THE WORD

Bible references are to the Anglicised

New International Version of

1984, unless noted otherwise.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

COUNTLESS AGES BEFORE Jesus lived on earth, he existed in the heavens as a spirit being with his Father, Jehovah. In the Greek of the New Testament he is referred to as the Logos, a title rather than a given name, meaning one authorised to speak on behalf of another. Most Bibles render the Greek title Logos as ‘Word’.

St. Paul presents Jesus in superlative terms, indicating his status with the Father (Col. 1):

15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19. For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him, 20. and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

So the writer to the Hebrew Christians exclaims on behalf of us all, in Heb. 2:9:

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

As the Father’s only-begotten Son, his Logos or chief messenger, Jesus knew that the human race lay under the penalty of death and that a ransom-price was required to deliver it. The Scriptures give no hint as to when the Logos learned that he would be that ransom, relinquishing his powers and privileges as the chief heavenly being, second only to the Almighty. How could such a thing be accomplished?

Evidently the only-begotten Son of God must become a man, must take on human nature, and so give up the heavenly nature, leave his beloved Father and trust that in some way mankind would be rescued and restored to that perfect humanity that had been God’s original design. Evidently the extinction of the Word, the Logos, was a possibility, as he was not at that point immortal, a state of being in which eternal life is inherent, independent of external support or sustenance.

It became clear that the Father’s plan was to provide a second Adam, another perfect earth-born being who could stand in Adam’s place, with the same responsibility to save the human race or (as in Adam’s case) to lose it. Unlike Adam’s course of action, Jesus gave himself as a ransom, and so released both Adam and all his offspring from the death sentence (1 Tim. 2:4-6).

And so, born of Mary, the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. We know the blessed outcome and the successful sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.

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