Four Great Truths Of God Becoming Human Series

If you will find the gospel of John with me. The New Testament has four gospels that begin the best-selling book of all time. Each of the four shares a unique perspective on Jesus, while many of the stories overlap. So, if you were reading the gospels, you would read many of the same miracles and parables more than once.

John was likely written after Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Positioned as the last of four gospels in our Bibles, there is nothing about John that is inferior to the other four gospels in any way. We have a great gift in the Gospel of John.

The gospel of John has brought life-changing inspiration and comfort to countless generations of Christian believers. John tells us the reason he writes the gospel near the very end of the book: “…but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

John is so good that children often memorize entire chapters of John’s gospel.1 Elderly Christians on their deathbed ask that parts of this Gospel be read to them. Students on college campuses hand out free copies of the Gospel of John to their friends in the hope of introducing them to Jesus. For years, the Billy Graham organization encouraged all new believers to start reading the Bible by reading the gospel of John first. And of course, for decades, the best-known verse in the Bible is found in John’s gospel: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The gospel of John offers what many consider the most comprehensive and penetrating answer to the central question of all time – who is Jesus Christ?

Again, we have a great gift in the Gospel of John.

Today’s Scripture

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No.’ So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.’

(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, ‘Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.’ These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.” (John 1:1, 14-28).

If you were to say to me, “How could God become human?” this is the classic passage on the Incarnation. Let me show you Four Great Truths to God becoming human.

1. The Word Became Flesh

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).

1.1 Jesus is the Word

We know Jesus is “the Word” because, in verse 17, John identifies Jesus by name. John calls Jesus “the Word” or the Greek Word Logos from which we get our word logic from. When John writes this gospel, people are into philosophy. In Greek philosophy, the word Logos is a big deal. The logos was a mysterious organizing principle of the universe, the thing that held it together and allowed it to make sense to many Greek minds.2

Now we shouldn’t take John to mean that Jesus’ mother called her Son, “Word.” No, John gives Jesus this title because He is attempting to connect to the people of his day. He’s trying to show them Jesus is the One they are looking for. John says, “I’ve found the meaning of life. God punched a hole in the roof of the world, and His Son is the Logos. He’s the essence of life. He fulfills the meaning of life. I want to get up in the morning because of the Word.”3