The Gospel of John gives great importance to God’s Word. God communicated to the Israelites through His Word. He guided them from Egypt and through the wilderness to the promised land. When they went astray, He instructed and warned them through His prophets. Hebrews 1:1-2 says that God spoke to the ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but now he has spoken to us by a Son through whom he also created the worlds. The Word was there from the very beginning with God and was God (Jn 1:1-3). The Evangelist makes it very clear that this same Word that was there from the very beginning with God became flesh. To become flesh means, to take human form, to be born as a man. Why was it necessary for the Word that was with God and was God to take human flesh? Or in other words, why did God become man?
He became man and dwelt among us. It was the revelation of God’s love for humanity. God loved the world so much that he came down to become one of us and gave us lessons in Love by emptying himself in the Manger and on the Cross. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. God sent his only Son to save humanity from the bondage of sin and death and took upon himself the sin of humanity. Yes. It was necessary for God to become flesh to redeem humanity that went away from God through its frailty. God put forward Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood and reconciled humanity to God (Cf. Rom 3:25; 5:10). The punishment of sin was death. However, he took upon his flesh the punishment that was due, and we were saved through Jesus from the wrath of God. He takes upon himself the sin of humanity and suffers in his flesh to redeem us. “It was for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor 5:21).
His love for us was beyond comparison that he chose to become like our flesh to save us from the punishment that was supposed to fall on every flesh. Word becomes Jesus of Nazareth and becomes a historical person. He empties himself and suffers in the flesh. Now his name is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth (cf. Phil 2:6.7;9-10). God comes in ways unknown to us to give us His grace and to lead us to His truth. From his fullness, we have received grace upon grace. God reveals himself as Truth. We need to be filled with his grace to believe in him. Faith is God’s gift to us. When we go away from him, the Lord brings us back. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more and justified us leading to eternal life (Rom 5:20-21). Jesus’ mission was to reveal the Father to us and take us to the Father. He came to give us eternal life and to draw us to bosom of the Father.
The Word becoming flesh was an act of self-emptying from the part of God. It was an act of pure love in order to sanctify humanity. As we receive the Word that became flesh into our hearts, we are called to sanctify our own lives. It is when we have sanctified our lives, the holy one of God can easily find a worthy place to dwell. If the dwelling place is holy, the holy one will begin to work in and through us. We begin to take up the mission of mediation just as he incarnated to liberate us from the power of Satan, sin, and death. The sanctified becomes the sanctifier. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. We are made righteous in Christ. Now from the fullness of God’s grace, we have received grace. Moses gave them the Law. However, Jesus filled us with His grace. He gave us His Spirit to live always in the grace that we may not fall back into darkness. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are called to receive His gifts and fruits. May God continue to fill our lives with His grace that we may bear fruits of the Spirit sanctifying our lives and glorifying God.
