The Word became flesh

 The Word Became Flesh

 

The Word became human and made his home among us.

JOHN 1.14

In Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

COLOSSIANS 2.9

Because God’s children are human beings — made of flesh and blood — the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.

HEBREWS 2.14

 

Have you ever seen someone on TV who was wearing a fat suit or who dressed up as an elderly person to play a different role? When people put on costumes, it is usually for a brief time and then they go back to being who they really are.

We might assume that’s what Jesus did — that he put on a “costume” of skin to be a human for the thirty-three years he spent on this earth, and then went back to his “usual” self when he returned to heaven. But Jesus went much further than that. When the Word became flesh, he became flesh forever. He didn’t just appear to be human, he became human — not just for his brief life on earth, but for eternity. Even now, Jesus, who is God, is in heaven at the right hand of God, the Father, in his glorified human body.

When the Word became flesh, he became capable of new experiences. He entered the world through a mother’s body. He had to learn how to walk. He went through puberty. He got splinters in his hands in the carpenter’s shop and rocks in his sandals as he walked. But the most important experience he went through as a human was physical death. This was his ultimate purpose in becoming flesh — so he could die in our place.