And the Word Was Made Flesh

Of all the inspired Gospels, only two, recorded the story of the Lord's birth. However, the Incarnation is found in the doctrine of the Word made flesh, with which John's Gospel begins. The Lord from eternity was Jehovah, in human form, but not yet in the flesh; and as Jehovah willed to put on the entire Human, He assumed the flesh. Thus the simple but profound statement made by John records the fulfillment in time of the Lord's will to become Man in ultimates - to take on His own proper Human; and it is the basis of our belief that the Lord Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem was God incarnate: the Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God. Yet we must understand that the full meaning of scripture is not found in the letter alone. For instance, "flesh" does not necessarily mean the material body, but the sensuous which is the ultimate of the natural; and in this instance the reference is not to the material body which the Lord assumed from Mary but to the Human which He put on from the Divine itself. When the Lord was born, the Word was indeed made flesh externally or outwardly in His infant body; but this was not the complete fulfillment of that scripture, and the Word was not made flesh internally until the Lord had made the Human in Himself Divine down to the sensuous and had thus become the Word in ultimates. In other words, John's inspired writing is an introduction not only of the Incarnation but also of the Lord's glorification; and its fulfillment was marked by His saying, after His resurrection, "A spirit hath not flesh . . . as ye see Me have." This view takes nothing away from John's words as a profound statement of the Incarnation. Rather, it does carry our thought forward as to the glorification, for the sake of which, as the means of salvation, the Lord came. For the "flesh" in reference to the Lord signifies also His Divine essence - the Reality of which is the Divine Human; this mystery is that which GOD seek to bring all men into in HIMSELF.