The Word

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)


What an astounding, mind-boggling statement!  


The WORD:  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men."  (John 1:1-4)  THIS Word - God incarnate, God with us, the Alpha and Omega, the Prince of Peace, this One before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess his Lordship over all - THIS Word became flesh and came to live among his very creation.


"and we have seen his glory":  the glory that was seen as a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel" (Ex. 24:17); the glory that could not be seen by Moses unless he was shielded by the hand of God, hidden in the cleft of a rock and then, only after God's glory had passed by; the glory that left Isaiah completely undone and overcome with his own sinfulness and unworthiness (Is. 6:1-7); the glory that man could not see and live (Ex. 33:20).  THAT glory - came to earth, dwelt among men, was seen by those he dwelt among.  


This Jesus, the Word of God, full of grace and truth, became flesh, came to earth and lived among us, allowing us to see his glory and live - live as sons and daughters of the King.  And even beyond all that, so that we may make take his love to the world, he gives us his glory.  "The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:22-23)


What an astounding, mind-boggling statement!