... , it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t enough for God to name himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had to become an Abraham, an Isaac, or a Jacob. And he did. And his name is Jesus. This is Christianity’s most unique claim – the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Greek word translated dwelt is the same Greek word that we translate tent, so we might translate that passage, he cast his tent among us. Let me use a story, a simple human story, that will tell us profoundly what God means by ...
... gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” What an incredible statement. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us . . .” We have a word for it--incarnation. The Word took on human flesh. The very Word of God, born in a manger ...
... owner is like a god to those fish, too big to comprehend, too frightening to love. The only way to change that would be for the owner to somehow become a fish and communicate the true message. Similarly, God had to become a person to communicate with us. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." Why did Jesus come? Because sin had to be confronted and defeated. And, God had to find a way to show us that He is love. NOW LET’S MOVE ON TO OUR SECOND QUESTION: HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND ...
... were there to hear it, goes the conundrum, would it make a sound? "The answer must be," she stated: ... I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.4 Because in Jesus Christ the Word became flesh, truth and grace are at work in every place, whether or not we sense them. What we can do, of course, is to attempt to master the theme and then to try to be there wherever in life it is played anew. If we wonder where that might be, one ...
... God stacks the cards against us so that we must believe. The decision to hear what God said through the Incarnation is ours and ours alone. It can never be made for us. John believed that God had spoken a unique word in Jesus Christ when he wrote, "The Word became flesh." When he wrote this, he did not, of course, mean that the eternal Word became a piece of flesh. What he meant was that the eternal Word became manifest in one who was flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. A dramatic poet is speaking here ...
... are always beyond reproach. But isn't that the point of John's statement? There is in the earth the presence of the Holy One. The Eternal has appeared in time. The God whom no one has seen has become visible. The inaccessible One is now available to us. The Word became flesh is not a sign that the great God has been diminished to the lesser stature of humanity, but that the great God has paid us a visit in human form. It's not the first time God's presence was made known, and it won't be the last. God ...
... are. It rests upon the simple story of a Baby born in a manger, a Man who grew up during the reign of Pontius Pilate, Herod the King, and Caesar Augustus...three rulers about whom we might never have even heard had this Child not been born! “And the Word became flesh and lived among us!” That’s God’s Body Language, the way God speaks to us and meets us. Through a human body. Like ours. A body which lived and died and lived again in a little two-by four land in the Middle East. Yet, in and through ...
... that only he knows. He gives it speech to a girl: "I love you." Now the thought is known. That was God’s thought. He spoke it, not in the language of lips (we don’t understand celestial language), but in a human life, the Man Christ Jesus. "The Word became flesh." There are two words for "flesh" in the New Testament. One is soma which usually means the whole human order; the other is sarx which means the skin on your bones. Here the word is sarx. Jesus lived your life. He went to work in the morning. He ...
... . No glib words, no quoted scripture texts, no pious advice – just tears running down his cheeks. I’ve never been so comforted as I was at that moment. You see witness must extend beyond words to relationship. The Incarnation did not end with Jesus when the Word became flesh. The Incarnation must go on with us, as the radiant glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ shines in and through us to others. Let me try to tie it altogether as I close. Do you remember Don Quixote and his “Impossible ...
And the Word became flesh and lived among us....-- John 1:14 William Barclay is convinced that John wrote the fourth gospel for the sake of this fourteenth verse. Early in the first chapter John talked about the Word: the creative and dynamic word. The Word was the agent bringing about creation. In the beginning ...
... different countries, said, "The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person." This is what God did on the first Christmas. The theological term for that divine action is incarnation, derived from carnis, the Latin word for flesh. "The word became flesh and dwelt among us." The meaning becomes clearer when we use the Phillips translation of this sentence: "So the word of God became a human being and lived among us." Thus an American theologian, Nels Ferre, has coined a new term for the incarnation ...
... have no power over Satan. If God had stayed at home there would be no victory over death, no promise of eternal life. But God didn’t stay at home. He walked down the stairway of heaven with a little baby in His arms – incredible – the incarnation: The Word became flesh. If we don’t get this in our understanding of the Gospel, we won’t get the rest. If we don’t begin here, there is no place to go. There will be no renewal of the Church, no revival of faith among us, no witnessing to the world ...
... , and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. It is said that King Charles V, the king of Scotland, many years ago, wondered what life was like for the people of his kingdom. In a ...
... could not do as the man requested, but if he would care to call on him in person at Princeton University, Einstein would play it for him on the violin. God replied to our human longing for a glimpse of God by playing it on a human life. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us....” When Martin Luther was asked just how Jesus Christ could be both God and a real human being as the Christian creeds affirm, he replied that he had no idea. Nor have I. But I know that it is only in Him that I find both ...
... is that condensations of the Bible are nothing new. People have been doing it for years! Now, with this in mind, I want to make a really radical suggestion. I suggest that the whole Bible itself can be condensed down into a single verse: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) When some people decried the Reader’s Digest Condensed Bible, they said, “They’re tampering with God’s Word ...
... then Christmas is over. There is nothing intrinsically evil about this way of keeping Christmas; it is only that in the exhausting secular observance the Christ may be forgotten. How can we make Advent a season of refreshment? By taking a Christian view of Christmas. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.(John 1:14) The Christmas story tells how God has come to us in the form of flesh. God has come to dwell ...
... warmth and comfort. Now these words sneaked upon me, struck me as terrible, or wonderful. The First Lesson: ''God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son...." Gospel: ''And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...." Son. Flesh. Us. He said, leaning over at me, That's, when you think about it, when you really think about it, in context, that's an odd, frightening, wondrous idea of good news. And dwelt among us. Notes: Odd, if one ...
... . Whenever we ponder the mysterious nature of God: when we wonder why bad things happen to good people, or think about good and evil in the world, or wonder what God would want us to do in a given situation, we can fall back on this verse. “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” In other words, God has chosen to enter the neighborhood of our world by taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. This is what we mean when we speak about the doctrine of the Incarnation. God has chosen to ...
... the decree is issued to the denoting word. And the word means the person. It is utterly fascinating that in the Gospel According to John it is written: "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" (John 1:1, 14). It seems to me that in a very singular manner it is being said the He was beforehand. The Johannine choice of "logos" reflects one of the most profound philosophical insights to be found anywhere in all literature ...
... did not accept him. [12] But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, [13] who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. [14] And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. I. Superman [Show the Teaser Trailer-Superman Returns] A father sends his son to Earth. And he puts him here for an express purpose. "They can ...
... named the name of Christ, you and I are forerunners of the coming kingdom. We pray for the grace to be good representatives of what we proclaim, proficient in our witness, and assume a personal ownership in the ultimate victory. The Christian as the Word became flesh. The gospel according to Luke relates how Jesus came to Nazareth, his home town, and attended the synagogue on the sabbath. Reading from the scroll, he quoted a passage from the prophet Isaiah; the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has ...
... make Jesus into a more divine figure and somewhat less than human figure, Cyril pounced upon the gospel of John and refused to step back from the apostle’s pronouncement that “the word became flesh.” The gospel does not say “the Word became human,” Cyril repeated. The gospel says “the Word became flesh.” Thanks to Cyril of Alexandria Jesus did not become some kind of angelic super-hero who walked among us for a few years. This Alexandrite bishop realized that the power of Jesus’ incarnation ...
... beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men...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. — John 1:1-4, 14 The maker of all things has come among us as "the bread come down from heaven." Like ...
... , and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God . . . the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." (NRSV) An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World. That's our theme for the months of January and February. If you and I want to wallow ...
... and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father . . .” John’s hands must have trembled as he wrote those words: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . .” The early disciples believed with all their hearts that there was but one mediator between God and humanity. There was one way, one truth, one life, one shepherd, one door—and that was Jesus. They heard him teach, they saw him heal people’s hurts, they ...