; for he is risen up out of his holy habitation.
Psa 63:11 But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: for the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.
Rev 21:8 But to the fearful and unbelieving, [and sinners], and those who make themselves abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part [is] in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
C. Alien to the Speech of Sin--to overthrow the speech of sin
John 14:29,30 And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it shall have come to pass ye may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing;
Mat 12:28-34 But if I by [the] Spirit of God cast out demons, then indeed the kingdom of God is come upon you. Or how can any one enter into the house of the strong [man] and plunder his goods, unless first he bind the strong [man]? and then he will plunder his house. He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters. For this reason I say unto you, Every sin and injurious speaking shall be forgiven to men, but speaking injuriously of the Spirit shall not be forgiven to men. And whosoever shall have spoken a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming [one]. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt. For from the fruit the tree is known. Offspring of vipers! how can ye speak good things, being wicked? For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
D. To suffer at the hands of the devices of the Speech of Sin
Mat 26:59-68 And the chief priests and the elders and the whole sanhedrim sought false witness against Jesus, so that they might put him to death. And they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. But at the last two false witnesses came forward and said, He said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and in three days build it. And the high priest standing up said to him, Answerest thou nothing? What do these witness against thee? But Jesus was silent. And the high priest answering said to him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us if thou art the Christ the Son of God. Jesus says to him, Thou hast said. Moreover, I say to you, From henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He has blasphemed: what need have we any more of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard the blasphemy. What think ye? And they answering said, He is liable to the penalty of death. Then they spit in his face, and buffeted him, and some struck him with the palms of their hand, saying, Prophesy to us, Christ, Who is it who struck thee?
Seeing that sin in the flesh of the Pharisees struck the Christ who was incarnate in the flesh and seeing that Christ forgave those who were killing Him:
Luke 23:34 And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And, parting out his garments, they cast lots.
..it is plain that the Word of God made a distiction between the those through whom sin acted and sin itself. For the Word of God is that God of whom He said formerly:
Exo 34:6-8 And Jehovah passed by before his face, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clearing [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, upon the third and upon the fourth [generation]. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head to the earth and worshipped,
God then does in no way clear the guilty having directly said as spirit and as life: "...forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty.." it is plain that He forgave the sinful actions done in the flesh of the very persons who were used of sin to kill His sin-less fleshly body and yet in no way forgave sin itself thereby not at all clearling the guilty. That evil which is the speech of sin yet to be revealed in the falsely incarnated man of sin, the anti-christ has been now made a public show of in disgrace and defeat as the Word of God having created death formerly, now has defeated death, whose power is shown in sin.
Col 2:13-15 And you, being dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, having forgiven us all the offences; having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which [stood out] against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it also out of the way, having nailed it to the cross; having spoiled principalities and authorities, he made a show of them publicly, leading them in triumph by it.
and
1 Cor 15:55-57 Where, O death, [is] thy sting? where, O death, thy victory? Now the sting of death [is] sin, and the power of sin the law; but thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Universe/Creation simply belongs to God. He created sin in order to show the power of His wrath on it and having done so and even more so in the future in the lake of fire.
III. The Purpose of the Word Speaking through Flesh
A. Fulfillment of the Scriptures: Enmity between the
seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent
This eternal Son of God who is God became flesh in order that He would suffer and die at the hands of the god and word/speech of this world which is not the Word of God but is sin and Satan and therby restore all things to Himself. For having given the earth to Satan as a promise of His Word until such time as He saw fit to purchase it back from Satan by His own blood, He spoke as creating the future event that the seed of the woman would crush the head of Satan even as Satan would crush the heal of the seed of the woman. Hear this revelation:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall crush thy head, and thou shalt crush his heel.
B. Birthing new creations in Jesus Christ
The purpose of God's Speech is to create and to build up what He has already created. His speaking and creating does away with the gains sin and death make in destroying what he has created in the past. That is, His Speech stirs up the speech of sin to fury not by addressing sin directly as adding any more to it than He initially gave to it as being, but by merely creating withn the proximity and under the nose of a world dominated by death and sin. He demonstrates His power within view of the powerlessness of the speech of sin to create anything. Not only so but He speaks through men and creats what is spoken:
Ezek 37:3-14 And he said unto me, Son of man, Shall these bones live? And I said, Lord Jehovah, thou knowest. And he said unto me, Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them, Ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will put sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live: and ye shall know that I [am] Jehovah. And I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a rustling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, sinews and flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. And he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. And I prophesied as he had commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. And he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off! Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I
and
Luke 10:16-17 He that hears you hears me; and he that rejects you rejects me; and he that rejects me rejects him that sent me. And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us through thy name. And he said to them, I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven. Behold, I give you the power of treading upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in anywise injure you. Yet in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you, but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens.
C. Doing away with the works of Satan and the
speech of sin
To purchase His elect from the speech of sin/satan and death was expressly His purpose, having placed such enmity between the Word of God and the speech of sin/satan and death. For God further declares as spirit and as life to a deceived and enslaved Israel even after they had been freed from Egypt:
Isa 52:3 For thus saith Jehovah: Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.
and
Psa 74:2 Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed [to be] the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
D. To die in the flesh
1. Purpose of dying in the flesh: To convict the world of sin
1 John 1:1-4 That which was from [the] beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life; (and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us:) that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship [is] indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we to you that your joy may be full.
Heb 1:1-4 God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in [the person of the] Son, whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being [the] effulgence of his glory and [the] expression of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, having made [by himself] the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high, taking a place by so much better than the angels, as he inherits a name more excellent than they.
Words are spirit and are alive. God's Word in particular is spirit and is life. It is not merely a-live but is in truth the source of all life which exists and the experience and knowledge of such life. From the beginning God spoke and created. His Word being part of Him and simultaneously proceding from Him is the begeinning of creation. That He is still God and that creation had a beginning is certain.
Jesus Christ, as the Word of God was always God and with God, even in silence. That God spoke and revealed His Son and His Word in no way marks a beginning as existence of His Word.
John 1:1-3 In [the] beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him, and without him not one [thing] received being which has received being.
That same Word which spoke this revelation brought to pass this enmity in order that the work of Satan and the speech of sin which is not the Word of God would be undone:
1 John 3:8 He that practises sin is of the devil; for from [the] beginning the devil sins. To this end the Son of God has been manifested, that he might undo the works of the devil.
That speech of sin in the devil, called Satan, deceived the whole world and spoke the fall, deceived the woman and for the love of the woman Adam, who was not deceived, fell. That the whole world lies in the speech of sin and the devil is made plain by God:
1 John 5:19,20 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the wicked [one]. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that [is] true; and we are in him that [is] true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
The Word of God came to seek His own, those lost and deceived, killed in the speech of sin which spoken them without restraint, to save them and to birth them anew by the hearing of His voice so that He would be in them and that His Word should grow until the time of the harvest. He did not come merely to die though that was one purpose. He came also that we might live in Him and that by having in ourselves that living Word who is God.
Mat 13:18-23 Ye, therefore, hear the parable of the sower.
Mat 13:19 From every one who hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand
That the speech of sin took notice of Him as not being of the speech of sin but being the Word of God and that that speech attempted to gain authority over Him by its own feral exegesis of the Word of God is also plain:
Mark 5:6-9 But seeing Jesus from afar off, he ran and did him homage, and crying with a loud voice he says, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, torment me not. For he said to him, Come forth, unclean spirit, out of the man. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he says to him, Legion is my name, because we are many.
and
Mat 4:3-11 And the tempter coming up to him said, If thou be Son of God, speak, that these stones may become loaves of bread. But he answering said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which goes out through God's mouth. Then the devil takes him to the holy city, and sets him upon the edge of the temple, and says to him, If thou be Son of God cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give charge to his angels concerning thee, and on
The speech of sin has no authority over the Word of God even as there is extreme enmity between them. It is the Word of God that has all authority:
Eph 1:19-23 and what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, [in] which he wrought in the Christ [in] raising him from among [the] dead, and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come; and has put all things under his feet, and gave him [to be] head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all:
This Word of God who is God, Jesus Christ declared God to us as elect:
John 1:17,18 For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him].
In declaring Him, the Son of God, Jesus Christ took the form of flesh, was born the seed of the woman, not the man as the Holy Spirit came on her and she conceived as a physical virgin. This flesh then came under the authority of the law as all those for whom He had come both to declare God into them as spirit and as life and to die for them in order to reconcile them to God through His blood, the righteous for the sinful, were under law and therefore in trangression of the law. He came not only for those under law but for those who had believed in God from the beginning of the creation and who fell under the promise of God of the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman and the subsequent crushing of the head of the serpent who had deceived the whole world. In short, He died for all those who had fallen under the speech of sin and who had been used by sin to do evil works in their flesh.
Rom 1:20-23 -- for from [the] world's creation the invisible things of Him are perceived, being apprehended by the mind through the things that are made, both His eternal power and divinity, -- so as to render them inexcusable. Because, knowing God, they glorified [Him] not as God, neither were thankful; but fell into folly in their thoughts, and their heart without understanding was darkened: professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into [the] likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and quadrupeds and reptiles.
to be continued...
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen