You can turn your Bibles to the Gospel of John, John chapter one. If you're here this morning, you'll remember because it was just this morning that we looked at John chapter two. Among other things, the angels announcing good tidings of great joy, which would be to all the people that there was born in that day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. We opened up, if only briefly, a couple elements with respect to Christ and his person.

So we're going to try to amplify that a little bit more this evening and look at a theology of the incarnation from the Gospel of John. Very often when preachers, when theologians, when Christians, generally speaking, speak about the incarnation, there are two texts that are often brought together from the Gospel of John and chapter 1. And those are verses 1 and 14, in the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. I'm going to read John 1, beginning in verse 1 and finishing at verse 18.

Scripture Reading: John 1:1-18

This is the Word of the living and true God, John 1.1. 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 nothing was made that was made.

In him was life, and the light was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of that light, that all through him might believe.

He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 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. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, This is He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

For the law was given through Moses, But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Amen.

Opening Prayer

Well, let's go to our God in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this text of Holy Scripture. We rejoice again in the opportunity that we can gather together for the worship of our blessed God. And we do pray that You would be hallowed in this place, you would be given honor and praise.

We rejoice again that we have the liberty to so gather and sing praises to our God, to pray, to read the scriptures, to engage in the preaching of the Word. And might you, by your grace and for your glory, cause each and every one of us gathered here now to rejoice in Christ, to sing your praises, and to call it a high honor to gather to worship the Triune God. And it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.

Well,

Introduction

Hopefully one thing that we can recognize, hopefully we recognize a lot of things as Christians, but one of the things that we ought to recognize is the absolute and high importance of knowing our Christ. The importance of a knowledge of Christ is the stuff of the Holy Scriptures bringing before us the reality that to truly have everlasting life, to truly have eternal life, is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. the clarion call of the gospel is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what does that mean but that we must take in what is true of Christ and believe on it, resting upon the truth, trusting in that truth, believing in the person and in the work of Christ. We go to a passage like in Matthew 16 where Christ asks that absolutely vital question, who do men say that I the son of man am? very important question that he asks.

The way that we answer that question will truly speak to the condition of our souls. For if we say that he is only Jeremiah or Elijah or some other prophet, then we speak ill of Christ and do not truly profess the Christ of Holy Scripture. But if we say with Peter, by the regenerating power of God and his efficacy alone, that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, then truly We know our Christ, believing upon the true Christ, and having faith and life in His name. At the point of the importance of a knowledge of Christ, this is C.H.

Spurgeon, and his words are true. The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the deity. See, we come as Christians to our Bibles, and truly Christ's words are true.

This is eternal life, that you may know God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. When we come to the Gospel of John, we find a minefield of theological disclosure concerning the person and the work of Christ. When we come to John's gospel. We come to a gospel that has as its purpose statement, John 20, 31.

Remember what we find there. John writes, these things were written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing you may have life in his name. So if that is the purpose statement of John's gospel, then in John 1 to 18, we have the theological linchpin of that gospel. because John brings out before us essential truths concerning that Christ who is to be believed, that Christ who is everlasting life. This is what Cyril of Alexandria says on that particular point.

He's talking about the Gospel writers penning long genealogies concerning Christ, which is right and fine, and then the difference between them and John with regards to the beginning of their respective Gospels. One may see the other evangelists with great exactness giving the account of our Savior's genealogy in the flesh and bringing down step by step those from Abraham unto Joseph or again carrying up those from Joseph to Adam. But we find the blessed John not caring to be over studious about these but with the most fervent and fire full motion of intellect endeavoring to lay hold of those very things that are above human mind and daring to explain the unspeakable and unutterable generation of the Word of God. For he knew that the glory of God hideth speech, and greater than our idea and utterance is the God-befitting dignity.

And hard to utter and most difficult of unfolding are the properties of the divine nature. We come to John 1.1 and we have these blessed and high statements. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And that Word, verse 14, became flesh and dwelt among us.

Glorious truths that John pens. So

Four Considerations on the Word

we want to look at those truths under four considerations, and those four are these. First, the eternality of the Word.

Personal Distinction of the Word

Secondly, the personal distinction of the Word. Thirdly, the essential unity of the Word, or we may say simply the full deity of the Word. And then lastly, the true humanity. of the Word. Remember, and of course, when we say the Word, we're talking about Christ.

John uses the language, the Word, here in his Gospel. He uses it again in 1 John, where he speaks of the Word of Life in reference to Jesus Christ. He uses it again in Revelation chapter 19 and verse 13, when he talks about that rider on the white horse, that champion, who has the sword protruding from his mouth and he says his robe is dipped in blood and his name is the word of God. So here we have set before us that Christ that the angels adored in Luke 2.

And

The Eternality of the Word

we notice first off the eternality of the word in the beginning was the word. He is from everlasting to everlasting. It doesn't say in the beginning the word was created. Or in the beginning, God fashioned the word or some blasphemous notion with respect to Christ being a creature, that there was a time when he was not and he was brought to be, but rather in the beginning was the word.

As much as God himself was in the beginning, God, the father, so too was the word in the beginning was the word from everlasting to everlasting is our Christ in respect to his deity.

Atemporality of Divine Eternity

He is from everlasting. Even when we use that language, everlasting, that's language that really is time filled that we use to apply to one who is timeless. You see, when we talk about, when we talk about the eternality of the word, when we talk about the eternity of God, as it applies to the second of the blessed triune, we don't use eternity as duration of time. That's often how we think of eternity.

And unfortunately, often how many Christians and many Christian theologians argue for eternity, that it is an everlasting duration of time. But you see, God goes through succession in his life. There is before and after in God, but he just has before and afterness. Unlike men, he has it eternally.

Let's see that's incorrect. We come to the scriptures and we find a God of Autemporal eternity. He is not bound by time. There is no before and after in the Blessed Triune Magistrate.

There is no before, there is no after, but rather He is eternal. He is timeless. He is not bound to change and to time and to duration of succeeding events, but rather is beyond time. He is eternal.

He is autemporal. Jesus Christ, the Word, is in the beginning. And that does not have reference to the creation, but rather as serial. Then the beginning, is there nothing older?

He's saying, in that sort of way, in his own speech, there is, or the beginning, there is nothing older than the beginning. But he says, then the beginning, is there nothing older? If it have retained to itself the definition of the beginning, for a beginning of beginning there cannot be. or it will wholly depart from being in truth a beginning if something else be imagined before it and arise before it. Otherwise, if anything can precede what is truly beginning, our language respecting it will go off to infinity, another beginning ever cropping up before and making second the one under investigation.

There will then be no beginning of beginning according to exact and true reasoning, but the account of it will recede unto the long extended and incomprehensive. All of that to say, Christ is, the word is, everlasting. He is eternal. There is no beginning.

There is no before or after to the eternal word. He is the eternal word. Everlasting life. The second of the blessed triune, who has no beginning, who has no end, who is from everlasting.

Remember that text that we quoted this morning, Micah 5.2. We find that there, don't we? See, it's not just a prophecy concerning where Christ would be born. To you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are the littlest of the nations of Judah, yet out of you will come one from where?

One from of old, from everlasting. Jesus Christ is eternal. He is the eternal word.

Proverbs 8 and Eternal Wisdom

You can turn with me to Proverbs 8 for a moment because This might not be an address of Holy Scripture that you often come to in your research and your studies of that blessed and highest science, theology and Christology. But nevertheless, in Proverbs 8, we have the everlastingness of Christ, the eternality of the word of God set before us in Proverbs 8, beginning at verse 22. This could be translated, the Lord begot me. The language in the New King James is the Lord possessed me.

But let's read. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth. When there were no depths, I was brought forth.

When there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth or the fields or the primal dust of the world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit so that the waters would not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men." Christ speaking as wisdom, declaring His everlastingness, His eternality.

From the beginning before there was ever an earth, when there were no depths, I was brought forth. Christ is, the Word is, He was in the beginning. He is eternal. He is everlasting.

Christ himself speaks this. You see, if someone was to charge us because they don't believe in the inspiration of scriptures and those sorts of things, we're just importing Micah, we're importing Proverbs into something that John never intended to mean. Well, we come to the words of Christ in John's gospel in John 8, and we do find otherwise. John chapter 8, notice what we find there.

From the lips of Christ himself in John 8 and verse beginning in verse 54, Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you.

But I do know him, and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then the Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham. Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am." Wow.

What a powerful statement. You see, the reason that we know that this is Christ speaking to his eternality, but even more to our third point, his full deity, is that he doesn't say, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I was. It's not just claiming that he is older than Abraham. You know, he could be a created angel, but he's older than Abraham.

No. It's not before Abraham was, I was. It's before Abraham was and then the Exodus 3.14 name of Yahweh, I am. Before Abraham was, I am.

You see, this is why we have verse 59 next in our Bibles. Then they took up stones to throw at him. They knew what he was saying. They didn't believe him.

They knew what he was saying. Remember what Christ says in verse 54. You say that he is your God, and then he identifies himself as their God. Before Abraham was, I am.

What a powerful statement. Christ is, the word is, eternal. The eternality of the word. Secondly, the personal distinction of the word.

Notice that's what we have next, clearly in the text of John 1.1. The personal distinction of the word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The word God here referring to the person of the Father.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. There is personal distinction in the Godhead. We do not have a monad in our God, but a triad. We have the triune God.

Glorious Magistrate is trinal. There is essential unity, but there are three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And here we have the personal distinction of the word. He is or he was with God.

He is distinct from the Father. Ever since the outset, the advent of the Christian Church, this has been the repeated creedal stress of men who have come together to formulate confessional statements, to glory in their Christ-rehearsing doctrine, and to rail against the opponents of so blessed a revealed truth. You see, throughout the ages, men have strived, they have striven, I think that's a word, isn't it? They have endeavored to, with great apologetic and polemic vigor, endeavor to defend this very truth.

That in this divine and infinite being, which is God, there are three subsistences, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of one substance, power and eternity. The Father is begotten by none. He is unbegotten.

The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. All infinite without beginning. Glorious, historical, creedal theology proper.

There is one God. How many persons are in the Godhead? There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and in glory. And here we have this distinction brought out.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. There is something that we need to appreciate lest we slip into heresy, and that is that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the difference between the three persons of the Triune God is not just at their names, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Why is the Father the Father? Is He Father in name only?

No. Why is the Father the Father? Because He is the eternally unbegotten Begetter of the eternally begotten Son. He is the Father because He is the eternally unbegotten Father to the Son who is eternally begotten.

Why is the Son the Son? Is He the Son in name only? No. Is He the Son by virtue of His incarnation in time and in history?

Well, sometimes He is referred to the Son in that way. But with respect to Christology and theology proper, why is the Son the Son? Because He is eternally begotten of the Father, eternally generated, without beginning, as the Nicene Creed said, and as our last hymn uses the language appropriating the Nicene Creed, He is God of God, light of light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. Why is the Spirit the Spirit?

Is He Spirit in name only? The Holy Ghost in name only? No. It is because He eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.

He is eternally breathed out, if you will, by the Father and by the Word or Son. Personal distinction. The Word, our Christ, the Son of God, is distinct from the Father. And John 1.1 brings that out with a raging clarity.

And the word was with God. There is personal distinction. And notice the language, the word was with God. There is personal distinction, but

Perichoresis and Trinitarian Unity

there is an intimate unity, an indivisible and eternal unity between the persons of the blessed triune. In fact, Jesus speaks to this himself in two places in John 10. in John 10 and in verse 38, where we read, but if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him. The Father is in me and I in him. Theologians speak of this as the perichoresis, the mutual indwelling of the persons of the Trinity.

John 14 has the same truth, John 14 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. The mutual indwelling of the persons of the Trinity. We come to John 1, 1, brethren, and it's rich with theology.

And I hope that you would never want to roll your eyes at a rehearsal of blessed theology proper, specifically for our case this evening at the point of Christology. Who is this Christ? Who was that Savior born in the city of David? Who was that Savior who is Christ the Lord, who now is still Christ the Lord?

He is eternal. He is personally distinct from the Father. He is, though, and thirdly, essential. He has essential unity with the Father.

Or we're rehearsing now and

Full Deity of the Word

thirdly, the full deity of the word, the full deity of the word. He is with God, distinct from the Father, but then we note, and the Word was God. He is the same in substance, equal in power and in glory. It's the beauty of the text.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In just a handful of words, the blessed John takes pen to parchment, and he dashes Christological heresy, jettisoning it from the earth. Every heresy that has arisen in the church with respect to Christ at the point of his full deity and his full humanity is dashed to pieces in John's prologue. Beautiful language.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And we could even translate it literally. And God was the word. But the language is, and the Word was God, and we need to understand from that and gain this understanding that He is and He always has eternally existed in the very nature of deity.

The Word, the Son, the One who came into this world, sinners to save. When we talk about the deity of Christ, when we say as Christians, we believe in the deity of Christ, What do we mean and what are we saying? Well, hopefully we've had a little bit of it already, but to rehearse, first off, what we don't mean when we say the deity of Christ. For those who were in the chapter eight studies a year and a half ago or whenever we did this, you might recognize some of this, but it is good to rehearse and right to rehearse.

What do we not mean? when we say the deity of Christ. Well, first, we do not mean that he is one God among many in a pantheon of deities. Right? He's not one God among many in a pantheon of deities.

He's not a God, a small g God, the Father being, if you will, the chief God, and Christ being some sort of lesser deity. That is, of course, not what we're saying, for that is heresy of heresies and blasphemy of blasphemies. We are not saying, secondly, that He is of a similar or derived substance as the Father. You might say, well, why are we rehearsing this?

Can't we just, you know, can't we just bask in the, you know, the descending petals of a mysterious knowledge of God and never actually dive into the text of Scripture to understand our God and His Christ? Of course we can't bask in the effervescent petals of an incoherent mystery. We need to dive into mystery. It remains a mystery.

But we can nevertheless know the incomprehensible God by coming to the pages of Scripture and adoring this one who is absolutely and eternally majestic, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Son who came into this world, sinners to save. He is not of a similar or derived substance as the Father. He does not have a shaved off or carved off or multiplied or divided essence or substance. He has essential unity with the Father.

As much as the Father is God, so the Word, or Son, and so the Spirit. The essence, undivided and unmultiplied. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Co-eternal, co-glorious, having the same substance.

Thirdly, we are not saying that He is divine in the sense of being filled with the Holy Ghost. That's not wherein His divinity lies, as a man filled with the Spirit. Another heresy of heresies. He is eternally God.

He has always existed as such. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Now the Holy Spirit is given to Christ as denominated by His humanity. He's given the Spirit without measure, the text says.

But His deity is undiminished deity, His humanity. gains the sending of the Spirit beyond measure for his earthly ministry. We are not saying at the point of the deity of Christ that he is an exalted man, his divinity being a result of being in some way chosen or honored by the Father. There are some out there who believe all of these things, brethren. I'm not just, you know, a preacher man.

Okay, how is he not? Well, he's not. No, there are people out there that believe all of these things. He does not gain His deity by being chosen or honored by Father.

That's not wherein we discuss the deity of Christ. His divinity is not that He merited divinity by virtue of His obedience. The Mormon church, the Mormons believing that Christ was a man who merited divinity, divinization, by virtue of His obedience. And lastly, though we probably haven't exhausted the heresies, but we've spent the time on most of them here, When we say the deity of Christ, we're not saying that as the personification of an impersonal logos or word, he was an enfleshed agent of God and so can be called God in some sort of ambassadorial way.

The heretics of old believe this, heretics of new believe this. There's a man that James White debated who believes this very thing that the word or Logos was just an impersonal principle in the divine mind that was animated in time and in history and flashed and dwelt among us. That is not the deity of Christ.

What the Deity of Christ Does Mean

So then what do we mean when we say the deity of Christ? Well, you know, but a good summary is 8.2 of our confession. The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very an eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance, and equal with Him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things He hath made, which person is very God." That's what we mean when we say the deity of Christ. Full and essential deity in unity with Father and Spirit.

All three having the whole divine essence and the essence undivided. Where do we see this in the Holy Scriptures? We don't have time to exhaust the text, but we have time to spend time on a few. And one of those we've already looked at, John 8, 58, a similar text, John 8, 5 to 8.

This is the deity of Christ proved by his own self-identification. Jesus Christ fully aware that he was God. Of course. John 18, notice what we find there in verses five to eight.

No doubt, you know, the occasion they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth, the answer to the question, whom are you seeking? Jesus said to them, I am. And Judas, who betrayed him, also stood with him. Now, when he had said to them, I am, they drew back and fell to the ground.

Then he asked them again, whom are you seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am. Therefore, if you seek me, let these go their way.

You see, he uses the same language as John 8, 58. I am that Exodus 3, 14, that Isaac declaration of Yahweh, an ascription of deity that he ascribes. to Himself. His deity is proved by His equality with the Father. If you're making a note, you can note John 5.17, John 8.38, John 10.15 and 30, John 14.10, John 17.5.

But, brothers and sisters, if there's a text that encapsulates rich Christology, we have spent some time in John 1.1 already, Notice Philippians 2, and no doubt you know this passage well, because I've probably preached from it at least five times, and Pastor Butler has on more than one occasion as well. But this is one of those places in the Bible, brethren, Philippians 2, where we have an encapsulation of the biblical message set before us in only a handful of verses. Glorious, glorious theology. set before us, which could have been an early Christian hymn appropriated by Paul, or it could be Paul himself penning this hymn afresh. Nevertheless, what we have is a glorious creedal, if you will, statement concerning the full deity and full humanity of Christ.

But notice at the point of his equality with the Father in verse 5 of Ephesians 2. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Verse 6, "...who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men." See that language there? "...who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." We could perhaps translate it this way, "...who being in the very form of God, did not consider that subsequent equality with God, something to be held on to at all costs.

In other words, he has essential unity with the Father eternally of the same substance, equal in power and in glory. Yet he did not consider it. He did not hold on to that at all costs, but condescended in the incarnation, taking to himself man's nature to die for sinners and to rise again. You might say, well, why didn't Paul just say, instead of who being in the form of God, why didn't he just say who being God?

Well, he's doing a parallelism between divinity and humanity, you see. He's writing, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant. So he uses form of God in order to really communicate eternal identity with God, essential unity with the Father and yet distinction. But he's doing it to parallel form of a bondservant.

He is fully God and he is fully man. He is in the form of God. He is in the form of a bondservant. Christ's divinity is proved by explicit statements of his divinity.

We're bouncing around to texts, but hopefully This never gets old as the saint of Christ to rehearse that that one wrapped in swaddling bands lying in a feed trough is God, most high, eternal, everlasting. Notice what we have in John chapter 20, 28. John 20, 28. His deity proved by explicit statements of his deity.

John has already given one given us one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God here at the end of the earthly ministry of Christ. In fact, this is post resurrection. We have this reality brought forth to us in this blessed declaration of Thomas beginning in verse 26. And after eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, peace to you. Then he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God.

So beautiful. What a declaration. What a personal connection Thomas has with his Lord and Brethren, Thomas is prototypical of each and every one of us, because like him, like so many Thomas-i, we can say, my Lord and my God. You see, it's a clear, explicit statement of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Heretics, are they, who come to our doors sharp-dressed, knocking on our doors on a Saturday when we just want to be left alone, doing work in our house, whatever we're doing, You know, mind you, that could lead to a good occasion to bring them the evangel, the true and saving one. But those sharp-dressed cats who come to our doors and wrap on them and spew out the garbage of a created Christ, they come to the text of Holy Scripture and they're dashed to pieces, dashed to pieces by the rock that is the Declaration only of Thomas here, my Lord and my God, but everywhere else in the Holy Scriptures. Notice what we have, and this is just by noting the text, Romans 9.5, Titus 2.13, 2 Peter 1.1. The texts multiply that speak of the divinity of Christ, explicit statements concerning that.

This is Raymond on Thomas's confession. Thomas's confession of Jesus as his Lord and God is the supreme Christological pronouncement of the fourth gospel. Here within a week of Jesus' resurrection, In the presence of the other disciples who would surely have learned from Thomas' words and Jesus' favorable response the appropriateness of doing so, a disciple for the first time employs theos as a Christological title. This demonstrates that there is no basis in fact for the view of some form critical scholars that the church only gradually came to the view of an incarnational Christology.

Christians virtually from the beginning believed that in Jesus they had to do with God incarnate My Lord and my God blessed declaration Closing off his full deity. We would want to note that his deity is proved by Old Testament Yahweh versus applied to Christ the Hebrews 110 to 12 Romans 1013 and Acts 2 Revelation 1 8 11 to 8 22 and 12 to 13. And of course, John 20, 40 to 41. We keep coming back to our gospel under consideration to note these things.

And brethren, this is one of those beautiful ones as well. Notice in John 12. In John 12 at verse 40, what do we find there? We find this blessed revelation given to us by the blessed John with regards to the deity of Christ.

And it reads this way. backing up, in fact, to verse 37. But although he had done so many signs before them, of course, speaking of Jesus, they did not believe in him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord being revealed. Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts, and turn so that I should heal them. These things Isaiah said when he saw his glory, that is, Christ's glory, and spoke of him." You've heard this before, and hopefully it never gets old.

Brethren, John is saying that Isaiah saw the glory of Christ when he would later pen, recording that event, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, Christ, high and lifted up. The train of his robe filling the temple. The seraphim flying, with two wings covering their eyes, with two flying, with two covering their feet. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory. These things Isaiah said when he saw Jesus' glory and spoke of him. The blessed truth. Were we to go on, we would want to note that his deity is proved by verses ascribing to Christ those things which can only be predicated of God. the forgiving of sins, the hearing and answering of prayers, accepting praise and worship, and the possession of sovereign divine prerogative.

But

True Humanity of the Word

we want to close by noting the true humanity of the Word. We have the eternality of the Word, the personal distinction of the Word, the full deity of the Word, and now the true humanity of the Word. If you backtrack to John chapter 1, there we find, again, reading verse 1 and verse 14, in the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Everything that we've just rehearsed about this blessed Word, this blessed Christ, this Son of God, everything we've read about this glorious One, we now come to this, and it says, and that Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Brethren, hopefully, just before we move on, we should take pause here for a moment to marvel in the amazing humility of Christ. The amazing humility of Christ. If you're here and you're a saint in Christ, you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, you're here because of the amazing humility of Christ.

So it is our requirement, our joyous, our cheerful compliance to pause on these occasions and reflect upon the amazing condescension and humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you understand what we're reading here? The word became flesh. The one whose subsistence is in and of himself, a most pure spirit, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, most absolute, most perfect, most holy, most loving, who commands by virtue of his divine excellence the praises of angels and men, He comes down to our lower ignominy, our lower shame.

He puts on man's nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. What an amazing stoop. That's what John Gill says at the point of Philippians 2 in his commentary. Take these two phrases, form of God and form of a bondservant, and admire the amazing stoop.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God forbid that anyone would ever say, well, yeah, because we're so great. I mean, why wouldn't he want to come and dwell among me? He takes on man's nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin.

Common infirmities. He takes on the common infirmities of men. He would get weak. He would get tired.

He would get hungry. He would get thirsty. Might have got sore feet. I don't even think we should say might have.

A common infirmity. He took upon himself man's nature. He had feet, and he used them to walk, and he used them to walk far distances. He would become weary.

He would need to rest his head. That one who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. in all his glorious perfections, came down and took upon himself man's nature. We would exhaust the opportunities and the necessary reflections whereby we should dwell upon the condescension and the humility of the Word becoming flesh. What an amazing thing.

Notice that it was the Word that became flesh. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It was not the Trinity that became flesh. It was the Word that became flesh.

It was not the Father, nor was it the Spirit that became flesh. It was the Word that became flesh. It was not the essence of divinity that became incarnate, but the person of the Word who has the whole undivided essence that became incarnate. God manifested in the flesh and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Amazing stoop. And notice that the Word became flesh. I'm doing a little bit of emphasis on certain parts of the statement there. The Word became flesh and now the Word became flesh.

What the Incarnation Does Not Mean

What that doesn't mean, what this doesn't mean is that he cast off his deity to become man. That's not what that means when we read the Word became flesh. That He cast off His divinity in order to become man? No.

God couldn't do that. God can't stop being God. We can't unravel the Trinity and pull the second of the blessed triune out of the Godhead in order that He become flesh. For a while, the Father and the Spirit without their mutual indwelling One, the Son of God, who has the essence unmultiplied, undivided, co-eternal, co-glorious?

Of course not. When we talk about the Word becoming flesh, let us never say or entertain that He cast off His deity to become man. Nor are we saying that He for a time emptied Himself of deity. Common error when people come to Philippians 2 is that for a time He emptied Himself of deity.

So only for a time was He Was he not deity? He emptied himself. He divested himself and cast off his deity for 33 some odd years before he regained it. Again, that's madness.

John Owen, speaking with regards to that, notes that such an approach to The condescension of God, or the incarnation of God, destroys the Trinity and brings madness to the doctrine of theology proper. What we do have, or as well what we don't have, we don't have, when in the Word become flesh, that He took on only a body. This is important to know, brothers and sisters, because throughout the history of the Church, men have parted from orthodoxy at these very points. We are not saying that when the Word became flesh that He took on only a body.

One man has called this flesh suit Christology. That the Word or Son, the one who is eternal and unchangeable in all of His perfections, came down and He just put on a flesh suit. He took on only a human body. It's a heresy in the early church that the creeds of the early church opposed in their formulations of blessed Christology from the word of God.

We are not saying that he only took on a body. And lastly, we are not saying that it does or what it does not mean. The word became flesh, that the divinity was intermingled and confused with the humanity. That the deity was intermingled and confused with the humanity so that you have something of a pouring over divinity into humanity and humanity into divinity.

The humanity is divinized and the divinity is humanized. No, that's not what we have. And in fact, when we come to the doctrine of the incarnation and Mary being overshadowed by the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High overshadowing her, we don't have some divine material intermingling with the human material. This is bobbing.

Scripture attributes the conception of Jesus to the Holy Spirit. or to the power of the Most High, the Holy Spirit, the Author. All physical, psychic, and pneumatic life is the efficient cause of the conception. The activity of the Holy Spirit with respect to this conception did not consist in the infusion of any heavenly or divine substance in Mary, but in a demonstration of power that made her womb fertile in the act of overshadowing. That's very important, that last statement. what wherein consisted the incarnation at the point of the conception, only in a demonstration of the power that made her womb fertile, in the act of overshadowing.

There was no divine material, for there is no divine material. He is a most pure spirit, without body parts or passions. And

Application

so what do we mean then, when we say the Word became flesh, We're saying that without ceasing to be what He always was eternally, the Word or Son took on man's nature. Our confession words it this way, the Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things He hath made, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon Him man's nature. with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin, being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David, according to the Scriptures, so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man." Oh, but I'll never understand such language. Hopefully, brethren, you'll come to the Scriptures and you'll try to comprehend so that you might not entertain heresy that He is truly God and that He is truly man. And in becoming man, He didn't put off deity.

He didn't just put on a flesh suit. but took to himself man's nature. He didn't mutate into man. God is immutable. He's unchangeable.

God didn't change into man. When we read the word became flesh, and when we read God was manifested in the flesh, we're simply saying this, that the second of the blessed triune, remaining always and ever what he always and ever is, took to himself man's nature with all the common properties are essential properties in common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. We find this in the Holy Scriptures in a couple places. Hebrews 2.17, Hebrews 4.17, those texts and following.

We must note that this truly, truly did happen. Luke chapter 2, John 1.1, 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. in Christ's earthly ministry. You can go to Hebrews 2.17 and 4.17 on your own time talking about Christ taking upon the nature of Abraham, the nature of men in order to be the high priest, the perfect savior for sinners. It's interesting in Luke's gospel, in Luke chapter 24, the study of Christology at the point of his true humanity should land us there.

What is going on in Luke 24, but it's the post resurrected Christ. He's been raised from the dead in power and in great victory. And he comes and he gives a Bible study to his gathered disciples. And there's doubt in the disciples.

They cannot believe for joy that it's him. And he says to them, look, it is me. Look at the print of my nails. Look, it is me.

And they still don't believe. So he says, come and touch me and handle me. They still don't believe, so he eats broiled fish and honeycomb with them to show them, brethren, among other things, that he really was Christ, the second of the blessed triune God come in the flesh. manifested in the flesh, that the Word became flesh. He lets them touch Him.

Put your fingers in the print of the nails. He says to them, give me the broiled fish and honeycomb that you've been making to eat. I will eat it. I am truly man, and it is truly I that have resurrected from the dead and am here before you in my glorified body.

Luke 24 speaks to this, and this is a doctrine of the absolute and utmost importance. When we come to John's epistles, specifically 1 and 2 John, we come to epistles where one of the emphases is this, that if you do not believe that Christ has come in the flesh, then you are antichrist. You are antichrist. I've said it before and I'll say it again, and I don't want to trample on anyone's eschatology.

But far from the mind of John in his epistles is some 2,000-year-in-the-future bad guy who will come on the scenes and do bad things. Immediate to his mind are Christological heretics. They are Antichrist who say that Christ has not come in the flesh. In 1 John 1, we are moving to an end.

We're going to close with some application here in a moment. But turn to 1 John for a moment. Notice what we have there at the point of Antichrist and the absolute necessity that we believe in the incarnation of Christ that he did take to himself man's nature. Notice in 1 John chapter 4. 1 John and chapter 4.

Beginning in verse 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. In 2 John 1-7, notice there, for many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things which we have worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. You see the importance of this doctrine, that the Word truly did become flesh. And brethren, when the Word became flesh, He did not cease being that which He was. You know, it's interesting, our human language and how we have to employ it and to use it when we speak of our God and when we speak of God, Jesus Christ, the second of the blessed triune God.

When we say Christ, the son of God, came down from heaven, he didn't actually leave heaven. Because God is omnipresent. He's omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. He fills the heaven and the earth.

We didn't have a time where the Son of God spatially left a location and came to a place where he was not before. The Son of God fills the heavens and the earth. So when we say the Son of God came down from heaven, it's our human language encapsulating the condescending act of humility to take upon himself man's nature. The Son of God, God himself, can't leave heaven.

He's everywhere. He's omnipresent. He is immense, eternal, infinite. This is two witnesses.

Whenever we come to establish a thing, we should try to bring two witnesses. This is first Cyril. The eternal word subjected himself to birth for us and came forth man from a woman. without casting off that which he was. Although he assumed flesh and blood, he remained what he was, God in essence and in truth.

For although visible in a child in swaddling cloths and even in the bosom of his virgin mother, he filled all creation as God and was a fellow ruler with him who begat him. For the Godhead is without quantity and dimension and cannot have limits." And Calvin, another absurdity, namely that if the word of God became incarnate, He must have been confined within the narrow prison of an earthly body as sheer impudence. For even if the Word and His immeasurable essence united with the nature of man into one person, we do not imagine that He was confined therein. Now notice this.

Here is something marvelous. The Son of God descended from heaven in such a way that without leaving heaven, He willed to be born in the Virgin's womb, to go about the earth, to hang upon the cross, yet he continually filled the earth even as he had done from the beginning." Brethren, what an amazing doctrine we have in the Incarnation. We don't have some sort of conception, a Greco-Roman conception of one deity among many who actually spatially leaves a place to come to another place where he was not before, and go about and do certain things, but rather we have one God, the living and true God in three persons. One of those persons who has the essence undivided, the whole essence co-eternal and co-glorious with the other two, comes down from heaven, but in such a way that without leaving heaven, he takes upon himself man's nature.

You research the world's religions. You go out on a journey to scan the religions of the world. And you do not come to a religion as glorious as Christianity, where we have a God immense, eternal, infinite, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, and all of his perfections, who fashioned, as we read this morning, fashioned planets between his palms, who set galaxies in their orbits, who fixed the stars in place. And yet, brethren, that one who fixed the stars in place, the Son of God, is found Fixed upon the breast of an earthly mother Glorious glorious incarnation and fixed upon the breast of an earthly mother in his act and his state of humility So that what so that he might reconcile God to men so that he might save us from our sins From his own lips the son of man did not come to be served but to serve To give his life a ransom for my for many This doctrine is absolutely important for, as John of Damascus said in the 8th century, for the whole Christ assumed the whole me, that he might grant salvation to the whole me, for what is unassumable is incurable.

One man put it another way, if Christ is a phantom, then so is our salvation. Christ is a phantom, then our salvation is a phantom as well, but it's not, because Christ the living and true God, the second of the blessed triune, the brightness of his father's glory and the express image of the father's person who upholds all things by the word of his power, came in time and in history, took upon himself man's nature in such a work of humility so that he might go about the work of redemption that you might have everlasting life. What a hero to believe in. We read this time of year when we come to the scriptures and we read of this babe wrapped in swaddling bands, lying in a feed trough.

Remember those words of Cyril, let our minds not stay there, but mount up to the pinnacle of his glory, and as well condescend to the bottomness of his lowly ignominy, that we might lay hold of this blessed Christ, believing on him for all things, all spiritual blessings, everlasting life, perfect redemption. If you're here tonight and you know this Christ, continue to know this Christ. Hopefully, brethren, a brief study. Some of you saying brief?

Well, we could probably debate about that. But a brief study in Christology hopefully will encourage you to go from outside of these doors and fill your minds with more of Christ. You would eat up the word. Speaking of one who is fully God, eternal, glorious, and yet fully man. coming in the fullness of the times to give himself for guilty sinners.

Rejoice in this Christ and bring glory to this Christ. In this lower world, bring glory to this Christ. You believe on Him, do those things befitting your belief, so that others might cast a worldly and an earthly eye upon you, that you might have opportunity to proclaim to them the riches and the excellencies of so glorious a Savior. He's worth proclaiming.

He's worth proclaiming to all men. His full deity, His full humanity, His glorious person. Might we all know Him more. If you're here tonight and you don't know Him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Again, sometimes a crescenting mouth can actually veil an unregenerate heart. Whether it crescents or it doesn't, it either veils a regenerate heart that rejoices in Christ, or it veils an unregenerate heart that can't wait to get out of these two doors. If you maintain, or if you are kept in that state until the end of days, this babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a feed trough, remember he didn't stay there. Men opposed to his reign and his glorious majesty want to keep him there, but he grew.

He was the one who stood before his opposers and said, woe to you, brood of vipers. He was the one who is spoken of in the book of Revelation as the one who kills the children of Jezebel with death. He is the one in Revelation 19 who is riding upon a white horse. You see, he did at one time ride upon the foal of a donkey.

But now exalted in His glorious resplendent majesty, He rides upon a white and glorious steed, and He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. You do not want to be found on that last and final day, breathing words of blasphemies before you're cast into the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And He will be to you, yes, that same white rider, but you will be following after Him in the robes of righteousness, the armies of the Most High King.

And you will know everlasting life. You'll know spiritual benefits and blessings unsurpassable. His praise is forevermore with the angels. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We rejoice in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for what Your Word discloses to us concerning His eternity, His distinction as that One who has a full divinity, yet is the Son to the Father, and you to Him, to the Son, a Father. With the Spirit, we rejoice in our triune God, and we pray that we would know more of our Christ.

We pray that we would know more of this King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We pray that we would know more of this blessed Savior, and we pray as we go about our lives in this church that we would rejoice in this Christ, that we would know Him more and more each and every day, and that we would sing His praises, that we would bring glory to Him in this lower world. And Lord, that You would, by Your grace and for Your glory, bring before us many opportunities to proclaim Him to men, to proclaim and speak of His riches and His excellencies and His perfect salvation. Go with us now.

Help us in this lower world to bring honor to You and to our Christ. And might You save sinners to the praise of your most free grace. And it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.

Scripture References

• Exodus 3:14
• Proverbs 8:22-31
• Isaiah 6:1-3; 6:10; 53:1
• Micah 5:2
• Matthew 16:13; 20:28
• Luke 24:36-43
• John 1:1-18; 2:1; 5:17; 8:38; 8:54-59; 10:15; 10:30; 10:38; 12:37-40; 14:10; 14:11; 17:5; 18:5-8; 20:26-28; 20:31
• Acts 2:21
• Romans 9:5; 10:13
• Philippians 2:5-8
• Titus 2:13
• Hebrews 1:10-12; 2:17; 4:15
• 2 Peter 1:1
• 1 John 1:1; 4:1-3
• 2 John 7
• Revelation 1:8; 19:11-15