공동체와 양육

Mystery of Incarnation (Jn. 1:1~5)

2018.12.09P. Stephen Cha

Jesus is not merely a sweet baby or a human king; he is the eternal Word who was God from the beginning, became fully human, and came to dwell with us and take away our sin.

The baby is the eternal Word, the Creator God (1-5)

Matthew traces Jesus to David and Abraham, and Luke traces him to Adam, but John goes back even further, to the beginning before creation. John calls Jesus the Word (Logos), who was with God and was God. The Word is not a created being, because all things were made through him and nothing was made apart from him. The Logos carries the sense of God's wisdom, order, and message, and it shows that the baby born in Bethlehem is the Creator who made you for his purpose and his glory. The one lying in the manger is the eternal God himself.

God became fully man without ceasing to be fully God

Some ask how God could become a man without ceasing to be God. Philippians 2 says he emptied himself, but Jesus continued to display God's omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. He is not half God and half man; he is 100 percent God and 100 percent man. C.S. Lewis and J.I. Packer note that the greatest miracle is the incarnation itself. If the Creator God became a man, then the resurrection and the forgiveness won by his death are no longer hard to believe, because the one who entered the world he made can do all things. John testifies to this from his own experience of walking with Jesus.

The Word dwelt among us to be with us (14)

The word John uses for dwelt means pitched a tent. Just as God dwelt among Israel in the wilderness tent, Jesus came to pitch his tent among us and to be near us, accessible and walking with us through every journey. He took on a human body and experienced birth, hunger, pain, fatigue, sorrow, rejection, and loneliness, so he understands us fully. Emmanuel, God with us, lives in those who have received him, so when we feel alone, we can know that he is our friend and is with us.

The glory of God is full of grace and truth

John saw the glory of Jesus step by step, through his miracles and teaching, and came to know that he is God himself. In Exodus 33-34, Moses asked to see God's glory, and God proclaimed his character: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. At the center of God's heart is his undying, steadfast love and his faithfulness. The New Testament Greek word for that steadfast love is grace, and the Old Testament faithfulness is truth. Jesus is full of grace and truth, so we who could not see God face to face can now know him through Jesus.

The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world (29)

Jesus did not come only to make life better, because the problem of humanity is not a lack of education or technology but sin and brokenness that no one can fix alone. Sin must be paid for according to God's justice and righteousness, and no human being is righteous enough to pay for others. So Jesus, the perfect God-man, took our place. His blood, shed as God and man, has infinite value and grants forgiveness to everyone who turns to him and receives a new heart and life as a child of God. That is why the angels announced the good news of peace at his birth.

Apply to Life

  • Let us come before the cross and linger in God's word, asking Jesus to show us his love again.
  • Let us remember that our worth does not depend on what we do or on our circumstances, because Jesus is with us.
  • Let us let Jesus lead our lives, not our own reactions, so that we experience who he is.
  • Let us come to Jesus, who took our sin, guilt, and shame upon himself, and say, I need you to forgive me.
  • Let us pray with the confidence that Emmanuel, God with us, hears the prayers of those who truly repent.

This summary was made automatically from the sermon's captions and may differ from the sermon.

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