The Word Incarnate – 27 April 2021, Anno Domini

  

I

N the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. . . . . 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.   (John 1:1-5, 14)

 

            Who created the world, the universe, and life on the planet earth? If you answer, God, you would be correct; but could you be even more specific in your response? Yes, you could be. The world was not created by manual labor and struggle but rather by the spoken Word. 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” God the Father is God. God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God. All have the same Mind and Purpose; however each has a separate office in function.

 

            Were we to simplify our understanding of the Creation event, we could separate the functions of the three Persons of the Godhead thusly:

 

1.     God the Father was the Architect who devised the plan for Creation;

 

2.     The Lord Jesus Christ, or Word, was the executive power to implement the plan;

 

3.     The Holy Spirit was the invisible power behind the construction.  In the beginning God (ELOHIM the plural/singular name in Hebrew) created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

 

            The central figure of the Godhead is the WORD Incarnate, or our Lord Jesus Christ! He was present at the dawn of Creation: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Every mountain, river, valley, stream, and living creature bears His imprint and handiwork. Every nation has a picture that reflects His likeness in the Holy Bible. How does the Lord appear to the Japanese, the Korean, the German, the Ethiopian, or the Indian? He appears dressed in the biblically translated alphabet of those various people. Each fells to live up to that plumbline of perfection in Christ. Too many attempt to make Christ like unto themselves rather than have themselves transformed into His likeness.

 

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion

Article II Of the Word or Son of God, which was made very Man.

The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.

 

            Christ is Begotten, not made. He has not the blood of fallen Adam coursing through His veins. He existed in the eternity past with the Father. Unlike we, the children of adoption, Jesus Christ is the very same substance and Mind of God the Father. He was not born into existence at Bethlehem, but He was the Word that took upon Himself the flesh of man through Mary, the vessel chosen by which He would come forth as both Man and God in one Person. It was decided in the Council of God before the worlds were made that this same Word would come into the world as Redeemer, Savior, and Lord in the fulness of time. And so He did! He is the great I Am whose Presence is eternal and not limited to past, presence, or future tense. Do you know Him by His Word and Spirit?