The Word Made Flesh
J. Garbett, M. A. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory… I. THE NAME BY WHICH OUR LORD IS DESCRIBED. 1. He was known by this name in the Jewish Church long before His advent. 2. He is so called because He comes forth from God like a word, a revealing medium from us. II. THE WONDERFUL ORDER OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE TOWARDS US. This is the mighty Being by whom the world and man was made. After man had fallen He might have refused to repair the injury. But the new creation was to proceed from the same hand as the first. 1. The unsearchable love which showed itself at the beginning brought Him down again from His Father's bosom. 2. With wonderful condescension He came not as before in power and majesty, but in weakness and shame, in the likeness of the fallen creature whom it was His purpose to restore. III. THE INCARNATION as a mark of love and tenderness HAS SOMETHING STRIKING ABOUT IT and affecting to the heart. To have taken the nature of angels — to have appeared on earth in the pomp of majesty had been a humiliation. IV. BUT IT WAS IN THE FORM OF MAN THAT GOD'S COMMAND HAD BEEN ORIGINALLY DISHONOURED, AND THEREFORE CHRIST ASSUMED IT. 1. It might be inconsistent with the good of the denizens of the unseen world if their disobedience had been left unpunished. And yet, on the other hand, there was the love of God to His .creatures. How reconcile justice and mercy? Thus the perfect obedience of the Second Adam atoned for the offence of the first and of His descendants. 2. But how merit this? For all creatures owe this obedience, even unfallen angels. In the Son of God alone could the necessary merit be found. 3. Wherefore when mediator there was none God answered for us: "a body hast Thou prepared Me," etc. 4. But men required something more, something to show them how to live and to make themselves ready for their pure inheritance. Therefore to furnish an example the Word was made flesh. V. JEHOVAH IS AWFUL IN HIS INEFFABLE PURITY, BUT THAT WE MIGHT HAVE COURAGE TO APPROACH HIM the Word was made flesh. VI. WE WANT SYMPATHY IN OUR WEAKNESS, INFIRMITIES, AND SORROWS; therefore that we may know that He can and does feel for us THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH. VI. THIS ASSUMPTION OF OUR BODY BY CHRIST IS A PLEDGE OF ITS RESURRECTION, and such being the case, how we ought to reverence it! VIII. IN THAT BODY CHRIST WILL RETURN. 1. Then the Christian will be like Him, for he will see Him as He is. 2. Then those who have rejected Him will meet their doom. (J. Garbett, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. WEB: The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.