Dr. Dan Hayden •
In New Age thinking, men want to become gods. But, in Christianity, God became a man. Now that’s the most incredible thing of all.
In the prologue of John’s Gospel he tells us who Jesus Christ really is. In John 1:14 he says,
And the Word became 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.
Earlier he defines the Word as being God himself, and the word flesh here is a reference to being human. So, he is saying that God became a man, and that person is Jesus.
There is a theological word that defines what John is saying here: it’s the word incarnation. Carne is the Latin word for flesh. Have you ever had Chile con Carne? Well, that’s chile with carne – with meat or flesh. Have you ever gone to a carnival? A carnival is something that appeals to the carne – to the flesh. If a person is being carnal they are acting according to their carne – their flesh. Therefore, incarnation means in flesh.
Since the early church fathers wrote in Latin, they thought this would be a great word to describe what John was saying. John said, the Word became flesh… God became a man. Therefore, when Jesus was born that event became known as the incarnation of God – when God became a man.
By the way, the reason God became a man was so that He could die for your sins.
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