The Word Becoming Human

What would you say is the most important event in history?

11 February 1990 is a significant date in South African history, which is the date Nelson Mandela was released from prison. 27 April 1994 is another important date in SA history, the date when all South Africans could vote freely, and Nelson Mandela was elected the first democratic president of the new South Africa.

Another date we will never forget is 27 March 2020. What makes this date so significant? It was the day President Ramaphosa announced that the country would go into lockdown because of the COVID-19 virus. At the time, we may not have fully understood the magnitude of that announcement or the far-reaching repercussions it would have. But looking back, we can confidently say that from that day on, our lives were never the same.

There was one big event that didn't affect just South Africa or wherever you are from, but that had an impact on all human history, that is, when the Word became flesh, or when the Word who was God took on a human nature and lived amongst humanity as one who was both God and man at the same time in one person. Let's unpack this passage further and hear what it says about this historical event.

V1-5 The Word existed before time and is God

'1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

We are introduced to the Word who existed before time, as the word beginning in the English is translated in reference to before time. The Word who is Jesus shares eternity with God. He was with Him before the beginning. Jesus was eternally with God, and there is an intimate relationship between Jesus and God. Jesus is one with God.

The language used here takes us back to creation in Genesis 1 when God, in the beginning, created the world. Verse 3 makes it clear that Christ is the Creator, and he executed God’s mandate in creation. God Spoke, and Christ created,d as we are told in verse 3 that God created everything through him.

In verse 4, we are told that he is the light of men as he brings light to men. They are in an antagonistic relationship, with light overcoming darkness, even though the darkness fights the light.

Jesus is the true light who entered the world to expose the darkness, which is opposed to light; when the light shines in darkness, it exposes the darkness and shows the evil and dirt.

I remember when I was a student, there was a Bash in the mainhall, when the lights are off, and people are having a good time, the moment the lights come on, as a sign that the Bash is about to come to an end, it exposed how dirty the place is, and there was a feeling of shame at how filthy the place is. Jesus was the light that came to shine in a dark world opposed to God, and it is full of sin, but he came in as the true light to shine on our sins. When sin is exposed they are two reactions: one of opposition and or one of repentance. Which one are you?

“10 He was in the world, and the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.”

This is BIG NEWS!!!! As the one who was with God from before creation has now come into creation. The one who made the world and who is outside of the world is now in the world. The word world in John's gospel comes with negative overtones as it is associated with rebellion against God. It was to this world that Christ came in person, but his own did not receive him.

His own here are the people of Israel who did not receive him but rejected him. Despite all the centuries they had been waiting for their promised Messiah, when he last appeared, they rejected him. What a tragedy.

Imagine a software creator who creates a certain type of programme, and he inserts himself in the software programme, but his own software that he created rejects him, and an error appears when he appears. This is crazy, the software is rejecting the creator of the very software.

But this happens because the software is corrupted due to a virus entering. Sin has corrupted creation. The Creator, when he entered the world he created, rejects him. We are told in verse 10 that his own rejected him. We are told in verse 12 that not all rejected him, but some believed in him, and as a reward, they are adopted by him into a new family where they are God's children.

He gave the right to become children of God (12). In a world where social position and hierarchy counted for everything, and the majority of the population were slaves without rights or freedoms, the gospel carried immense appeal as a message which promised to all people, irrespective of rank, nothing less than personal membership within the family circle of God. In a single moment, nobodies were transformed into somebodies.

Even today, with all our valued rights and freedoms, so many people suffer from a crippling lack of self-worth, How relevant, therefore, is a gospel which tells us that as Christians we are valued members of God’s family as the dearly loved children of God, irrespective of how others may see us or even of how we see ourselves through Christ, we are adopted into a new family of God.

The Word becomes human V14-18.

“14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. This statement is one of the most significant and memorable ever penned. Its implications are limitless. It has provided the church over the centuries.

with a key to understanding the mystery of Jesus Christ. It represents the foundation of the gospel.

Jesus again appears as the divine Word, one with the Father in divinity and now one with us in humanity. John’s language reflects the events of the Exodus from Egypt, as well as the revelation of God at Mount Sinai and in the tabernacle in the wilderness, happenings that dominated the faith of Israel from that day to the present.

As God ‘lived among’ his people then, so the Word has come to live among us (14) now; literally ‘pitched his tent among us’. In the Old Testament, the tabernacle, or the tent of meeting, represented God's presence. Now, in Christ, we have God’s presence in the flesh, something more glorious than the tabernacle.

Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Jesus existed before time itself and is the one through whom creation came into existence. He is the one in whom life is found and is the light of humanity.