The Nature of God–Part One: How the Word was made Flesh in Jesus (Resources & Notes)
[Note: Interpretations of the expression “the word was made flesh” have sometimes been influenced by personal impressions and perceptions leading to many different analogies to explain how the “word was made flesh.” The common interpretation is the “flesh” was the person of Jesus and it is then assumed that he became flesh by being transformed from another being called the “Word,” and so he became a son by birth and not by conception. It is also assumed that the Word was another God-being and one who speaks for God the Father, and so we have the basic framework for the Trinitarian and Binitarian views. The obvious contradiction with this interpretation is that it doesn’t agree with the prophets—particularly Moses, and admittedly we find that commentaries do introduce the idea that the Christian belief about God is different from that of Judaism. But if we accept the face value of John 1:1 and use the actual definition of the words then we arrive at a different conclusion. So if “Word” is defined from logos then we know that it is “something said” with relevance to the thought behind what is said. And if God is YHWH (“I am”) and also God the Father then the prophets and the apostles agree, and so the actual statement by John would literally be the “utterance was God.” The conclusion then is what John wrote about God (John 1:1) is the same as what was recorded about God’s revelation to Moses (Ex. 3: 14). Therefore John and Moses were in agreement about the oneness of God, and as Scripture states that the logos of God can be in us, we see also that it was in Jesus.] [Note: For ancient Israel the manna, the water and the cloud became examples for us, and from these things the Apostle Paul made spiritual analogies in retrospect to Israel’s history. So Paul was able to show the relevance of the experiences of ancient Israel to the life of Jesus. An example is the rock that gave life-sustaining water to the people of Israel, which by analogy is compared to Jesus who is likened to a spiritual rock from which we would receive the holy spirit.] [Note: The phrase “let us make man” is commonly explained as the plural of majesty. However another view describes God as thinker, thought and mover, which is a concept replicated in the capabilities of the human intellect, thereby humans are in the image of God. By these inherent capabilities we are able to confer and reason with ourselves. In this regard the “logos” may be portrayed as another being in the phrase “let us make man,” even though it is only what God said. And John’s statement that the “word [logos] was with God,” implies in some ways that the logos is the image of God. Therefore Jesus reflected the image of God by what he said, which evidenced God in him. Notice that Jesus spoke the logos: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word [logos] that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day (Jn. 12:48). (In Revelation we read that Jesus has been given the office of the “Word of God” (Rev. 19:13).)] [Note: Jesus’ prayer as recorded in the writings of John reflects the perspective of third-person, and Jesus states that he gave God’s logos to the disciples (Jn. 17:3, 14). And John wrote that we can have the logos of God in us, as it was in Jesus: “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word [logos] of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” (I Jn. 2:14).] [Note: The term “God [theos]” is understood as “deity,” and is not seen as a plural or uni-plural term to describe God, and consequently God is not a “family,” but he is a father to Jesus and to his adopted children.] [Note: An objection to the conclusion that there is only one who is God is taken from Paul’s statement in Ephesians: “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9). This verse appears definitive, but would indeed contradict Paul’s conclusion that there is only one God the Father. In an analysis of this verse we find that judicious and prudent scholars hold the phrase “by Jesus Christ,” to be a spurious insertion in the text, but in the context of the new creation all things were done through Jesus—implying that the “all things” refers to the “fellowship of the mystery” (II Cor. 5:17).] [Note: An unseen Jesus identified himself to Saul (Paul) by uttering, “I am Jesus of Nazareth,” an event that occurred after Jesus was glorified by the Father. This particular utterance was Jesus (Acts 22:8), and thereby Jesus was identified by his logos, so that what was said was Jesus.] [Note: It is an erroneous claim that Jesus was fully immortal and fully mortal—fully God and fully man at the same time—which is a conclusion that assumes Jesus’ individuality was the consequence of his parentage and not his conception. Jesus was the son of God because he was conceived by God and had the holy spirit of God, but he was the son of man by conception so that he could have the authority to execute God’s judgment on the world. Jesus’ individuality was determined then by the spirit of man because he was a “man” (anthrōpos), which means he was a “human being,” and this is how he was described by the apostles.] [Note: Jesus was not included in the Godhead as stated by Paul who wrote: “For in him [Jesus] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead [nature of God] bodily”