(The Preacher’s Magazine 1998-99)

Undoubtedly the most con­cise and precise scriptural statement regarding the In­carnation is recorded in John 1:14. Succinctly it states, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (emphasis added). Eugene Peterson uses modem expres­sions to translate the idioms of the original Greek: "The Word be­came flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish" (TM, emphasis added).

Leon Morris highlights the verse's uniqueness by referring to such special features as (1) the intentionality of the usage of the verb "became" in the aorist tense (punctiliar event or point in time in history), (2) reference to human nature by the term "flesh," (3) the recollection of God's presence in the temporary Tabernacle, and (4) linking an association between "dwelling" and Shekinah. Morris comments, "In one short, shattering expres­sion John unveils the great idea at the heart of Christianity that the very Word of God took flesh for man's salvation .... Jesus was the unique embodiment of the glory of God. Because of His character as the Word we see in Him the divine glory."[i]

During the Advent season, I enjoy annually sharing the story about a three-year-old's difficulty in falling asleep one night. After the most ritualistic routine of bedtime prayers, goodnight hugs and kisses, drink of water, and last trip to the rest room, the fa­ther attempts to convince his toddler that his nocturnal fears are unwarranted. Once again, he reassures the boy that the Lord promises to be near for protec­tion.

Feeling confident that his lec­ture on the Lord's continual pres­ence alleviated his son's fears, Dad retires to bed. However, the parents are awakened by their little boy's sobbing. In response to the inquiry of what is wrong, he replies innocently, "I bumped my head on my pillow." After more futile explanations by Mom and Dad that there is nothing to fear with God so near, the child insightfully comments, "I wish God had skin."

Similarly, anyone can feel overwhelmed with a sense of the surrounding spiritual darkness in our world. Feelings of insecurity and loneliness can arise at any moment. If only God himself could be tangibly present, one sincerely believes that anxiety would vanish.

Fulfillment of the Father’s Promised Sacred Presence

John 1:14 underscores that God lived in the "skin" of hu­manity in the word translated "dwelling," or "tabernacling." Literally, "by the play on skēnē, eskenosen, St. John implies that Christ as the Word made flesh was the true Shekinah, the true presence of God with men."[ii] Al­so, "The place of His dwelling is the flesh of Jesus... All the ways of tabernacling of God in Israel had been transitory or in­complete; all are fulfilled and su­perseded by the Word-made ­flesh and dwelling among US."[iii] In addition, the Hebrew under­stood the word "mercy" to be "living in one's skin." Native Americans speak of "walking in someone else's moccasins."

David McKenna comments: "Either image, a tent, or a taber­nacle is Incarnational. The pitch­ing of the tent suggests Jesus' identification with the nomadic nature...of the people in Is­rael. Tabernacling, however; sug­gests His sacred Presence in the midst of their spiritual wander­ing."[iv]

In essence, God revealed him­self to humanity in the most pro­found manner in which He would possibly be comprehend­ed. He became human! In the First Advent, God entered His creation in actual flesh-skin and bones. He intensified and maximized His identity by such self-disclosure. He activated His new special revelation to be more credible than ever; since He became tangible to touch and sight, as eyewitnesses have docu­mented in the Gospels.

Jesus substantiated God in face-to-face authentic physical encounters. He provided human­ity with a much clearer perspec­tive of God. As the climactic mode of communication, the Incarnation may be described as "body language." Jesus embod­ied the presence of the living God. God's speech became de­scriptively pictorial in His Son.

The definitive word of God was spoken in His Word, or the Christ event. Jesus became His presence. Simply, God spoke in His Son! In the 1970s a musical group called Bread coined a very descriptive phrase in one of their songs: "If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can't I paint you?" In this case, our Heavenly Father did paint him­self in Jesus. Christ was not just a vignette or a print; He will for­ever remain the genuine Master­piece and unique stroke of a master artist.

Faithful to His Father's Image

Sometimes a person will say that a child is the "spitting im­age" of his or her father. In other words, a distinct reflection bears an identical resemblance. Heb. 1:1-3 says:

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the proph­ets at many times and in vari­ous ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son ... 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 (em­phasis added).

The quality of God's "speech" in His Son contrasts with the va­riety of speaking through the prophets. The superlative, singu­lar, special revelation of Jesus Christ is compared to the multi­plicity of prophetic mouthpieces. Essentially, Christ became the su­perior Messenger, embodied the superior message, provided su­perior mercy, and reigns as supe­rior Monarch!

Not only does Jesus fulfill the prophetic office, but also the priestly and royalty offices be­long to Him. Jesus' mediatorial role as priest explains another rationale for His incarnation. Heb. 2:14-15, 17-18 states:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death ... For this rea­son he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merci­ful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Jesus graciously balanced His humanity and deity by being both "merciful" to mankind as well as "faithful" to God.

Scriptures abound with exam­ples of theophanies or divine ap­pearances. For example, in Moses' life alone, God appeared to him on Mount Sinai in the burning bush encounter and by carving the Ten Commandments, as well as in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and His Shekinah presence in the Tabernacle.

The coming of Jesus Christ forever stands as the most ex­plicit theophany ever known to man. It was God's most personal and vital appearance. The pur­pose of God is supernaturally re­vealed in this planned strategy. The incarnation of God as Jesus, from conception to crucifixion to coronation, displayed His inten­tion to unveil the master blue­print. Jesus is God come down to our level of comprehension be­cause we could not come up to His.

Rob Staples, in Outward Sign and Inward Grace, refers to the Incarnation as "the strongest ar­gument for 'sacrament.' Jesus Christ is the supreme 'Visible Word."[v] Paul shared the essence of this truth with the Colossian believers:

He is the image of the invisi­ble God, the firstborn over all creation ... For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (1:15, 19-20, emphases added).

The New Testament portrayed a fascinating concept of "image." Note also 2 Cor. 4:4. Christ is the perfect Expression. Jesus' own words announced, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). William Barclay ex­plains that a diminutive form of eikōn (eikonion) was the root word for "portrait" in the Greek. It nearly equals our contempo­rary word "photograph." Regard­ing its usage in legal circles, Bar­clay explains, "When a legal document was drawn up, such as a receipt or an IOU, it always in­cluded a description of the chief characteristics and distinguish­ing marks of the contracting par­ties, so that there could be no mistake."[vi] Jesus was the "por­trait" of God!

All God’s Fullness Enfleshed in Bodily Form

In Col. 1: 19, Paul also says that Jesus is the plērōma or "full­ness" of God. He is God in com­plete revelation. The totality of the eternal Godhead is realized in bodily form (Col. 2:9). His body was flesh and blood just like ours.

To further apply this truth, Christians must realize that Christ intends to continue His in­carnation in and through us. The Church Universal is Christ incar­nate. Believers are an extension of His incarnation. Oswald Chambers notes in his book My Utmost for His Highest that "we are not turned into spiritual mediums, but into spiritual mes­sengers; the message must be part of ourselves. The Son of God was His own message ... As His disciples our lives must be the sacrament of our message."[vii]

Paul points out, "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body" (2 Cor. 4:10, emphasis added). Jesus originally taught this, as one sees in reading His words in John 14:20, 23; 15:4-5; and chapter 17. David McKenna aptly observes, "The same Spirit of God who brought to life the divine Word in human flesh is able to bring to birth the likeness of Christ in our humanity."[viii] His ministry is perpetually ongoing until the expected parousia is fulfilled. "The incarnation is not an isolated event in human his­tory. It is a continuing act of creation by which we can gain the integrity of character which qualifies us for Incarnational leadership."[ix]

Identification with Feelings and Facial Expressions

God chose to be Immanuel, God with us. God's love is not only propitiatory but also partici­patory. Henri Nouwen wrote: "In Jesus, God's compassion became visible to us .... In and through Jesus Christ we know that God is our God, a God who has experi­enced our brokenness, who has become sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21).[x] Truly, one encounters both elements of intimacy and solidarity in the Incarnation. Again, "Compassion means go­ing directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there."[xi]

Society encourages mankind to remake God "in our own im­age" rather than realizing or re­inforcing that we are created "in the image of God" (cf. Gen. 1:26- 27). Nevertheless, our Lord Je­sus portrayed God's "facial ex­pression." Paul wrote, "For God ... made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). Consequently, we never need to project our own image upon God, since He revealed and pro­vided His own perfect image of himself through His Son.

My Favorite Advent Story

Another one of my favorite stories to share during Advent revolves around a setting that occurred on Christmas Eve.

A gentle snow was falling out­side as the family hurried to get ready to attend the Christmas Eve service at church. The father, however, tried to become incon­spicuous, since he was planning to stay home. Christmas was just another holiday to him. "Why all the hype about a baby born 2,000 years ago?" he thought to himself. As the family drove away, he settled in his recliner chair to read.

Within a few minutes, the lonely silence was broken by a pecking on the window. The fa­ther soon noticed a bird trying to escape the accumulating snow­fall by repeatedly flying into the windowpane. "They must be cold and hungry," he mumbled. Suddenly, he planned to rescue the birds outside his home by opening the garage door to re­lieve them from the elements of the weather.

However, they flew away, frightened at his presence. Next, he tried to lead them into safety by spreading bread crumbs in the direction of the garage, but the birds were only suspicious of his intentions. The descending snow buried each crumb. Final­ly, in a sense of desperation, he attempted to chase the birds in­to the garage, but they only scattered. The man expressed his exasperation by saying, "If only I could become a bird, so I could lead them out of the snow and into the safety of the garage!"

At that moment, he heard the church bells signaling the begin­ning of the church service across the valley. All at once, he under­stood the meaning of Christmas. Truly, the birth and coming of Je­sus Christ meant God becoming a person like us humans in an at­tempt to lead us from danger to safety.

First and Foremost the Revealed Representation of the Heavenly Father

Once again, the meaning of the Incarnation is condensed and concise: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14, RSV). Bonhoeffer notes:

Strictly speaking we not talk of the incarnation, of the incarnate one ... The incarnate one is the glorified God -"The word was made flesh and we beheld his glory." God glorifies himself in man ... The trinitarian God is seen as the incarnate one. [In other words,] The incarnation is the message of the glorification of God, who sees his honor in be­coming man ... The incarnation is first and foremost true revelation, of the creator in the creature, and not veiled revela­tion. Jesus Christ is the unveiled image of God.[xii]

As the Revelation and Repre­sentative of the Father, Jesus made God present and visible. He brought Deity to the forefront of the consciousness of humani­ty. This resulted in God becom­ing concrete and relational rather than abstract and impersonal.