Saturday 23rd December
Read John 1:14
“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.” (NIVUK)
For the first time since the first verse we encounter the Word once more. The Word who was with God and was God (v1). It is striking therefore that not only is the divine word brought low, but brought low to ‘flesh’. It would be easy enough for John to write that the Word became ‘human’, but instead he declares that the divine Word become ‘flesh’.
As Calvin writes, “When Scripture speaks of man contemptuously, it calls him flesh. Now, though there be so wide a distance between the spiritual glory of the Speech (Word) of God and the abominable filth of our flesh, yet the Son of God stooped so low as to take upon himself that flesh, subject to so many miseries.” (Calvin – Commentary on John).
All sorts of heresies and confusion flowed from a misunderstanding of these simple words. Some argued that Jesus’ divinity was diluted by the flesh He took on and others that it was simply not possible for divinity and humanity to be united, so they must be doubled up and distinct in some way. It is instructive to consider Calvin again when addressing these numerous heresies.
“When he tells us that the Speech was made flesh, we clearly infer from this the unity of his Person; for it is impossible that he who is now a man could be any other than he who was always the true God, since it is said that God was made man. On the other hand, since he distinctly gives to the man Christ the name of the Speech, it follows that Christ, when he became man, did not cease to be what he formerly was, and that no change took place in that eternal essence of God which was clothed with flesh. In short, the Son of God began to be man in such a manner that he still continues to be that eternal Speech who had no beginning of time.” (Calvin – Commentary on John).
A mystery indeed, captured in the Creeds perfectly.
