Over the next few weeks, I would like us to consider a question of the greatest importance. It is a question that determines who we are, what we do, and where we will spend an eternity. Who is Jesus? What does the Bible teach us about the identity of Jesus? As we think about this question together, we are going to examine several different passages over the next several weeks. Today, we are going to begin by thinking about what is oftentimes called Jesus’ “incarnation.”
In John 1:1-2, the apostle John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Who is Jesus according to the first two verses of the Fourth Gospel? Reminiscent of how the Bible begins in Genesis 1:1 (“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”), we find John stating that Jesus, here identified as “the Word,” existed from before the beginning of the world. We also find that Jesus existed with God. Taking one step further, Jesus not only existed with God but also was God Himself. As Paul says in Philippians 2:6, Jesus “was in the form of God.” From all of eternity, before the world was even created, Jesus existed with God and as God in perfect harmony and unity with the other two members of the Godhead, the Father and the Holy Spirit.
But if we continue reading in John 1, we eventually come to this statement: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus, who existed from all of eternity with God and as God, became flesh and dwelt temporarily on earth. He was God on earth; while He was fully human, according to Colossians 1:19, “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”
How did this change take place? How did Jesus, who was God from all of eternity, put on flesh and dwell temporarily on earth? Paul gives us some insight into that in Philippians 2:5-8: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” As we stated earlier, Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, states that Jesus was in the very form of God and was equal to God; however, Jesus did not count that equality and form as something for Him to hold on to. As a result, He made the decision to empty Himself of being in God’s form. As John 17:5 implies, Jesus gave up the glory that He had with God from before the world was created. By making the decision to empty Himself, Jesus took the form of a servant and was born into the world as a human being in order to die on the cross for you and me.
Who is Jesus? Jesus was God from before the very beginning; however, He made the decision to be born into the world, live as a man, and die for you and me. Jesus was God in the flesh.
-Tyler Alverson
0 Comments