The Word Became Flesh

John 1

John wastes no time in establishing Jesus’ identity. The apostle begins his Gospel with the same wording Moses used in Genesis 1:1 to show that God existed before creation. John’s point is that Jesus, too, existed before the world was created. Not only was He with God at the beginning, but He also was God. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity—that is, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus gave life and light to creation. And when the people who received life turned their backs on Him to pursue their own sinful ways, Jesus did something so amazing that John can barely find the words to do it justice.

Jesus, God Himself, entered the world He created. He squeezed His infinite presence into a small container of flesh. He made Himself susceptible to pain, weakness, sorrow, and rejection. He lived among us. He humbly, faithfully, and lovingly served the people He created.

John refers to Him as the Word because He embodied everything that God the Father wanted to communicate to us. Everything Jesus said and did reveals something about God.

Very few people recognized Him as God, even though the Jewish people of His day were waiting for the Messiah, the Son of God. The problem was that they’d already made up their minds about what the Messiah would be like and what He would do. And Jesus didn’t meet their expectations. So they rejected Him. And the ones who led the rejection were the ones who should have recognized Him first: the Jewish leaders of Israel.

Of course, God anticipated that people wouldn’t recognize His Son. So He sent John the Baptist to announce His coming. And He gave John the Baptist a sign so that he would recognize Jesus. When John the Baptist saw a dove descend on Him, he knew Jesus was the Chosen One. That’s why he was able to confidently point to Jesus and announce, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (verse 29)

Still, most people—including the Jewish religious leaders—refused to recognize the truth. The leaders even sent a delegation to John the Baptist to ask if he was the Messiah. All the while, John the Baptist kept pointing to Jesus.

While he was standing with two of his own disciples, John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples immediately left John the Baptist to follow Jesus.

Two thousand years later, this same scenario is still being played out. People still refuse to recognize the truth about Jesus because He doesn’t fit their idea of what the Son of God should be. And those of us who do recognize and follow Him still have the opportunity and responsibility to say, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

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