Day 4: God’s Incarnate Word

His Inspired Word reveals that the Infinite Word became the Incarnate Word.

The Infinite Word reveals Himself to us daily in the glory and wonder of creation. As humans, we long for God, and the capacity to respond to what we see in creation because we are created in His image.

If we pursue God, we receive an intellectual and volitional clarity that allows us to know and do His will. Yet we humans have chosen to reject God, and our spiritual darkness inherited from the Fall leads to intellectual blindness, which then turns into moral corruption (see Genesis 3 and Romans 1).

Our idols may appear more sophisticated than ancient pagan deities, but at heart, they are no different; we pursue the gods of humanism and materialism while refusing to see the ever-mounting evidence of God’s presence in creation.

Even before we come to Christ, our conscience convicts us that there are moral standards. However, we can ignore, distort, or silence that conscience that nudges us toward God (Romans 2:15).

As spiritual darkness coincides with a darkening of the mind and the will, we try to find ways to justify our actions, stifling our conscience and suppressing the knowledge of God (Romans 1:18). Eventually, if we stay in this darkness and continue to run from God, we can end up committing the horror of vilifying the good and extolling evil (Isaiah 5:20; Hebrews 10:26–27). Deep inside, we know our behavior is wrong, but we use our minds to justify our rebellion against God and our surrender to sin.

Our rebellion calls forth a response from God, revealing His wrath against our sin and unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). The righteousness that God requires is that righteousness which His righteousness requires Him to require. In other words, God does not grade on a curve. He demands perfection. And we are incapable of satisfying His requirements.

Thanks be to God that He has underwritten the cost Himself in the person of His Son, Jesus, the Incarnate Word. In God’s Incarnate Word, we have the offer of forgiveness of sin. In Jesus, the God-Man, the Infinite Word is made flesh—a visible, palpable manifestation of eternity in time, our authoritative “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). His fulfillment of prophecies, His perfect life, His miracles, and then His death and resurrection connect the Infinite Word and the Inspired Word.

The Maker of all things entered His creation. Even while in Mary’s womb, He somehow, mysteriously, was ruling and holding the cosmos together (Colossians 1:16–17).

The Incarnate Word unites the transcendent and the immanent.

To enter into our world, Jesus humbled Himself and became a man (this is known as the kenosis), even while never diminishing His deity at all. Somehow, mysteriously, He remained fully God and fully man (Philippians 2:6–10). This was necessary because being fully God was the only way His sacrifice would be efficacious, and being fully man was the only way His blood would cover our sins and fulfill God’s requirements of us.

Now, Jesus stands as the way, the truth, and the life for all who turn to Him (John 14:6).

Day 4 Scripture Readings:

John 1:1–4, 14
Philippians 2:6–10
Colossians 1:15–17